The thing about waste. 6+1 Lessons Learned.

Have you every been to a very nice beach in summer, laughing, listening to music and had the fun of your life and at the end of the day passing by empty plastic or beer bottles on the beach or seen the overfilled trash cans? At least for me it always felt strange to see this litter even in the nicest environments.

When you walk with your dog or just went grocery shopping and unpack. Waste is ubiquitous. About 8 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced since the invention of plastic (Source). I questioned myself what can we learn from waste?

What can you learn from waste? 6+1 Lessons Learned

The EllenMcArthur Foundation projects that if we continue with plastic consumption as it is and throwing it anywhere as we are doing it now we have more plastic than fish (by weight) in the oceans (Source). A lot of initiatives ongoing like the Ocean Clean Up. We have scientific proof but still those news are not making us that nervous, or should they?

Lesson 1: Even though scientific proof is there, we still need to reach the critical mass in society. Time and awareness are crucial.

The pressure from the society increased significantly with the climate change movement and Greta. How dare you? The Paris Agreement is now already 5 years old. Governments slowly put this into legal guidelines and e.g. in Europe we will see no drinking straws, cutlery, plates and ballon sticks out of plastic on our parties. Will we miss them? Probably not.

Lesson 2: It takes longer than expected to change. Not only for ourselves, but especially for the government. Decisions are complex.

We are all aware that we are producing to much waste. Around 1/3 of the food we produce will never reach a plate (Source). In Germany we throw 535 kg on average per person away (Source) It is 7 times the average weight we have. 140.000 To Go Cups will be used per hour in Germany alone. Is this to much? Probably we will all agree. The future needs to be circular. With the expectations of population growth globally more waste will arise.

Lesson 3: The figures showing the true. Rethinking will be key for everybody. Be responsible with the resources we have.

I have been working in the recycling industry for nearly a decade and was seeking for new opportunities to trade with waste and be the good guy. I have been exported from different countries more than millions of tonnes of waste for energy recovery. I have seen cities smelling (not only in Italy), export bans and other things, which I don't want to go into detail, but finding a quick outlet for waste is crucial.

Lesson 4: Everybody knows what happens if waste remains at home for too long. We need to find sometimes a quick solutions, even sometimes not the best solution. Finding solutions is sometimes not that obvious.

The Philippine government closed the most popular beach in Boracay for 6 months in 2018 due to it's problem with waste treatment (probably should have chosen choose 2020...) (Source). As tourist producing waste and infrastructures are not yet set it will be a huge problem, even though one of the nicest places on earth.

Lesson 5: If we throw things regardless into our environment it will circle back to us quicker than we think. Think twice what will be the effect on your actions.

China have been banning in their sword strategy in 2018 mixed waste to be imported (Source). 111 Million metric tons needs of plastic ways needs to find a new home until 2030. China's waste imports between 1988-2016 accounted for 45% globally (Source). Many have been in short term redirected to other South East Asian countries. It has caused massive issues but also a redirection in many national strategy. We couldn't care less.

Lesson 6: The traditional thoughts on a one fits all solution and linear economy have been easy. New niches are on the rise and innovation will follow.

The good thing is that we are already working on it. Already many committed to a sustainable future, finance is taking the shift towards sustainability and we rethink our buying behavior more then ever. We develop electric cars and sustainable housing. We start thinking about sustainability in every part of our life. Even the new world will be e-commerce driven, we try to find sustainable ways . Many companies leading this movement already.

Lesson +1: The future does not look so bad if we trust each other and stick to our words. Believe and trust in the collective impact of our generation.

Let's be consistent and rethink. The solution is already out there and we only need the right call to action.

Achieving awareness based system change will take time but we are on the right track.

Let's move on.

Mario Montevirgen