Recycling - Haggard Earth

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Recycling; Hits: 14

Understanding the Recycling Industry Crisis Have you ever wondered where your garbage goes? Once you throw away items like food scraps, clothes, furniture, and appliances, they are now called municipal solid waste. Typically, this waste can either be recycled, sent to a waste-to-energy facility (like an incinerator), or dumped in a landfill. Recycling centers help reduce waste by turning used materials into new products. This prevents items like paper, plastic, and metal from ending up in landfills, which are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the U.S. It also keeps them out of incinerators, which release harmful pollutants into the air.

Recycling municipal solid waste involves several steps to recover useful materials. After waste is collected and sorted at recycling centers, recyclable items go through processes like shredding, crushing, or melting to turn them into usable raw materials. These materials are then sent to manufacturers to create new products. However, recycling practices differ by region, and not everything is easily recyclable. Even if you carefully sort your recyclables, a lot of it may still end up in a landfill.

Key Challenges Behind the Recycling Industry Crisis Let’s explore some of the challenges the U.S. recycling system is facing. Contamination Issues...... In the recycling industry, contamination occurs when non-recyclable items or improperly prepared materials are mixed with recyclables. These issues often come from a lack of consumer understanding about what can and can’t be recycled.

Contamination significantly disrupts the recycling process, making it more difficult and costly to sort and process materials effectively. Improper recycling habits can cause contamination in the recycling industry in several ways: Improper recycling habits can cause contamination in the recycling industry in several ways:

Putting Non-Recyclable Items in Recycling Bins: Items like plastic bags, greasy pizza boxes, and certain types of plastics that aren’t accepted locally can contaminate the recycling process. For example, plastic bags can get stuck in sorting machines, causing delays and even damage.

Not Cleaning Recyclables: Food leftovers on containers can ruin entire batches of recyclables. A half-full soda bottle, for instance, can leak onto paper items.

Wishcycling: Wishcycling happens when people put items in the recycling bin, hoping they’re recyclable, even when they’re not.

China’s National Sword Policy.....Introduced in 2017, China’s National Sword Policy is a set of strict regulations aimed at reducing the import of contaminated recyclable materials. Before this policy, China was the world’s largest importer of waste, processing materials like plastics and paper from countries including the U.S.

But, because of environmental concerns and the high contamination levels in imported recyclables, China implemented this policy to ban certain types of waste and enforce stricter contamination standards. Since China stopped accepting many recyclables, U.S. recycling plants ended up with too much material. This caused storage problems and higher costs for managing the excess waste. And with no way to process or sell the extra recyclables, many items that used to be recycled were sent to landfills instead. The policy revealed how much the U.S. depends on other countries to export waste. It showed the urgent need to invest more in local recycling plants so materials can be processed within the country.

Complexities in Modern Waste.....The U.S. recycling industry is struggling to keep up with today’s changing waste. Many modern products are made with complex materials, like certain plastics and multi-layered packaging, that can’t be recycled with the current technology. One of the biggest problems with recycling is the lack of communication between manufacturers and recyclers. Companies often create new materials without asking recyclers if they can be processed. This disconnect makes recycling less efficient and more expensive.

Risk To Workers Health and Wellness....... In recent years, the waste and recycling industry has faced a growing lack of workers with the technical skills needed to operate and manage machinery effectively.

Workers play a crucial role in handling and processing recyclable materials, but their jobs come with several risks. Repetitive movements like bending, lifting, and pulling can strain their muscles and joints, leading to injuries such as sprains, strains, or chronic back pain. Additionally, recycling materials like plastic and metal produces dust and tiny particles that, when inhaled, can cause respiratory problems, including shortness of breath and more serious lung issues. Workers also face exposure to hazardous items such as batteries, oils, and chemicals. If not handled properly, these products can result in burns, poisoning, or long-term health problems.

Consequences of a Failing Recycling System......The struggling recycling industry is causing serious problems. More waste is ending up in landfills, and this increases greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Additionally, plastics and other materials that aren’t properly recycled often end up polluting oceans, rivers, and natural habitats, harming wildlife and the environment.......read on https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/recycling-in-crisis-why-its-failing-how-to-fix-it/#Understanding_the_Recycling_Industry_Crisis

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Recycling; Hits: 30

China’s Power and the Planet’s Pain: The Challenge of the Rare Earth Supply Earth.Org Sangeeta Jayadevan Global Commons Oct 6th 2025 The world runs on rare earth elements (REEs), a set of 17 metals indispensable for everything from EV batteries and wind turbines to your smartphone. While critical for the global green transition, their mining and processing are dominated by China and come at a steep price: massive environmental damage, toxic waste, and radioactive residues. With global demand expected to skyrocket by 2040, the urgent challenge is to ramp up recycling. Rare earth elements (REEs), a set of 17 elements, have acquired critical importance in recent years. They possess powerful magnetic and luminescent properties, making them critical for renewable energy infrastructure, electric vehicles, defense and tech devices like cellphones. While not exactly rare, they are present generally as trace impurities, bound closely with other similar elements. Their extraction and separation is costly and difficult since they are rarely present in concentrated deposits. Huge amounts of ores need to be excavated to yield a small amount of REEs, and multiple processing cycles and tests are needed to isolate them. Their extraction processes often involve toxic chemicals that can contaminate air, water, and soil, leading to significant environmental pollution. Mining of these elements can produce radioactive waste, posing health risks to nearby communities and ecosystems. Mining and processing one ton of REEs typically generates thousands of tons of waste material, including mine tailings, acidic wastewater, and radioactive processing residues.

Importance of Rare Earth Elements........REEs are often referred to as the invisible building blocks of modern society due to their breadth of uses in renewables and high-tech areas. No viable alternatives pose potential for disruption in global supply. In 2022, researchers estimated that demand for REEs is expected to increase by a factor of seven by 2040, as the global transition to renewable energy accelerates. The largest REE mines in production are found in China, which accounts for 60% of global production and about 85-90% of global REE processing. The US, Myanmar, Australia, Nigeria and Thailand also have large mines. China’s dominance was achieved through decades of state investment, subsidies, cheap labour, and significantly lower regulatory and environmental standards. Intense internal competition, innovation and R&D spending has further helped the country position itself far ahead of other countries, and manage to process REEs at a fraction of the cost. This has forced other companies out of business for the processing part of the supply-chain. China has at times placed barriers to exports of technologies for processing rare earths in response to geo-political tensions.

How Can Supply Be Augmented? Strategic partnerships exist between the US, Australia, Canada, Myanmar, Pakistan, Ukraine, India, and the EU to accelerate investment in reserves and processing capabilities........read on https://earth.org/chinas-power-and-the-planets-pain-the-challenge-of-the-rare-earth-supply/

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Recycling; Hits: 45

To tackle e-waste, teach kids to be responsible consumers The Conversation Saidia Ali

Environmental Scientist, PhD Candidate, Toronto Metropolitan University November 12, 2025The world is undergoing rapid electronification and digital transformation, reshaping how we live. Many of us have numerous electronic devices around us at all times, from smartphones and watches to our home appliances and cars.A sharp increase in e-waste has accompanied the surge in electronic equipment. In 2022, 62 million tons of e-waste was produced globally. Canada’s e-waste tripled between 2000 and 2019 and is expected to reach 1.2 billion kilograms by 2030. These statistics demonstrate an urgent environmental crisis that demands new ways of thinking and educating future generations. A key part of tackling the problem is educating people about it. As educators, we need to expand school education to include resource recovery, sustainability and pro-environmental behaviours to inform students on what to do with their old gadgets. The language and techniques we use to communicate this issue in classrooms play a significant role in helping children understand and engage with safe e-waste management. Schools and educators must equip youth of all ages with the values, attitudes, knowledge and skills necessary to manage e-waste responsibly.

Gaps and limitations.....My research uses machine learning tools to develop effective circular economy policies focused on e-waste management in Canada, with insights reflecting Ontario’s evolving practices. In Ontario, schools are failing to provide comprehensive and consistent e-waste education, leaving a dangerous gap in our students’ environmental literacy. Environmental education in Ontario introduces students to the concept of environmental stewardship and the provincially mandated curriculum does include it in a cross-disciplinary manner. However, due to decreased priority and budget cuts, attention on e-waste and resource conservation is absent. According to a 2024 report by EcoSchools Canada, a number of obstacles exist to successful school e-waste management such as COVID-19, provincial inconsistencies, curriculum disconnect, custodian participation, poor school engagement and a lack of key infrastructure and information. The Ontario government and municipalities have made efforts in revising the school curriculum, with non-profits stepping in to help bridge the knowledge gap. For example, in municipalities like Peel Region, teachers’ resources include a plethora of interactive, online activities and lesson plans that focus on the 3Rs and proper sorting, as well as additional workshops, events, games and other resources for students in grades K to 8. Likewise, Durham Region offers a specific presentation, including one for grades 7 and 8 entitled “Electronic Waste: The Hidden Impact of Our Gadgets,” allowing students to discover the possible environmental, social and economic consequences of devices. Several schools are also active participants of the EcoSchools program, a certification initiative originally developed by the Toronto District School Board to promote environmental education and action. The program offers opportunities for student-led projects such as e-waste collection drives and awareness campaigns, providing meaningful experiential learning. Although these are valuable and necessary, the focus and depth of these initiatives are often at the discretion of individual teachers and schools, leading to an uneven and often limited understanding of the e-waste problem.........read on https://theconversation.com/to-tackle-e-waste-teach-kids-to-be-responsible-consumers-265712

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Recycling; Hits: 45

A Circular Economy — an economy where waste is designed out — might work. When I first heard about the idea of circularity, I thought it was a load of hogwash, a lofty buzzword that corporations across several industries have latched onto to sell their latest products or trick consumers into believing they’re operating ethically for people, animals, and the environment. As my colleague Sam Delgado reported for Vox, voluntary corporate social responsibility programs are notorious for being vague about the actual impacts of their supply chains (and lately, some companies pledging to be more environmentally friendly have abandoned efforts to do so). International regulation certainly isn’t where it needs to be to ensure the rights of workers and those who bear the burden of living near factories and landfills. Yet according to industry experts, designers, activists, and even the United Nations, a circular economy would help separate consumption from some of its ills and get us back on track to meeting key climate goals. (About 3.3 percent of global emissions originate from the waste sector, but that’s not including the emissions during the production process in the textile, plastics, and technology industries. Textiles, for example, are responsible for about 2-8 percent of emissions, according to the UN.) It’s not a far-off idea, either: There are government-led initiatives and programs dedicated to solving how circularity would work. Scientists are figuring out how to recycle synthetic fabrics and lithium batteries and all sorts of materials. Brands are trying to design products that take end-of-life into consideration. These are all steps in the right direction. There’s just one question: Is this really possible?

Circularity, explained...... I like to think of the circular economy as a jacked-up “reduce, reuse, recycle” system. The hope is to keep materials in use for as long as possible with minimal waste, and to do so on a much wider scale. Right now, there are two main reasons why a lot of what we recycle doesn’t ever actually get made into new things: It’s either prohibitively expensive to do, or we just don’t know how to recycle that material yet (like most plastics). A circular economy also would aim to prevent waste from happening in the first place by designing products made to be recycled. “At the end of the day, it’s very much a system infrastructure change because you need to demonstrate resources, reverse logistics, and all these things,” said Hilde van Duijn, managing director of the Circle Economy Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to double global circularity by 2032.

“The most tricky part about the transition to surface is the mindset.”Consumption, or the purchasing of new goods to satiate some need or desire, is a cornerstone of the modern economy for privileged countries and especially for the US. When quality of living goes up, so does consumption. And the production of consumer goods, for many low-income countries, allows for a chance of upward mobility through wages, at least in theory. In practice, however, the speed at which goods are made today has normalized cutting corners in quality and in wages for the people who make these items possible — all while the average consumer becomes trained to expect that a shirt should cost less than a dollar or a pillowcase should sell for $3.78. This dynamic is what helped push the US to become a top producer of garbage.

“Consumption is like a drug,” argued Peter Majeranowski, the CEO of Circ, a materials innovation company. “It’s a very tough thing to change because you’re working against psychology and you’re working against, frankly, very good marketers.” If the circular economy is going to change this pattern, then there are four areas for it to address: extraction, production, consumer use, and waste, with each area requiring different approaches and bringing up different questions. What would it mean to slow down extraction in place of reusing existing materials? What happens to the displaced labor? How are things (or energy) made? Who makes them? Can we design things to be efficient, long-lasting, and desirable? How can products be made so that they can be recycled? Where do you even start?.....read on https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/370626/consumerism-circular-economy-single-use-recycling-landfill-garbage

Speaking of Circular Economies there is a methodology that addresses this challenge.......What on Earth is the Doughnut?…..Humanity’s 21st century challenge is to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. In other words, to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a playfully serious approach to framing that challenge, and it acts as a compass for human progress this century. The Doughnut offers a vision of what it means for humanity to thrive in the 21st century - and Doughnut Economics explores the mindset and ways of thinking needed to get us there. First published in 2012 in an Oxfam report by Kate Raworth, the concept of the Doughnut rapidly gained traction internationally, from the Pope and the UN General Assembly to Extinction Rebellion.Kate's 2017 book, Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist, further explored the econo mic thinking needed to bring humanity into the Doughnut, drawing together insights from diverse economic perspectives in a way that everyone can understand. This 2018 TED talk gives a summary of the book's core messages, and you can read Chapter One here. The environmental ceiling consists of nine planetary boundaries, as set out by Rockstrom et al, beyond which lie unacceptable environmental degradation and potential tipping points in Earth systems. The twelve dimensions of the social foundation are derived from internationally agreed minimum social standards, as identified by the world’s governments in the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Between social and planetary boundaries lies an environmentally safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive.If you want to look deeper into the Doughnut, and Doughnut Economics, join us at Doughnut Economics Action Lab where we dive into much more detail on what it means for transforming our economies.......See you in the Action Lab! https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/ https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics

Haggardearth is introducing the Donut (Doughnut),a new category on the Home Page under CLIMATE & ECOLOGY and will be combined with the Recycling sub- category.

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Recycling; Hits: 63

Waste not, not want not. The scandal of food waste – and how we can stop it Guardian Julian Baggini 8 Oct 2024 Attitudes towards waste are very different in industrialised nations. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) estimates that 17% of total global food production is wasted and around the same amount lost, meaning that around a third of food produced is not consumed. The global average for household waste is 74kg per person annually, and this figure is broadly similar for lower-, middle- and high-income countries. In addition to food waste, there is also food loss: crop and livestock commodities destined for human consumption which are discarded before entering the retail sector. This could be because of failure to harvest, poor storage, deterioration in transport, or simply being left to rot because there is no buyer. Over recent decades, food waste and loss has become more of a salient moral issue across the world. One of the UN’s sustainable development goals is to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels”, along with the less specific aim of “reducing food losses along production and supply chains”. Many believe reducing waste is essential for feeding the world. For example, the World Resources Institute opens its report into food waste and loss by asking “How is the world going to feed nearly 10 billion people?”, and argues that halving food waste “would close the gap between food needed in 2050 and food available in 2010 by more than 20%”. However, this framing is questionable. Back in 1961, the world produced fewer than 2,200 calories per person a day, barely enough to cover the needs of its men and women, who on average need about 2,500 and 2,000 calories a day, respectively. By 2020, the world was producing much more food than its inhabitants eat: nearly 3,000 calories per person a day. Even with the quantities that we waste, there is enough food in the world to feed everyone. Distribution and affordability are greater obstacles to good nutrition. But although hunger is not the problem now, it soon could be.

With the global population still rising, and climate breakdown and geopolitical instability already disrupting agriculture worldwide, in order to avert starvation, it could soon become imperative that we make as much use of what we produce as possible. At the moment, the greatest impact of food waste is on the climate crisis. Unep estimates that 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed. As it says: “If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.” In poorer countries it increases food insecurity and everywhere it adds to biodiversity loss, because a lot of land is turned over to cultivation without it ultimately feeding anyone. Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced. But can we do it? At the moment, the greatest impact of food waste is on the climate crisis. Unep estimates that 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed. As it says: “If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.” In poorer countries it increases food insecurity and everywhere it adds to biodiversity loss, because a lot of land is turned over to cultivation without it ultimately feeding anyone. Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced. But can we do it?

Once food reaches homes, waste is often the result of problems of inadequate management practices, skills and knowledge. Many households find themselves disposing of the contents of a bag or box found in the back of a cupboard after the best-before date has expired. Dates on packs are very conservative, and if dried products like rice or pasta are stored properly – dry and in airtight containers – it can last long after the pack date. But if you are not confident in knowing the signs of mould (discoloration, visible growth, a rancid or otherwise bad smell), it can feel risky to cook it.......read on- there's much more https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/08/the-scandal-of-food-waste-and-how-we-can-stop-it

U.S. Recycling industry is Struggling to Keep Up with Today’s Changing Waste.

China’s Power and the Planet’s Pain: The Challenge of the Rare Earth Supply

To Tackle E-waste, Teach Kids to be Responsible Consumers

A Circular Economy — an Economy where Waste is Designed Out.....and Pehaps Donuts will work

Waste not, not Want not. The Scandal of Food Waste – and how we can Stop it

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