ABSTRACT
Selective waste collection and recycling generate many environmental benefits, which are usually not accounted for. This chapter begins with a discussion on how consumption and production have radically changed, at the expense of nature. Mass consumption-driven lifestyles – symbolized by plastic wrapping everything, from food to suitcases – and the practice of quickly discarding what has become useless, have left traces in distant spaces, engulfing their populations and nature alike. In its lifetime every product possibly has generated multiple environmental impacts: from natural resource extraction, resource transformation, to production processes and transportation to consumer markets and final disposal. When a product is discarded after consumption, it turns into ‘waste’, generating additional environmental impacts through disintegration, entanglement with nature (e.g. animals eating discarded plastic, bio-accumulation of toxins from degrading discard), waste management and recycling. Parts of our waste enter the food chain and thus also enter our bodies through water and food ingestion. Contaminating the environment means ultimately also poisoning our own bodies.
Some of the main environmental concerns stemming from solid waste management are introduced in this chapter. Solid waste and recyclable materials travel far and globally. Recycling processes require energy, water, or additional virgin raw materials, as well as fossil fuels for transportation. Recycling processes can be polluting and pose risks (e.g. the transatlantic transportation of recyclable materials such as plastic pellets shipped to China). However, if compared to other forms of waste management (incineration and waste-to-energy, landfilling) recycling overall has a better environmental performance. Upstream emissions are avoided when recycled resources replace virgin materials in the fabrication of new products. The development of a method to calculate greenhouse gas emission reductions and energy savings related to materials recycling is introduced as a way for recyclers to account for the environmental gains generated by their work.
