Circular Economy & Recycling & e-Waste

The time issue is solved by many. I will pick up stuff others leave as I can use or sell parts or complete. Therefore it was worth my time.

If I leave plastics and other bulky product it's because storage is an issue. My wife will not have the palace attached to a recycling center. Unhappy wife, miserable life.

Her father does that and keeps it in his shed away from her palace. I will tear down an old tv for copper, he cannot be bothered.

Oil filters and marginal stuff is given to an older gent going by with a large cart. He has a buyer for stuff I cannot get rid of. And he has all day to get there while I have to work.

Time and the product eventually meet the right person it seems. I have even seen old ladies carting home broken sticks and bits of wood to cook supper on. It must beat paying for gas.
 
Hellbound said:
An example I've heard before that might help clarify the point: cups. Is it better to use Styrofoam cups, paper cups, or an actual cup that you wash and reuse? And it isn't an easy answer.
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That kind of thing yes. I recalled an example somewhat similar to the one you outline that was I thought spelled out in a chapter of a Tim Harford Book, he is a pop-economics writer and author, but I couldn't locate it. The costs and benefits can be deceptive, meaning total costs inclusive of as many positive/negative externalities as possible . . . . and the cost of doing the calculation starts to eat itself into the equation too.

Why this is relevant is that environmentalism has in recent decades become viewed (and pushed) as much more of a moral obligation than a rational assessment of sustainability. The former is "easy"; one makes a decision about it and aligns oneself pro or anti rather straight-forwardly really, and typically fairly comprehensively. And the latter is complicated. The conclusions can be in opposite directions a lot of the time--and sometimes in aligned directions which we do not need to worry about, once we've identified those. Also, recycling is a profit-motivated business and like most of those it is just as incentivised to externalise costs and waste from its net income as any other business, despite it's "mission".

(Here is a too long but decent article of the impact on the industry that emanted from China abruptly ending its role as dumping destination for recyclable waste. The bottom line is that China acted in its interests and at a stroke increased the global cost of recycling overnight. Usually when that happens to a business profits vanish and you get less of it. And this doesn't mean what China did was wrong; they simply took a stance that rich countries had already taken)
 
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This is how we save the world.
This is why Europe and China have become so advanced.
This man, Jeremy Rifkin met with Angela Merkel and Premier Li and has been advising them how.
This is at the forefront of knowledge now.
Recent 1 hour talk to green startups in Switzerland.

https://youtu.be/TDRMgqyhiug
 
https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/sustainability/circulareconomy

It's happening here! :yahoo

"The Victorian Government is developing a circular economy policy and action plan for Victoria to be released late 2019. In a circular economy, people minimise waste and make the most of resources. Shifting to a more circular economy will grow the economy, increase jobs and reduce impacts on the environment.

"The circular economy policy will build on Victoria’s leading waste and resource recovery initiatives and respond to global recycling market challenges. More than that, it will examine new ways for Victorian businesses and communities to reduce waste in all stages of making, using and disposing of the products and infrastructure we rely on every day.

"A circular economy continually seeks to reduce the environmental impacts of production and consumption and gain more productive use from natural resources.

"Resource use is minimised, and waste and pollution are avoided with good design and efficient practices. This reduces environmental impacts while maintaining or increasing the value people obtain from goods and services."



"Business models encourage intense and efficient product use, like sharing products between multiple users, or supplying a product as a service that includes maintenance, repair and disposal.

"Innovations to increase resource productivity bring a range of benefits including jobs, growth and social inclusion to local, regional and global economies."


:) :) :)
 
Mexico has declared the end of disposable pet soda bottles. In one year all returnable bottles.

We'll see how that works. Tio Juan has big ideas lately.
 
Your Circular Economy news update:

On 9/9/19 Jeremy Rifkin's new book was launched. "The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth"

https://www.amazon.com/Green-New-Deal-Civilization-Collapse/dp/1250253209

(I think I mentioned Rifkin in the OP as the guru working with China and the EU for many years.)


The annual World Circular Economy Forum was in June.

https://www.sitra.fi/en/news/redistribution-global-wealth-requires-circular-economy/

"The first World Circular Economy Forum was organised in Helsinki, Finland, in 2017 and brought together 1,600 participants from nearly 100 countries. In October 2018, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Ministry of the Environment of Japan co-hosted the event in Yokohama, Japan. In 2019, WCEF [was] held in Helsinki and, in 2020, the event will be held in Canada."

"According to new Accenture (NYSE: ACN) research, the circular economy could generate 4.5 trillion US dollars’ worth of additional economic output by 2030. The research identifies circular business models that will help decouple economic growth from natural resource consumption while driving greater competitiveness."


I found that Australia has had a Circular Economy plan since at least December 2018 when our Environment minister met with Premier Li to discuss how ours can work with China's.

"A Circular Google"

"Google’s global data centres are on the path to becoming zero waste to landfill, with 91% of waste of operations diverted from landfill in 2017 through reuse and reselling initiatives. The company aims to build its first zero-waste campus in Mountain View, California, compliant with the Living Future Institute’s sustainable design framework, by 2021.

"Other programmes include the development of supply chains that prioritise second hand materials by 2020, building 100% of electronic products with recycled materials from 2022 onwards, and adhering to a 35% reduction in single-use drinks by 2019 at the top 25 office sites, with an increase to a 50% reduction in 2020.

"The resource and waste challenge is a “data problem”, said Google, and it highlighted that in order to reach a circular economy, materials across the global supply chain need to be “identified, tracked and managed”."

Microsoft is another of the Circular Economy members who are listed here:

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/our-work/activities/ce100/members

McDonald's, Ikea, Target - these are three other huge companies who are members.
 
any prediction on when the world will run out of x (oil, food, space, ...) should be taken with a very healthy does of skepticism.
 
Orphia Nay said:
That's the kind of comment that makes people continue to put plastic in landfill.
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is it?
I think that it is artificially created panic that makes people give up in the face of problems that are portrayed as effectively insurmountable.

The problem with setting up any kind of "End" scenario is that it invites doubt and leaves room for ambiguity.

Just trying to identify areas with the greatest potential for improvement and working on those is much more productive than badgering people into immature household recycling-schemes.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
is it?

I think that it is artificially created panic that makes people give up in the face of problems that are portrayed as effectively insurmountable.
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You haven't shown that anyone artificially creates panic.

Repeating a noughties cliché that "no-one knows an exact end date" is avoidance of real issues we face now.







Just trying to identify areas with the greatest potential for improvement and working on those is much more productive than badgering people into immature household recycling-schemes.
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No.

False dichotomy.

We need to work on the things we can to stop doing the things we know are harmful.

For some, part of it is building wind farms (and badgering people to invest).

For others, part of it is giving supermarkets the message that decomposable packaging is worth paying extra for now so that affects the market and changes the playing field.

"Immature household recycling schemes". You sound like an American where they recycle 6% of waste, as opposed to countries where individuals' and local/government efforts add up to a total 80% of the national waste recycled.
 
Cheetah said:
Info on Land Use @ Our World in Data:

Breakdown of global land use today


Peak Farmland
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Thanks for that.

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On the recycling at the household level there is a simple solution. Make it pay me.

If alu, brass and copper carry good price I will surely recycle them. Glass, papers and yin are harder to store, bulky to transport and pay little. Is it worth it to most to bother?
Plastics have market value and can pay, but not everywhere.

I tend to pass bulky stuff to people who do it for their daily bread. They have the time to mess with that stuff.
 
Recent news for those who are still thinking in linear economy terms as we transition from one to the other:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robkap...nd-is-a-big-half-step-in-the-right-direction/

BlackRock have teamed with The Ellen McArthur Foundation (the world's leader in Circular Economy) to form The BlackRock Circular Economy Fund:

Rob Kaplan said:
By focusing on public equities (or publicly traded companies), BGF is saying they want to bet on established, multinational corporations to help drive the transition to a circular economy. Companies like Adidas and Tomra may have better circular economy practices than their peers, but they are more focused on efficiency than effectiveness. As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has noted, we must drive toward “the transformation of products and their associated material flows.”
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BlackRock are expecting financial growth coming from reduction in waste and pollution.

:)
 
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