If waste is sorted correctly, it becomes a source of raw materials that can be reused
Europe has been trying for several years to answer the question of how not only to dispose of waste without harming the environment, but also to ensure that there is less waste. Deutsche Welle reports on several of the most popular measures in Europe aimed at reducing the amount of waste.
Waste sorting and recyclables
If waste is sorted correctly, it becomes a source of raw materials that can be reused. For example, bio-waste – leaves, grass, vegetable and fruit peels, etc. – is used to make plant fertilizers or to produce biogas. And valuable metals such as gold, silver, copper, or aluminum are extracted from old household appliances. Old furniture, clothing, and plastic are also used as recyclables.
Waste as an energy source
Large cities consume huge amounts of energy. It is needed in industrial production, infrastructure, and households: for heating, electricity supply, and mobility. Waste can replace non-renewable energy sources in all of this. One example is the biogas mentioned above. Another example: energy generated from waste processing is used for heating households. This technology has been successfully implemented in Copenhagen.
Multiple use of plastic
95 percent of plastic packaging is intended for single use. A third of it ends up in the sea and on land, polluting the environment. Experts from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation have calculated that by 2050, if the situation does not change, there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans.
Plastic is the most dangerous type of waste. It decomposes in the soil only after centuries, and its disposal requires significant costs. Only 14 percent of plastic waste is used as recyclables. The primary method is thermal treatment of plastic, i.e., incineration, during which energy is generated and used for various purposes.
Produce less hard-to-dispose waste
Waste that is difficult and costly to dispose of includes special types of plastic. Such plastic is used, for example, in single-use packaging, plastic cups, supermarket bags, or cocktail straws. It makes up about 95 percent of single-use packaging material. Europe plans to completely abandon all of this. Instead of plastic bags, supermarkets offer paper ones. Disposable tableware is disappearing from sale. It is being replaced by tableware made from other materials.
Construction waste instead of concrete
According to UN-Habitat, 4 billion people currently live in cities. By 2050, this number could exceed 6 billion. Along with the urban population, the number of concrete buildings – both housing and offices – is growing. One of the components of concrete is cement, and its production releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than air travel. If we compare the volume of this greenhouse gas emissions from cement production, it is higher than the total emissions of the US and China.
New technologies that can replace concrete and especially the cement needed for its production already exist. Professor Gnanli Landrou from Zurich has invented a building material based on clay that does not contain cement. There are other developments that use construction waste and agricultural waste instead of cement.
Throw away less food
One-third of all food produced, according to the UN, is not used. Most of it spoils during transportation and storage. Tons of food end up in garbage bins every day: not only products that were not bought in the store, but also those that were too much on the plate and in the refrigerator. In this case, experts say, one should be guided by the well-known principle: less is more.
Natalia POZDNYAKOVA,
Helle JEPPESEN.