Tag: plastic pollution

Estimated Global Methane Emissions 2020

Why Are Landfills Significant Sources of Global Methane Emissions?

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

Landfills around the world contribute to an estimated eleven percent (11%) of all global methane emissions, with methane being a climate amplifier and up to 25 times stronger than CO2 (carbon dioxide) as a greenhouse gas on a longer term. In the first decades of being emitted into Earth’s atmosphere, methane is more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, causing it to actually warm Earth’s climate more than carbon dioxide. 

The fact that landfills are such a large source of anthropogenic methane emissions on a global scale suggests that there is a need and potential to a) reduce the amount of overall waste b) improved waste management practices, including recycling and transforming waste into energy. Recycling and energy production from waste of course have to be in line with national policies, whereby communities and governments are responsible for creating and maintaining sustainable waste management policies and procedures, allowing for completely new kinds of businesses to emerge and to thrive in a world where waste can today be regarded as a currency.

While some countries have decided to completely ban plastic bags in order to reduce plastic waste and it ending up especially in our oceans, for instance in Finland plastic recycling was not set up until 2016. Today, around one fifth (20%) of all plastic waste in Finland is being recycled, with a target of increasing the amount of recycled plastic within the upcoming few years. 

I first ran into Plastic Bank on Twitter a few years ago. Plastic Bank is an organization dedicated to stopping ocean plastic ending up in our oceans by turning waste into currency, killing two birds with one stone by contributing both to ending poverty and preventing harmful plastic waste ending up in our oceans. 

Of course, plastic is not the only kind of waste on our planet, but it is one of the worst: it can take up to one thousand (1.000) years for plastic bottles to biodegrade, with the average time being 450 years. Think about that before throwing plastic garbage (or, any garbage at all) into the nature!

The average decomposition rates of debris/garbage varies largely: glass bottles thrown into water sources or nature in general is undefined, or can take up to one million (1.000.000) years to decompose, followed by fishing lines (600 years), plastic beverage bottles (450 years), disposable diapers (450 years), aluminium cans (up to 200 years), foamed plastic buoys (80 years), foamed plastic cups (50 years), rubber-boot soles (up to 80 years), tin cans (50 years), leather (50 years), nylon fabric (up to 40 years), plastic bags (up to 20 years), cigarette butts (up to five years), wool socks (up to five years), and plywood (up to three years). (NOAA Marine Debris Program 2019; U.S. National Park Service 2019). It is estimated that more than eight million tons of plastic end up in our oceans alone each year, and cleaning all the waste from our oceans is not as simple as from elsewhere in our environment. 

Nevertheless, The Ocean CleanUp is an ambitious project determined to clean up our world’s oceans from all the waste through advanced technologies. It will definitely be exciting to see how this demanding project turns out.

The World Bank estimates that urban solid waste will increase by 70% by 2025, from some 1.3 billion tonnes currently to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025, increasing the global costs of waste (management) significantly. This huge increase in overall waste worldwide does include a number of risks, both for health and the environment, but it also gives us the opportunity to create and develop improved waste management practices, recycling, and an effort to create better solutions for instance in terms of packaging materials and overall design.

The complete report published by The World Bank in March 2012, “What a Waste – A Global Review of Solid Waste Management” can be downloaded here. In brief, the report highlights key issues such as municipal solid waste management being the most important service any city provides, with poorly managed waste having immense impacts on health, the environment overall, and the economy. It identifies non-sustainable development including water and wastewater (treatment), greenhouse gas emissions, poverty and slums, social unrest, air pollution, and solid waste. Landfilling in low-income countries/low-technology sites, according to the report, is usually open dumping of wastes, leading to high pollution in nearby aquifers and water bodies, waste regularly being burned, with significant health consequences for local residents and staff. 

High-income OECD countries alone account for almost half (44-46%) of total worldwide waste generation, with high-income OECD countries also having the highest waste collection rates. What ends up in landfills worldwide has large impacts on our environment, as a result of which advanced recycling and waste management are significant factors for minimizing both environmental and health concerns.

Learn more by watching “Landfill Methane Emissions and Oxidation”, published by Illinois Sustainable Technology Center:

What conclusions can we draw from this? 

  • Your consumption habits matter and have an impact! Demand better products, and reduce your amount of waste. 
  • Packaging materials make a significant difference. Businesses/producers/retailers and consumers can influence what kinds of packaging materials are being used. 
  • With a constantly growing world population, it is essential to start limiting the amount of waste produced per capita in different countries. Otherwise, one option would be to charge for any additional waste through either waste collection costs per household/business or higher taxation on non-environmentally friendly packaging materials/products.
  • Improved recycling and overall waste management practices around the world. 

What else can you think of? Please share your ideas and thoughts by commenting on this article! You may also want to read my previous article “How Environmentally Friendly Is Biomass Production?” to find out more about how waste is being managed in for instance a country like Sweden. Today, we do have similar waste management practices in Finland as well. 

Connect with me on Twitter @annemariayritys. For climate/environment-related posts only @GCCThinkActTank. Subscribe to Leading With Passion to receive my latest posts.

 

 

 

 

 

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Why Is Plastic Pollution So Harmful?

by Anne-Maria Yritys, posted in Change Leadership, climate action, climate leadership, Global Climate Change

Global Climate Change (63)

“EF. Conserve Energy Future. Plastic pollution is when plastic has gathered in an area and has begun to negatively impact the natural environment and create problems for plants, wildlife and even human population.”

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Note from author: Plastic pollution has become a serious problem around the globe, so serious that some countries, including Bangladesh, many countries in the African continent and so on, have either COMPLETELY banned the use of plastic or the use of plastic bags. It takes decades for a plastic bag to decay, and up to 450 years for a plastic bottle. It is devastating to see plastic items being thrown into nature e.g. here in Finland, and hear about the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans each year. It is incomprehensible that many people lack the understanding about why throwing plastic waste into nature, much of which ends up in our oceans, is so damaging for our ecosystem.

Each year, thousands, or even millions of birds/sea animals DIE because of the plastic that human beings throw into nature, and if they do not die, they end up consuming our plastic waste, which ultimately ends up on our food plates. The next time you personally consume a portion of fish for example, take a moment to think about the fact that the fish you eat might have been polluted by toxic plastic waste that people throw into nature, and into our oceans, all the time. All chemicals and toxins are not visible to the human eye.

There are many efforts around the world to decrease plastic waste, including the complete ban of plastic waste in many countries, followed by the effort to minimize plastic waste e.g. by restricting the use of plastic bags and replace those with other options, recycling plastic (excellent!) so that consumers can bring their plastic waste to recycling to clear their conscience. There are even serious efforts to clean up our oceans from plastic waste, such as The Ocean CleanUp Project:

 

This young man has come up with a very brave idea, but he is smart enough to turn this idea into reality. Very impressive. Of course we have to thank everyone who is smart enough to minimize their plastic use, everyone who makes an effort to recycle plastic, everyone who cleans up the beaches, the lakes, the oceans and the nature from plastic waste. It is just devastating that some people take the freedom to pollute the environment carelessly, while others take the time to (mostly on a voluntary basis) clean up the mess caused by thoughtless individuals.

 

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