Small Business Owner!
Is it difficult for you to discover how you can get on-board the Circular Economy?
A clear picture of how important “waste” is, is a good place to start.
2019, was a buyers’ market in waste management and recycling. It is easy to understand why this article by Mr. Henry Grabar, is entitled:
Recycling Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About Profit.
I have pulled some items from the article to give you a taste. But if you have the time, go to Slate Magazine online and read the whole article.
Mr. Grabar’s story is about the USA, but, of course, the whole world is involved. Waste supply chains are going to become much more important to the things we produce and use – the circular part from a business point of view: Technical Supply Chain Loops
“Back in 2011, if you wanted to recycle a plastic Coke bottle, it was a great time to do it. That spring, every plastic soda bottle was worth about x8 what it was just 2½ years earlier, and x4 what it would be five years later.
Your 2011-era empty Coke bottle was not only worth a lot because of high oil prices—it was worth a lot because Pakistan had suffered devastating monsoons in the summer of 2010. Flooding in the Indus River was one of the events that sent cotton, in April 2011, to its highest price since records began in 1870. Jeans were going to be more expensive, Levi’s announced. And so, it turned out, was recycled PET plastic, because polyester fibers made from used plastic bottles were a cost-effective replacement for cotton. Cotton was up; plastic was up; recycled PET prices went up. The scramble was on for old bottles. Which you, American reader, the world’s leading consumer of soda and bottled water, have plenty of.”
“Is American recycling still functioning after all the exports to China, etc. dried up? ““Functioning may be a little optimistic,”” says Analiese Smith, who runs the recycling program in Waukesha County outside Milwaukee. ““But we’re keeping the lights on.””
“Let’s get one thing out of the way: Recycling isn’t going anywhere. It’s an ancient practice. (200 years ago, the Chinese still had a thriving market in human manure.) It is motivated by profit. It’s also much bigger than your bottles. There are grease buyers and ship strippers and copper wire thieves. The single greatest recycled material in the United States, by weight, is ferrous scrap—primarily iron and steel from old cars. No one exports more ferrous scrap than the US. (The three biggest buyers are Turkey, Mexico, and Taiwan.)”
“For a while, making “pure” bales/shipments did not seem necessary in the US. Beginning in the late ’90s, U.S. waste haulers DECIDED, to go back to the old ways and called this old idea “single-stream recycling”. (everything all mixed together) Contamination rates rose. Did single-stream recycling produce a lower-quality good? Indisputably!! There’s a reason it is NOT practiced anywhere else in the world” or is it? It is one of the reasons that China got out of the game.
“The American domestic recycling industry has a few choices to make, while we wait for prices to recover. Cities can quit single-stream recycling and make residents sort things themselves, again. That’s what Brookhaven, Long Island, did and switched back to “multi-stream” in November. This is after its trash collector broke a contract because it couldn’t sell what it was picking up. “There is no market for single-stream. Just no market,” the town supervisor told Newsday.”
“Ecomelida, a Chinese recycler, is opening a plastics and paper recycling facility in the state of South Carolina. The plant will turn empty bottles into pellets that will be shipped, of all places, to China, where they’ll be used to make coat hangers and fake plants … which might, eventually, get sold back to you.”
Think of that carbon footprint!
Take a look !!!!!
As I wait to get your questions and requests, I have investigated a few things:
- The PANDEMIC has been a Horrific Disruptive – Economic Opportunity!
- RECOVERY JOBS! Everyone is talking about it. A Green Recovery – Look for – Green Recovery – Jobs & Money – Where? ….. I am going through all my posts to check for Green Jobs & Money toward the recovery. …. Already 4 posts showing vacancies!
- Ocean Cleanup is looking for Operators: This is jobs & businesses – NOW. Local partners to operate the Interceptors™ that will extract the waste from rivers and bring it to land. The operators will work together with responsible waste handlers to sort debris and recycle plastic. >>> Jamaica – Furthering along Ocean Cleanup’s efforts to tackle the world’s 1000 most polluting rivers, the Benioff Ocean Initiative has awarded The Ocean Cleanup $1 million (USD) to deploy an Interceptor in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica in a multi-year project. look here: https://wasterush.info/cleanup-4/
- Streamline Eco-Ethical action for the Consumer: Businesses can help accelerate the consumer Vote/Buy for our planet the strategy and APPs to help the consumer Vote/Buy!
- CO2 Capture: How possible is it?
- Too Much Methane!, but if we could control it, the Waste to Energy technology is already in place! …. a number of posts!
- Every Print Shop Can “Go ECO”! NOW! – The First industry to achieve total Circular! Ink, Paper, Packaging, Textile, Plastic, Equipment all Circular!
- Mycelium in Industry: the roots of mushrooms; how important they are
- The Path to Cradle to Cradle Certified™ – The Best customer assurance!
- Water-Sanitation-Toilets: very serious consequences to our planet Lots to do!
- Circular Economy issues when Financing a small business
- Africa: Please Stay Harmonised with planet Earth
- for Hire: listings of people who want to help
- Ask WasteRush; Answers to your requests and questions
- Tools and Guidance: Online tools, Do-it-Yourself Tools, EMF training and learning platforms
- Carbon Footprints: What are they and how do we deal with them
(look at the bottom of each post. there are lots of links to more information…)
This video is 49:08 minutes, already 12 years old. But it gives you the background of the men who know how to discover the laws that govern planet Earth, learn to use them and live synergistically within them. Take a look at, at least, the first 14 minutes.
So, what could you do?
Are you a shoe store that could collect used shoes and find a company that is collecting them to recycle, if not up-cycle the materials?
Nike has been doing it for 26+ years……….
In 1993, employee Steve Potter started shredding old Nikes and turning them into reusable materials. From this vision Reuse-A-Shoe was born; a sneaker recycling program that collects end of life footwear from consumers and transforms them into Nike Grind, a suite of high-performance materials made from recycled footwear and manufacturing scrap.
and if you have questions about how you and the Circular Economy are going to work together, Feel free to Contact me ! Tell me what I can search for YOU. Lesley
