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Reducing waste should be the number one priority, using fewer resources and therefore polluting less, the second best option is to reuse products and the third should include any waste management is recycling.
How can we prevent waste generation? It can be prevented from the point of view of consumers and also from the point of view of the industry that puts the products we buy on the market.
We are aware of the theory but when it comes to applying it we don’t quite do it.
Of the three Rs, the first we do not carry out, this helps us to visualize the need and in the face of all the evidence of climate emergency consumption, resources, social and economic problems that arise, makes us we need a new model of production and consumption and we need the reduction that is the highest priority.
To the 3 Rs could be added, another R at the beginning which is to Reject, we consume too many things and above the reject is the Rethink, the current model does not work, and we must begin to rethink how we organize the economic system.
To try to achieve these goals that are sometimes unachievable, it is necessary to change the model of society, the envelope packaging in plastics has recently been given, so it is the evolution of the production model that has advocated us. We have to work for a zero waste society, and that means rethinking our model
The packaging is very visible but there are also other wastes that are much more important and that the products that carry the packaging also have an impact of orders of magnitude higher than the packaging itself. And what needs to be done is to rethink if that product is needed.
Most of the materials we use can be recycled. This depends on the involvement of local and national official institutions, but also on each of us as citizens separating each material in the appropriate container.
Companies should offer their products and should ensure that their products are designed with ecodesign, repairable, reusable, recoverable and recyclable, with minimal impact, as they have a good deal of responsibility.
Therefore, the first responsibility lies with the industry, according to the administrations that have in their hands to define the regulations and enforce them and the best mechanisms and instruments also economic and third the citizens. You can’t focus on one actor, it’s everyone’s business. The solution is good ecodesign and good use.
E-commerce sales increase the distribution of packages and this has consequences for the planet in terms of emissions, rejections, packaging, .... all this goes against the model of society, instead of moving forward it seems that we are going on the other hand. We also need to change people’s thinking, it is absolutely necessary for there to be less impact.
The EU has identified waste reduction as an emergency:
- Household rubbish has multiplied in weight x 2 since 1970 and this is the result of following an unsustainable model
- The production, distribution, transport represents 50% of the emissions that contribute to climate change
- Reducing waste is also essential to also reduce one of the main expenses facing municipalities
When it comes to reducing waste, according to the European Commission 80% of the waste we find in the sea are plastics, for this reason the European Direct approved the use of disposable plastics from this 2021 .
This is an important first step in the fact that “something is moving” but more needs to be done, however there are no universal solutions but we need to put intelligence, rethink and see in which cases an option is good or not good.
Plastic is an extraordinary material, with very important qualities, but 40% of the plastic that is produced today becomes waste in less than a month, it is not a question of making it disappear but of using it from rationally.
We as a human species are no strangers to this fact and ingest small substances from these disposable plastics.
Another objective required by the Directive is that Member States must achieve 90% collection of plastic bottles by 2029 and that the bottles must have at least ¼ recycled material by 2025 and 30% by 2030. Are these goals reasonable? These are necessary goals, as we only have one planet.
According to the UN the industry that pollutes the most is the textile, the importance of reuse, due to this fact there is a European law that the market of 2025 will consider textiles as waste and administrations will have to collect selectively.