Pollution and waste of resources are among the global issues that are overwhelmingly the current era and drag with it imponderable consequences, for example, on climate change; Now more than ever, the political governments address, cooperation of organizations and private companies, as well as the awareness of civil society, has become urgent in the direction of a firm and concrete commitment to a sustainable future of the cleanest cities, functional and green. Green economy, waste recycling, corporate social responsibility, circular economy, renewable resources and sustainability: concepts too often abused, but so rarely visited. With the Cop 21, the Paris Conference on Climate Change, 196 countries have signed an agreement, which comes into effect in 2020, if ratified by at least 55 nations, with which undertake to ensure the maximum reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
At that time, the directors of 75 international railway companies have taken with the aim of reversing the growth trend of kilometers of paved roads at the expense of railway lines, putting on the negotiating table, on their part, the guarantee of halving by 2030 the CO2 emissions of 44 grams per kilometer and, as noted, well below the 118 car, 140 aircraft and 158 trucks. As well as, according to data collected by the Green Economy Report in individual states, the same length, the construction and operation of a railway track generates an emission of greenhouse gases significantly reduced compared to that of a paved road. Despite one of the means of transport to rail has the lowest environmental impact – Further content electrification same lines – you can work to make it more sustainable.
Other than in strong relief test for the success of the Conference will have compared to products routinely arriving from the United States and China with the expected contrast planned obsolescence of products, industrial strategy that forces the continuous buyback of goods with a strong electronic component and corrupts materials deadly entire environmental chain linked to waste disposal. That the development of circular economy is functional to the fight against climate change, and vice versa, it clearly indicates the numbers provided by the European Commission for the Environment, according to which highlighted the positive impact is not limited to the measured environmental performance through the balance of greenhouse gas emissions ( Carbon footprint), but also through other indicators such as the water balance ( Water footprint), resource ( Material footprint) and the land consumption ( Land Footprint). what emerges is a saving water not consumed amounted to 659,845 m³, 70,378 tons of resources not taken from the environment and 336 hectares of land not exploited.
The draft circular society breaks with the capitalist mode of production developed by the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, with profound effects on social organization and its values. This is because the term “circular economy” is a kind of umbrella under which qualifying gather every option, in terms of organization of the economy and society, from moral convictions, now supported by science, to incapacity of the Earth in sustain the current pace of development and planned for the coming decades, of 9 billion human beings. It is stated that the linear economic society from which we come, based on the triangular ‘produce, use, disposable “( make, take, waste), should transition into a system such as to take the products as much as possible , replace them if necessary, repair them rather than replace them. It is to invent a circular path, pointing to the utopia of zero waste deduce all the possible consequences from the fundamental postulate of Lavoisier: “Nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed.” It applies to materials and technical products, such as those in organic content. For the first it is to conceive goods that incorporate the minimum of raw materials and are easily repairable or separable.
The novelty is in the fact that in order to recompose the balance of the planet no longer operates only at the end of the production and consumption process chain, or at the disposal of waste and scrap, but beginning at the time of design and invention. On the contrary, today, the products must be designed to last as long as possible and to be easily recoverable in their entirety or in their fractionations. In this virtuous circle, the high organic composition of products, such as food, would contribute to the re-entry of waste into the biosphere through organic fertilization processes or processing in any other way: think of the pet food, biofuel or building materials and textiles. Remedia, one of the most active Italian non-profit collective systems for the management of waste from photovoltaic systems, batteries and accumulators – WEEE – in the publication of the Green Economy report declines the theme of the fight against climate change in the world of technological waste management: report , prepared in collaboration with the sustainable development Foundation, takes stock of the impact of the WEEE recycling system at European level, and Italian.
during the 2015 Remedia has handled more than 39,800 tons of waste technology, 88.4% of which was initiated the recovery of materials and 3.1% turned into energy, while only 8.1% went to final disposal in landfills and 0.4% incinerated. As estimated in the same ratio always relatively to last year, only in Italy recycling of WEEE it has prevented the emission of approximately 550,000 tons of CO2 and widening the salt calculating look at the entire Europe to 2.9 million tons. The positive impact on the climate is then associates that – crucial for our country, the great manufacturing tradition and poor in raw materials – Savings of virgin materials. In particular, as regards the technological waste collected and treated by Remedia, the analysis on the materials showed a recovery of 21% plastic, 20% glass, of 6% of other category and 53% of metals, of which well 77.7% consisting of steel and iron, 9% lead, 6.3% aluminum and 6.2% copper.
also in this case, recovery of materials from technological waste for a country brings major benefits not only, obviously, on the environment, but in the overall economy: the elaboration of the sustainable development Foundation emerges that in the last year thanks to these policies the reduction in import costs of raw materials stood around a total value of approximately 16 million Euros and this without considering the indirect economic benefits for companies in the recovery compartment. However, 2015 it was a year far from easy for the placing on the market of recycled materials. How often denounced by various bodies working in the sector, an economy based on recycling can work effectively and in a long-term perspective only if associated with a ‘green tax’ incentives to the purchase of recycled products, which in Italy , and not only, still not happening.
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