Environment and circular economy are two sides of the same coin.

There is no concept of a sustainable environment and ecosystem if we fail to implement a circular management process of the waste we produce and a massive use of renewable energy.

We imagine a great engine that is powered by our actions through a chain of conjunction that generates our life.

Without energy we cannot live, but this engine must be powered by actions in our life that allow and justify, over time, the existence of the circuit.

The actions are represented by a correct approach to waste management according to the 4R concept, reduce, reuse, recycling and recovery, and by the unconditional use of sources of renewable energy.

But what do these 4Rs actually mean?

Reduce

It starts from the concept of eliminating what might be superfluous, for example trying to buy products without packaging, such as bulk detergents or mineral water from municipal distributors. In other cases it means choosing products that have a totally recyclable mono-plastic packaging (i.e. avoid product packaging with multilayer plastics) or wood or non-plasticized paper or glass or metal, all recyclable.

Reuse

We should have already learned the concept of reuse from our grandparents and their ancestors, who reused everything that was possible until the natural exhaustion of the materials. A used or "out of fashion" dress (a modern concept although questionable if too much weight is attributed to it) should not be thrown in the garbage, but placed in the collection bins for clothes, with which many associations will give clothes to those who cannot allow you to buy them. They can also become rags for dust or other uses.

Plastic bags, once received by the merchant, can be reused in many ways, as can paper bags. The wooden or plastic fruit box can be used in the cellar or garage or at home to tidy up.

The detergent bottle can be used by refilling it, like glass or plastic water bottles.

These are just trivial examples that, however, must make us think before throwing away a product, because each recovered packaging reduces waste in the environment and saves precious raw materials.

Recycle

It is understandable that not everything can be reusable, therefore, when we decide to transform an asset that we no longer need into waste, we must think that we are not throwing a useless object, but a raw material that can and must be reused so as not to weigh on the environment.

So it is important to separate the paper from glass, plastic, metal and wood, so that recycling centers can transform them into new raw material. If this is not done, the materials that could be recycled will be considered non-usable waste, therefore lost, with a negative environmental impact.

Recovery

At the end of the virtuous cycles expressed as reduction, reuse and recycling, there may be fractions of non-workable and reusable waste according to the rules described.

Once again nothing is lost, because non-recyclable waste can take two ways: to produce electricity and heat through modern waste-to-energy plants, or subject them to chemical recycling that breaks down the products into fractions originating from polymers, for example, to make them reborn as a new raw material.

All these operations have a deserving impact on the environmental impact, reducing water, air and soil pollution and saving exhaustible natural resources.

Another essential element in defending the environment is the use of renewable energy in any form: wind, solar, geothermal, hydraulic, fusion and marine.

The growth of their use must be continuous, both in the civil and industrial sectors, because saving oil not only reduces the emissions into the atmosphere that are strangling the world , but avoid negative, collateral consequences, such as deforestation, the destruction of natural ecosystems and seas.

Finally, in this great moving chain that unites everyone, the environment must have a correct balance between human needs and climate protection.

Climate change is not expressed only with the annoyance of the heat that disturbs our life, so we worry about turning up the air conditioner, or seeing the melting on television of the arctic ice caps as an abstract documentary that fills our days.

Global warming leads to prolonged droughts in some areas of the planet, which creates famines, mass migrations to countries less exposed to climatic pressures, increasing tensions at the borders among the various countries, the clandestine trafficking of human beings, the spread of pandemic diseases, wars for water, food and land that remained fertile, devastating fires such as those that occurred in Australia that kill, destroy the forests that they give us oxygen, animals and agricultural activities, leading to the spread of poverty and the reduction of agricultural production, it also reduces international trade and increases global insecurity.

In the book we wanted to collect articles, published on the Web and declined in pills, in order to continue this reasoning of correlation between environment, waste, clean energy, and their consequences if we do not accelerate on these three cornerstones of our life.

The 30 pills, to light up your reflections, embrace in different forms and with different news, the indissoluble chain that moves our life, with the hope that each , reflecting, he sees his own existence in a different and less impactful way.

Italian language version

The eBook can be purchased on Amazon  or in paper version by sending a request via email.

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