The keys to the circular economy | The medi …

The global environmental agenda has taken a firm stand a theme that flourished in the 90s and then somehow lost interest: recycling. Now the concept has become more complex and consists of the idea of ​​”circular economy”, unlike the “linear economy” which has always characterized capitalism. Unlike recycling, focuses less on consumers than on the role of businesses and the development of sustainable products whose materials are able to withstand reuse. AT National level, there are initiatives in dance but the the starting point is very low.

As part of the last regional meeting of environment ministers of the region, in which the head of the national portfolio, Juan Cabandié, participated, “Coalition for the circular economy” coordinated by the program The United Nations for the environment (UNEP). “The financial sector and policymakers have a central role to play in moving away from linear growth and mainstreaming circularity into finance and our economies,” said Inger Andersen of UNEP.

The OECD estimates that currently 100 billion tons of natural resources are extracted in the world for an annual production, which triples the quantity extracted in 1970. About half of the materials used are non-metallic minerals, used mainly in the construction sector, followed by a quarter corresponding to biomass and the rest of fossil fuels and metals. At this rate of production, consumption and elimination, by 2060, the annual material use would be 313 billion tonnes, more than triple the current number.

Like wealth, waste is unevenly distributed. While the high income countries represent one sixth of the world’s population, generate more than a third of global waste.

At the congress

In Argentina, the source separation is still very low and the task of valuing and differentiating waste is concentrated in the work of the urban waste pickers. Atilio Savino, the nation’s former environment secretary and current president of the International Solid Waste Association, told this newspaper that “the basic concept of the circular economy is to try and replicate what is happening. in the biological metabolism that occurs in the nature. So it’s design the products so that once consumed they are a secondary raw material of a new process. Of course, this has a limit, as the performance of the reused material decreases. The brain of the circular economy is design and recycling is essential ”.

One of the initiatives supported by the circular economy is the law Project which sets minimum environmental protection budgets for the regulation, reduction, substitution and phase-out of single-use plastic products. The project has an opinion from the natural resources committee but remains the approval of the industry and budget and finance committees.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, the bill on minimum budgets Environmental management of containers and post-consumer containers, which was debated in 2018 in a committee of deputies and sought to assign responsibility for waste to producing companies.

Extended liability

The idea of ​​the extended production liability policy is that the manufacturer of a product is responsible for the collection and disposal of its waste and discarded products. As this measure has an impact on the final price, companies compete for prevention in the production of waste and promote the recycling and reuse of products, instead of ending up in landfill. The downside of this measure is the increase in product prices.

In the United States, the extended liability policy it is mainly applied in the case of hazardous waste, such as some electronic devices, carpet, medical waste, paint, mattress and batteries. These are state regulations, as there is no federal law in this regard. In a similar sense the resolution ministerial of 2013 which defines an extended liability scheme in the event of tires, but it has almost no application.

There are also large companies that offer consumers the opportunity to have their products in their own stores in exchange for a voucher for the purchase of a new item, as is the case with Apple and the clothing brand The North Face.

According to official figures, in the European Union the current average recycling is 39 percent and the The objective is to increase it to 65% by 2030 in the case of municipal waste and to 75% in the recycling of packaging. One of the keys is the separation of garbage in households and reverse logistics networks (from home to factory), but also the efficiency and durability of the products and their easy disassembly and repair. Other public policy initiatives are linked to sustainable purchases by the State, the generation of indicators for the use of virgin material in products, taxes on the use of virgin plastic, tax exemptions for the reuse of materials and for repair.

Electronics, clothing, chemicals and agriculture

Certain sectors of the economy have greater possibilities for circularity. For example, industrial packaging is responsible for the estimated costs of $ 40 billion due to product rejection. In the case of food, an estimated one-third is lost in the production line or directly thrown away, which equates to a billion dollars in efficiency losses per year.

In the electronicAnother key sector, the great challenge of reuse, is the handling of hazardous substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and tin. In the case of construction sector, international organizations propose the search for lighter materials, the use of more wood, less cement and favor the restoration of buildings rather than demolition, the construction of buildings with reused materials.

Another sharp element is clothing, which produces 20% of liquid waste in the world and emits 10% of greenhouse gases. Since 2000, clothing consumption has doubled and only 1 percent of textiles are recycled.