How to change mentality to create a world without waste

We are going beyond the obstacle when speaking not of recycling , a subject not yet assimilated by many, but of re – use of plastic products. Utopia? Perhaps, but before making the future we must design it and then we see how we could get to have no more waste to recycle.

The situation today is far from the above, in fact, the consumption of virgin raw materials continues to increase and it is estimated that in 2030 we will use 30% more than ten years ago.

Although we continue to talk about the circular and recycling economy , we have not yet been able to find solutions to reverse this situation and, as time passes, we continue to complicate our lives.

To talk about the future we must take for granted the principle that all manufactured products must be recyclable , which unfortunately is still far from the future, due to the continuous industrial and political resistance that contribute to this slowdown.

But supposing we have been so good at achieving the high recycling standards needed to find a balance between production and disposal, we need to think about how to reduce, to the point of eliminating the problem of waste production.

If we want to talk about plastic we can think of the main characteristic of this raw material which is durability , in fact we buy a detergent, a cassette, a fork, a bottle that can be useful for decades and instead we throw them after use.

How long do they last in our hands? From 15 days for the detergent bottle to a few minutes for the fork or spoon or the fruit box.

Have we ever thought of washing these products and reusing them?

The bottle can be refilled thousands of times, the box can be used in the cellar, in the car or to buy more fruit and vegetables without taking another one, the spoon and the fork can be washed and reused.

These are just a few examples that allow us to avoid generating new waste , to save energy for recycling and transport, to avoid pollution if the materials are not recycled, to save virgin raw materials that cause the extraction and processing of oil.

But the problem can also be seen for more complex objects, such as a washing machine, an iron, a machine, the lawn mower, the table where we eat or the bed where we sleep.

How do we really make the management of a product that should become waste new?

Simply do not own it , but use it for the time we need and then return it to the supplier who will be required to overhaul it, repair it, update it, integrate it, guarantee it and then put a product back on the market that suits our needs.

There are companies that have embraced this line, such as Apple, Levi’s and others that, taking up the used object, do not create further waste, but manage elements that they can use again in production.

Is the road still far away? Frankly I would say yes, because if we look at the circularity rate in Europe which is 11.7% against a world figure of 9%, we find low values, but still slow growth, having also to consider that the market increase of the circularity would correspond to the increase in employment which, based on data from the European Commission, could reach 700,000 units.

Europe imports 90% of oil, two-thirds of the metals used for production, 70% of the natural gas used to run the factories.

If we actually increase circularity, we would find the way to dissociate growth and production with the extraction of fuel metals and all the natural raw materials we use daily.

This also means reducing waste, emissions into the atmosphere, the use of landfills, the use of water and pollutants associated with these activities.