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Circular economy business models in the electronics sector such as rental, second hand and repair are rapidly gaining importance as they aim to reduce resource consumption by optimizing product use. However, it remains difficult to quantify the actual positive impact of these models and there is currently no standardized approach.
The „Undress Project“, implemented and led by Circularity in collaboration with Systemiq and Fraunhofer IZM and 12 industry partners, and supported by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt and Deloitte, sets out to develop a methodological framework and practical guide to assess the environmental impact of circular business models for the case of consumer electronics. This project will provide much-needed key insights for the transition to a truly sustainable circular economy, with the electronics sector leading the way.
The „Undress Project“, implemented and led by Circularity in collaboration with Systemiq and Fraunhofer IZM and 12 industry partners, and supported by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt and Deloitte, sets out to develop a methodological framework and practical guide to assess the environmental impact of circular business models for the case of consumer electronics. This project will provide much-needed key insights for the transition to a truly sustainable circular economy, with the electronics sector leading the way.
U.S. petrochemicals giant Dow Inc and the Singapore government said they were transforming old sneakers into playgrounds and running tracks. Reuters put that promise to the test by planting hidden trackers inside 11 pairs of donated shoes. Most got exported instead.
THE WASTE LAND is an artistic representation of hundred days of everyday waste. The project starts with collecting, documenting, and recycling personal household waste during the first 100 days of 2022. The process is developing along the thread of self-awareness, and it is fleeting in multiple pieces of waste on a day-to-day basis. The awareness of “environmental protection” becomes concrete when the micro-level actions are required. The project seeks different art forms to present the results by diving into the documentation – photographs, videos, physical items of waste, sorted pictures, interactive installations. Meanwhile, through AI technology, the project explores a possible timeline for future waste predictions.
But inside the square-mile slum, made famous in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire," is a bustling micro-economy filled with industry and commerce that generates some $665 million per year, according to Reality Gives, a non-profit that runs tours of Dharavi and uses the money to run community centers and classes for its 1 million residents. The workers and residents of Dharavi export leather goods, suitcases, baked goods, textiles, stoves, and an array of other products into the broader Indian economy.
The 13th Compound is at the heart of Dharavi’s recycling industry. An estimated 80% of Mumbai’s plastic waste is recycled in the slum, in some 15,000 single-room factories.
Over the years, Dharavi dwellers have created an industrial economy in Mumbai, creating employment opportunities for the recycling of Mumbai’s waste, an undertaking that arguably should be addressed by local councils.
RREUSE is an international network representing social enterprises active in re-use, repair and recycling.
Preventing waste generation, especially non-recyclable waste, would deliver the greatest benefits for the environment. The reduction in waste needed to meet the target would require very ambitious waste prevention measures to be implemented at both EU and Member State levels, for instance by increasing the lifespan of consumer goods and ensuring strong support for product reuse.
The current regulation of emissions of pollutants by incineration being extremely limited and not representative of real emissions.
To assess the real impact of waste incineration emissions, Zero Waste Europe and like-minded organisations are carrying out biomonitoring research on incineration emissions across Europe.
This short video explains the ins and outs of our research in a quick, user-friendly way.
To assess the real impact of waste incineration emissions, Zero Waste Europe and like-minded organisations are carrying out biomonitoring research on incineration emissions across Europe.
This short video explains the ins and outs of our research in a quick, user-friendly way.
You sort your recycling, leave it to be collected – and then what? From councils burning the lot to foreign landfill sites overflowing with British rubbish, Oliver Franklin-Wallis reports on a global waste crisis
Our practice is focused on investigating value chains and making waste materials come to life again. This is the rebirth of materials that were once exiled to towering landfills or incinerators.
GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 800 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration.
CARACTÉRISATION DE DÉCHETS, PARTOUT, EN DIRECT, EN CONTINU
This research explores the disruption of centralised waste facilities to accommodate a decentralised model, known as the mini-MRF, that is capable of extracting more value out of waste streams. Centralised facilities possess a hoax of challenges, be it their complex infrastructure or high capital and operational costs. With that said, existing systems characterise an unsustainable solution for long-term waste management, and a worthy solution to these issues is crucial for effective management of our planet’s resources.
Después de vivir en un futuro
en el que aún hay gente que tiene dudas
sobre el reciclaje, nuestro Bot ha decidido
viajar a nuestro tiempo para ayudarnos
y contestar a nuestras preguntas.
en el que aún hay gente que tiene dudas
sobre el reciclaje, nuestro Bot ha decidido
viajar a nuestro tiempo para ayudarnos
y contestar a nuestras preguntas.
The chatarreros are Barcelona’s itinerant scrap-metal collectors, and there are thousands of them. Most are undocumented migrants and so there is no official census, but Federico Demaria, a social scientist at the University of Barcelona who is conducting a study of the informal recyclers in Catalonia, believes there are between 50,000 and 100,000 in the region. About half are from sub-Saharan Africa; the rest are from eastern Europe, elsewhere in Africa and Spain.
Behind the high walls on the outskirts of Cairo is a mostly Coptic Christian community, known as the Zabaleen - a derogatory term for garbage men.
Settling in an abandoned quarry, they became the informal waste disposal experts of the city in the 70s, collecting rubbish from the capital's streets for free and bringing it back to their homes to recycle it.
Sorting is done by hand - the plastics are separated from the cardboard, the clothes from the organic waste, before they're sold on to the next layer of the community's refuse economy.
Settling in an abandoned quarry, they became the informal waste disposal experts of the city in the 70s, collecting rubbish from the capital's streets for free and bringing it back to their homes to recycle it.
Sorting is done by hand - the plastics are separated from the cardboard, the clothes from the organic waste, before they're sold on to the next layer of the community's refuse economy.
Many cities like Indore, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Ambikapur, Mysuru have been successfully implementing circular economy concepts and have showcased excellent models for effective waste management. In fact, Indore was declared the cleanest city in India for the fourth time in a row under the Swachh Survekshan 2020. Indore’s continuous success in the sector deserves accolades for consistent efforts and diligent planning for the entire waste value chain. The Indore model provides several examples that other cities can and should adopt.
We have listed all 210 Resource Recovery Points of the Chennai Corporation. Buyers and Sellers registration is increasing every day.
Chennai has become the first city to have an online waste exchange for municipal solid waste.
Residents who want to sell their waste online will be able to contact 2,600 scrap dealers and other agencies across the city.
The Madras Waste Exchange, which is both a web portal and an application, has been conceptualised by the Smart City Mission, with support from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The web portal is www.madraswasteexchange.com and the Android app can be downloaded from Google Play.
Residents who want to sell their waste online will be able to contact 2,600 scrap dealers and other agencies across the city.
The Madras Waste Exchange, which is both a web portal and an application, has been conceptualised by the Smart City Mission, with support from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The web portal is www.madraswasteexchange.com and the Android app can be downloaded from Google Play.
An Online Marketplace for Recyclable Waste
The global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution.
Spain’s second largest area just released its zero waste strategy plan with clear objectives for 2025.
The Zero Waste Cities approach is a continuous effort to phase out waste – not by burning or landfilling it – but instead by creating and implementing systems that do not generate waste in the first place
Creating the Junkyard Planet. Adam Minter Talks Circular Economy and Christmas Tree Lights - YouTube
Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet, stopped by iFixit Headquarters to give an super interesting talk on rethinking e-waste, the circular economy and the fate of all your thrown away Christmas tree lights. Adam's an amazing author and an even better speaker so we hope you enjoy his talk as much as we did.
Recycleye has partnered with academics at leading universities to create WasteNet; the world’s largest dataset for waste, holding over 2.5 million training images created by deep learning and computer vision.
These datasets are refined by weight and brand-level detection enabled through Recycleye’s vision system. This technology holds world-leading accuracy that has disrupted the waste industry, and is revolutionising the current waste infrastructure.
These datasets are refined by weight and brand-level detection enabled through Recycleye’s vision system. This technology holds world-leading accuracy that has disrupted the waste industry, and is revolutionising the current waste infrastructure.
This pains me to write, but we all have to come to terms with the harsh reality that recycling validates waste and is a placebo to the complex waste crisis we have designed ourselves into. The things you are separating and putting in your recycling bins are probably not being recycled — and there’s a good chance that they are ending up somewhere you never imagined.
Precious Plastic exists to reduce plastic waste.
Sometimes we do it through boosting recycling. Sometimes through new biodegradable materials. Some other time by adopting zero waste lifestyles.
Whatever works.
Sometimes we do it through boosting recycling. Sometimes through new biodegradable materials. Some other time by adopting zero waste lifestyles.
Whatever works.
La población española genera más de 400 kilos de basura al año por persona.
Solo un 20% de esos 400 kilos se recicla, mientras que el 60% acaba en vertederos. El volumen de residuos que genera la ciudad supone un enorme impacto en el consumo de energía y en el medio ambiente.
En MARES creemos que estos residuos se pueden gestionar de otra forma. Podemos alargar la vida útil de los objetos, reutilizarlos y repararlos. En este terreno hay un enorme abanico de posibilidades para crear empresas e iniciativas: desde el reciclaje de residuos hasta el reciclaje de muebles, de juguetes, de ropa o de comida. Es posible romper con la lógica del usar y tirar, y sustituirla por una economía que apueste por reciclar, reutilizar y reparar.
Solo un 20% de esos 400 kilos se recicla, mientras que el 60% acaba en vertederos. El volumen de residuos que genera la ciudad supone un enorme impacto en el consumo de energía y en el medio ambiente.
En MARES creemos que estos residuos se pueden gestionar de otra forma. Podemos alargar la vida útil de los objetos, reutilizarlos y repararlos. En este terreno hay un enorme abanico de posibilidades para crear empresas e iniciativas: desde el reciclaje de residuos hasta el reciclaje de muebles, de juguetes, de ropa o de comida. Es posible romper con la lógica del usar y tirar, y sustituirla por una economía que apueste por reciclar, reutilizar y reparar.
In your experienced opinion, is it necessary to install some kind of ventilator or air cleaner in a space where the plastics are being melted? For example, I live in Canada where we are under snow for half the year, so very likely that we would not be opening windows! If it is not necessary, how can I explain/convince my community that I am not polluting the air?
The rapid technical evolution of additive manufacturing (AM) enables a new path to a circular economy using distributed recycling and production. This concept of Distributed Recycling via Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) is related to the use of recycled materials by means of mechanical recycling process in the 3D printing process chain. This paper aims to examine the current advances on thermoplastic recycling processes via additive manufacturing technologies. After proposing a closed recycling global chain for DRAM, a systematic literature review including 92 papers from 2009 to 2019 was performed using the scopus, web of science and springer databases. This work examines main topics from six stages (recovery, preparation, compounding, feedstock, printing, quality) of the proposed DRAM chain. The results suggested that few works have been done for the recovery and preparation stages, while a great progress has already been done for the other stages in order to validate the technical feasibility, environmental impact, and economic viability. Potential research paths in the pre-treatment of recycled material at local level and printing chain phases were identified in order to connect the development of DRAM with the circular economy ambition at micro, meso and macro level. The development of each stage proposed using the open source approach is a relevant path to scale DRAM to reach the full technical potential as a centerpiece of the circular economy.
On despite its attractiveness, the complexity of this distributed approach represents a limit to this application. Moreover, the environmental and economical effectiveness still needs to be demonstrated. In this article, a conceptual model is developed and proposed for the collection process in a Closed Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) network of local and distributed plastic recycling in order to analyze its economic and environmental feasibility
The concept of Green FabLab is the intersection of several societal trends. From one side, there have been an growing interesting in the additive manufacturing technology (a.k.a 3D printing) technology. The creation of the fantastic RepRap Projet, an open source project, opened up many possibilities in terms of appropiation for the 3D printing technology, doing the filament fused deposition the most used technique in the additive manufacturing world.
The recycling bin — many of us have learned to view this humble container as an environmental superhero. It is, after all, the critical first step in turning our trash into… well, not treasure, but at least more stuff. Or is it?
In this episode, we take a look at the science, help you understand whether recycling is an environmental boon or hindrance, and we open up the pandora's box that i
In this episode, we take a look at the science, help you understand whether recycling is an environmental boon or hindrance, and we open up the pandora's box that i
Rotor Deconstruction can facilitate operations for the reuse of building materials in a variety of ways.
In recent years, however, policymakers and experts have started thinking about how to increase recycling rates by combining the urban sanitation and recycling systems. Typically, these proposals suggest sanitation departments take over recycling programs. Few have any interest in incorporating the existing informal recycling system. This is a mistake. Over the past few decades, the informal system has become both highly specialized and efficient. We should not ignore it — or the people who’ve developed it.
Waste pollution is one of the biggest and most urgent global challenges mankind faces today. This issue increases together with population growth, fast technological progress and is constantly reinforced by capitalism driven overproduction. Modern societies experience incredibly dangerous moment in history, with highest social inequality rates ever, escalation of various -isms, along with short-sighted populism that both harm democracy and endanger minority groups. Individual people and whole communities suffer social apathy considering themselves powerless and unable to take actions to influence ongoing global processes in line with their best interests and values.
Kaffeeform ist ein innovatives Material aus gebrauchtem Kaffeesatz und anderen nachwachsenden Rohstoffen. Als Kaffeetasse kommt es formvollendet zur Geltung. Im Sortiment finden sich Tassen für Espresso, Cappuccino und Milchkaffee sowie der preisgekrönte Weducer Cup für unterwegs. Alle Tassen sind besonders langlebig, leicht, und duften mild nach Kaffee.
Kamel first became involved with the community in 1982 when she started an informal school. Since zabbaleen children accompany their fathers on forays to collect garbage from an early age, she designed the school so that attendance is flexible.
Oil and gas companies make far more money churning out new plastic than reusing old. Meanwhile, the public gets the blame, writes Arwa Mahdawi
It turns out that the industry had lobbied states to mandate that the symbol go on every plastic, even if it was not viable to recycle, and evidently even environmentalists approved. The symbol became a green marketing tool, helping convince the public that it was just fine to use all this plastic because it was getting recycled. Meanwhile, it made the stream of plastic even more expensive to separate and process. No wonder it so much of it was shipped to China, where the labor was cheap enough to have people go through it and pick out the valuable stuff, and the environmental standards were poor enough that everything else could be dumped or burned. When China closed its doors, the whole façade fell apart.
This year, the EWWR challenges you to get informed and raise awareness on the huge amount of waste that we all unconsciously generate. We need to make this waste visible in order to make informed decisions when choosing which product to purchase, and take responsibility for our footprint. Producers, consumers, decision-makers, we all can take action to reduce the invisible waste. Extending the life of products by reuse and repair, buying second-hand, renting and sharing products rather than owning them, obtaining an eco-label and joining producer responsibility’s schemes… The list is long! On this page you can find tools to communicate about this year’s theme and ideas for actions. More tools will be uploaded soon, in the meanwhile you can get inspired by two national campaigns carried out by national EWWR Coordinators:
We are a local plastic recycling facility that turns PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, PLA, PC and ABS plastics into re-usable, plastic intensive, and re-recyclable products. We support plastic free packaging, end engage in citizen science to understand the impacts of plastic on our environment.
Amid growing concerns over global warming, plastic in our oceans and the problems of electronic waste, there are some developing solutions. In Finland Kierrätyskeskus (re-use centres) have been going since the early 1990s. Owned by the city council, but run independently, there are now eight shops in and around Helsinki offering second-hand, repaired and upcycled items. Everything is donated by the public, via drop off centres, or at the shops or via home collection. All profit is used to improve local environmental and waste services.
This incredible cooperative is having an impact in reshaping the society by including most marginalized persons and by fostering economical and environmental sustainability. All these aspects are visible in the video where members explained us how they manage to "raise awareness" and how they are building a more sustainable economic model. But all this started in a very specific moment: the Argentinian 2001 crisis.
Like a regular commercial bank, you open up an account with your local waste bank. Periodically, you make deposits with your non-organic solid waste, which are weighed and given a monetary value, based on rates set by waste collectors. This value is saved in your account from which, like a regular bank, you can withdraw. The basic principles of waste banks remain the same across provinces: collect, save, earn, change behavior, and enjoy a clean neighborhood.
Accelerate the transition towards a circular economy by providing machine learning tools to enable smarter characterisation, ubiquitous tracking and automated sorting of waste.
When I walk, I get inspired by the things that I find in the street. So I’m just walking and collecting. I don’t have high-class friends. Because people know me as the person who just collects things on the street. People feel ashamed when they are with me. When you collect in the street, you look like a street boy or madman.
The Brighton Waste House is the first permanent building in the UK to be constructed from waste, surplus material and discarded plastic gathered from the construction industry, other industries and our homes. The idea, developed with Cat Fletcher of FREEGLE UK, is to test the performance of these undervalued resources over the next few years; the Faculty of Science & Engineering have put sensors in the external walls to monitor their performance.
WRAP works with governments, businesses and communities to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency.
Our mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy by:
re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products,
re-thinking how we use and consume products, and
re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling
Our mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy by:
re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products,
re-thinking how we use and consume products, and
re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling
The most efficient way to recycle electronics todays is actually the dirty way. Manually unplug the chips of the boards to be reused but they lead to the visual in the following like with mountains of PCB and blackwater stream. The components recycled this way take less energy and bigger reuse value and build the backbone of lowering the cost of electronics products for developing markets.
This equipment was then delivered to places where consumers are expected to take their waste – most often government-approved takeback stations. They found that 19 (6%) of the tracked scrap equipment was exported, including 11 very likely illegal shipments to the countries of Ghana, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand, and Ukraine, outside of the EU.
The E-Waste Curse: The deadly effect of dumping E-waste in Pakistan
Pakistan has become an illegal dumping ground for some of the 50 million tons of e-waste created each year. Karachi's poor earn a living from the toxic detritus, but the vicious cycle of consumption could prove fatal.
In Pakistan, the massive arrival of electronic waste has created an informal substance economy that feeds 150,000 people. The country's poor salvage what they can from the cast-offs of the electronic revolution: copper, steel, brass. Nassir is one who has cashed in on the opportunities found in old cables and hard-drives. "It’s a good business. I have more and more work", he says. Yet workers pay the price for a few grams of copper; 4 million people die every year because of electronic waste and recycling workers have the lowest life expectancy in Pakistan. In his recycling shop, Akhbar earns 2€ on a good day. It feeds his family of six, but his health has suffered. "This job is dangerous. It’s very toxic". And the toxic legacy is far-reaching - "It’s a catastrophe...especially for the children", warns Saba, an activist for the WWF. "They will continue to live here and be poisoned, it’s dangerous for them and it’s dangerous for the next generations". In our relentlessly consumerist world, can the global poor be saved from the toxic trade in e-waste?
Pakistan has become an illegal dumping ground for some of the 50 million tons of e-waste created each year. Karachi's poor earn a living from the toxic detritus, but the vicious cycle of consumption could prove fatal.
In Pakistan, the massive arrival of electronic waste has created an informal substance economy that feeds 150,000 people. The country's poor salvage what they can from the cast-offs of the electronic revolution: copper, steel, brass. Nassir is one who has cashed in on the opportunities found in old cables and hard-drives. "It’s a good business. I have more and more work", he says. Yet workers pay the price for a few grams of copper; 4 million people die every year because of electronic waste and recycling workers have the lowest life expectancy in Pakistan. In his recycling shop, Akhbar earns 2€ on a good day. It feeds his family of six, but his health has suffered. "This job is dangerous. It’s very toxic". And the toxic legacy is far-reaching - "It’s a catastrophe...especially for the children", warns Saba, an activist for the WWF. "They will continue to live here and be poisoned, it’s dangerous for them and it’s dangerous for the next generations". In our relentlessly consumerist world, can the global poor be saved from the toxic trade in e-waste?
Tens of thousands of people live in Zabbaleen, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, they all make a living out of recycling the entire capital city’s refuse. Their whole town is practically a giant dump and it provides them with almost everything they need: from kids’ toys to fodder for livestock. Even their pigs play an important part in recycling food waste. Most important of all though, the dump provides livelihoods for the people of Zabbaleen.
Every one of the rubbish collectors plays their own part, gathering, transporting or sorting the rubbish. Collectively, everyone in the community performs a highly efficient job of recycling Cairo’s refuse. This allows the trash town to be self-sufficient and largely independent from the rest of the city. The place has its own rules, everyone is allocated their own patch of Cairo, no one would think of collecting from someone else’s area. Zabbaleen even has an unofficial mayor.
Trash town has its own shops, cafes and a local school for the children. Of course it’s every Zabbaleen parent’s dream for their child to get a good education so they can build a better life elsewhere. More commonly though, the kids start working on the dump at a young age and follow in their parents’ footsteps to become rubbish collectors as well. The people of Zabbaleen do wish their lives weren’t as hard but feel no shame in their occupation. They see their work as socially important and pride themselves in providing for their families. After all, it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.
Every one of the rubbish collectors plays their own part, gathering, transporting or sorting the rubbish. Collectively, everyone in the community performs a highly efficient job of recycling Cairo’s refuse. This allows the trash town to be self-sufficient and largely independent from the rest of the city. The place has its own rules, everyone is allocated their own patch of Cairo, no one would think of collecting from someone else’s area. Zabbaleen even has an unofficial mayor.
Trash town has its own shops, cafes and a local school for the children. Of course it’s every Zabbaleen parent’s dream for their child to get a good education so they can build a better life elsewhere. More commonly though, the kids start working on the dump at a young age and follow in their parents’ footsteps to become rubbish collectors as well. The people of Zabbaleen do wish their lives weren’t as hard but feel no shame in their occupation. They see their work as socially important and pride themselves in providing for their families. After all, it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.
New rules could spell the death of a "throwaway" culture in which products are bought, used briefly, then binned.
The regulations will apply to a range of everyday items such as mobile phones, textiles, electronics, batteries, construction and packaging.
They will ensure products are designed and manufactured so they last - and so they're repairable if they go wrong.
It should mean that your phone lasts longer and proves easier to fix.
That may be especially true if the display or the battery needs changing.
It's part of a worldwide movement called the Right to Repair, which has spawned citizens' repair workshops in several UK cities.
The plan is being presented by the European Commission. It's likely to create standards for the UK, too - even after Brexit.
The regulations will apply to a range of everyday items such as mobile phones, textiles, electronics, batteries, construction and packaging.
They will ensure products are designed and manufactured so they last - and so they're repairable if they go wrong.
It should mean that your phone lasts longer and proves easier to fix.
That may be especially true if the display or the battery needs changing.
It's part of a worldwide movement called the Right to Repair, which has spawned citizens' repair workshops in several UK cities.
The plan is being presented by the European Commission. It's likely to create standards for the UK, too - even after Brexit.
Recycling is a complicated system dictated by market demand, price determinations, local regulations, the success of which is contingent upon everyone, from the product-designer, to the trash-thrower, to the waste collector, to the recycling factory worker. We consumers play a much more critical role than we might imagine-- depending on how we use our products and in what shape we throw them away, determines their value and quality post-use....
Recycling is broken. There’s little clarity about what can and can’t be recycled, and the rules change from one city to the next, and sometimes even within the same city. According to the World Bank, we produce 1.4 billion tons of waste a year worldwide, a figure that’s expected to increase to 2.4 billion tons by 2025. Waste is an enormous problem that needs to be addressed if we’re going to prevent the worst effects of climate change. But recycling is the wrong solution.
Don Norman wrote the book on complex design systems. He’s as mystified by recycling as the rest of us.
A waste picker is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption.[1] There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, but increasingly in post-industrial countries as well.[2]
Forms of waste picking have been practiced since antiquity, but modern traditions of waste picking took root during industrialization in the nineteenth century.[3] Over the past half-century, waste picking has expanded vastly in the developing world due to urbanization, toxic colonialism and the global waste trade.[4] Many cities only provide solid waste collection.[5]
Forms of waste picking have been practiced since antiquity, but modern traditions of waste picking took root during industrialization in the nineteenth century.[3] Over the past half-century, waste picking has expanded vastly in the developing world due to urbanization, toxic colonialism and the global waste trade.[4] Many cities only provide solid waste collection.[5]
On January 10, 1942, the US Office of Production Management sent pledge cards to retail stores asking them to participate in the effort by saving things like waste paper, scrap metal, old rags, and rubber.[2] Later that month, the Bureau of Industrial Conservation of the War Production Board asked all American mayors to salvage the same kinds of materials from municipal dumps and incinerators.[3]
We are fans of the Precious Plastic project, one of the key examples on how cities could start to reclaim the waste humans put in their streets, but more importantly: in the nature that then feed us…
Il progetto LIFE+ LOWaste ha sperimentato a Ferrara un modello di economia circolare basata sulla prevenzione, il riuso e il riciclo dei rifiuti in una logica di partnership pubblico-privato. Partendo da alcune sperimentazioni pilota ha creato le basi per la nascita di un vero e proprio distretto locale di economia verde circolare. Distretto formato da operatori dei rifiuti, piccole piattaforme di recupero, artigiani e PMI impegnati nella valorizzazione delle materie e nella produzione di riprodotti.
Binmen have been caught on camera emptying a recycling bin and one with household waste into the same lorry in Menston, West Yorkshire. Residents claim the waste will continue in the village.
Recycling is hard. It’s easy to be confused. Different countries, jurisdictions, councils, and boroughs have varying rules and vastly different infrastructure. Packaging is still often times mis-labelled or not labeled at all. New packaging is hitting the shelves every day. Corn starch straws, beet sugar plastics, compostable glasses… Are they recyclable, biodegradable, home compostable, industrially compostable? Most of the time different rules apply to different components – which is often not made explicit and means it’s hard to trust recycling claims. It’s time for clearer transparency in the industry.
Unmaking Waste is a partnership with the China Australia Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of South Australia which has delivered two successful international conferences as well as photography and design exhibitions and a number of publications. Unmaking Waste focuses on a cross disciplinary approach and engages with themes such as circular economy, waste, design, consumption, production and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 12; Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
MIDDLEBURY — Author Adam Minter will travel a thousand miles for a good recycling story. And for his latest book, Minter racked up significant frequent-flyer miles from Middlebury to China and ports in between, in his effort to shine a light on worldwide efforts to extend the life of our prized possessions and thus stem the tide of waste into landfills.
There are two basic ways to sort recycling: mechanical-biological treatment plants, which sort mixed waste into low-grade recycling, and material recovery facilities, which have a stronger focus on extracting reusable stuff.
Here’s how they work.
Here’s how they work.
In Agbogbloshie, a community in Accra, Ghana, people descend on a scrapyard to mine electronic waste for recyclable materials. Without formal training, these urban miners often teach themselves the workings of electronics by taking them apart and putting them together again. Designer and TED Fellow DK Osseo-Asare wondered: What would happen if we connected these self-taught techies with students and young professionals in STEAM fields? The result: a growing maker community where people engage in peer-to-peer, hands-on education, motivated by what they want to create. Learn more about how this African makerspace is pioneering a grassroots circular economy.
In Brazil, "catadores" collect junk and recyclables. But while they provide a vital service that benefits all, they are nearly invisible as they roam the streets. Enter graffiti artist Mundano, a TED Fellow. In a spirited talk, he describes his project "Pimp My Carroça," which has transformed these heroic workers' carts into things of beauty and infused them with a sense of humor. It's a movement that is going global.
As China turns away previously accepted recyclable waste, container return schemes are offering a new solution. How and where you recycle has never been more important.
Resource Work Cooperative is a not-for-profit, self-funding worker’s cooperative based in Hobart, Tasmania. Founded in 1993, we employ 35 local Tasmanians who democratically run our social enterprise. We can supply materials for your next renovation or art project, pick up your reusable goods for free or even sustainably deconstruct entire buildings!