One the biggest barriers facing the waste management/recycling industry is that of trying to implement efficient recycling practices. The challenge that we face today is that most products are not designed with recycling in mind. Mr. William McDonough, the co-author of a book published in 2002 called “Cradle to Cradle: remaking the way we make things” and Micheal Braungart, his fellow author, together they lay out a vision for establishing “closed-loop” cycles where there is no waste. The authors argue that recycling should be taken into account at the design stage, and that all materials should be able to return to the soil safely or be recycled indefinitely.
The sustainable packaging coalition, a non-profit group that has developed guidelines looking beyond traditional benchmarks of packaging and design to emphasise the use of renewable, recycled and non-toxic source materials. This group was founded in 2003 with just nine members and today boosts over 100 members.
Packaging that is sustainable can cut cost along with benefiting the environment. The world’s biggest retailer Wal Mart announced that it wanted to reduce the amount of packaging material it uses by 5% by 2013, this intern could save the company $3.4 billion and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 667,000 tonnes. The company began to use a process called the “sandwich bail” to collect waste material at its store and distribution centres for recycling. The process involved putting a layer of cardboard at the bottom of the compactor before filling it with waste and then putting one at the top. The compactor then produces a sandwich, which is easier to handle and transport. By implementing this process wall mart is not only reducing waste disposal costs but also making money by selling waste at market prices.
The European parliament voted to increase recycling rates by 2020 to 50% of municipal waste and 70% of industrial waste. Recycling rates can be increased by charging households and industries more for producing more trash, and by reducing the frequency of trash collections while increasing that of recycling collection.
Number of cities and companies have adopted the zero waste police or zero waste targets. Matt Hale the director of America’s Environmental Protection Agency says that although this might be a little unrealistic, it is a worthy goal and can help companies manage their waste better. There is no doubt that recycling saves energy and raw materials, reduces pollution and overall has a positive impact on the environment. In the end waste is really a design flaw.
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