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FIVE WASTE & RECYCLING TRENDS

DATE: September 05, 2018

The waste and recycling industry is continually going through changes, especially more recently with the eco-movement. People are thinking about ways to help the environment more now than they ever have before. We continue to see new developments, innovations, and even new problems in sustainability and recycling efforts. Here are 5 trends in the waste and recycling industry:

Bans on Plastic

It is no secret that most plastic materials take hundreds of years to disintegrate, and they are very hazardous to wildlife and ecosystems. We see this problem today with the crisis occurring in our oceans and bodies of water; plastics are destroying the ecosystem that is vital to life. This issue is so great that we are now seeing bans on plastic straws; cities, businesses and world leaders are pledging to ban plastic products. Starbucks has committed to ditch plastic straws globally by 2020. United Nations figures show nearly nine million tonnes of plastic enters the oceans each year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain. With statistics like this, we will definitely see further bans on plastics.

Increased Corporate Responsibility

It is easy to make empty promises, but more and more companies today are using actions instead of words when it comes to “corporate responsibility”. Today, consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, so naturally firms will increase their recycling processes and efforts. Besides, there are many upsides for a business to become more sustainable which include supply line efficiency, reductions in industrial waste and even government funding and rebates.

3-D Printing

This topic has been opening the doors of manufacturing, from commercial, to mass production, to private. Of course, we are talking about plastic so this is the potential risk of this technology as mentioned before, the world does not need more plastic. Plastic is negative for 3-D printing because it is only going to generate further environmental issues that we are already experiencing with plastic.

Sustainable Innovation

Ever heard of ERO? ERO is a robot that can actually recycle buildings made out of concrete and rebar. It is still in design stage, but the idea is that, theoretically, an entire concrete building can be torn down piece-by-piece and recycled. Yes, this is more time consuming than traditional demolition, but we will see more ideas like this develop to avoid of all this waste ending up in our landfills.

Mandatory Composting

In 2016, only 5% of the 26 million tonnes of food waste avoided a landfill. This means all of that food waste is sitting at the bottom of a landfill that could have otherwise been turned into healthy compost material. Today, more municipalities are starting to institute organic composting programs. We can see the interest in composting continue to grow and reaching cities all over North America.

At Draglam Waste & Recycling, our philosophy stems from a continuing care for and strong dedication to divert less waste and recycle more, thereby minimizing land-filling and helping to preserve our beautiful communities in Toronto and the GTA for generations to come.