sustainability – Page 2 – Sustainable Lawrence

Philadelphia moves closer to city-wide pickup of organic waste

This article provides some details on alternate locations for organic waste, now that the facility in Delaware has shut down….

“[In November 2014] two Philadelphia City Council committees held a hearing on food waste composting, exploring how the city could get into the action… Food scraps are seen as the next frontier for waste reduction. Philadelphia’s curbside recycling rate for bottles, cans, paper, and similar materials has nearly topped out. Since food waste is about 24 percent of the household waste stream, that’s an obvious next step, many say.

The committee heard from operations small and large…Their message: It can be done. It also can create jobs and save the city money. For a city that aims to be the greenest in the nation, it would help the environment by reducing methane gas from landfills and by creating lush soils for city gardens.”

Towards a Circular Economy

According to a 2013 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (available here), globally 207 million tons of packaging (worth $384 billion) cover consumer goods annually.

A New Paradigm

In the introduction, the report’s authors write that “A new term has emerged in recent years to describe our modern era—the Anthropocene. It rightly implies that in this age humans became the dominant force shaping our physical environment. It is evident that an economy that extracts resources at increasing rates without consideration for the environment in which it operates, without consideration for our natural planetary boundaries, cannot continue indefinitely. In a world of soon to be 9 billion consumers who are actively buying manufactured goods, this approach will hamper companies and undermine economies. We need a new way of doing business.

A Brighter Future

The concept of a circular economy promises a way out. Here products do not quickly become waste, but are reused to extract their maximum value before safely and productively returning to the biosphere. Most importantly for business leaders, such an economy can deliver growth. Innovative product designers and business leaders are already venturing into this space.”