| Dear
EarthTalk: Can you explain the "Zero Waste"
movement in Europe, Australia and elsewhere that goes beyond
recycling to reduce waste? How can we make it happen here
in the U.S.?
-- Neil Weiss, Methuen, MA
In essence, "Zero Waste" is a design principle writ
large, whereby products are conceived, produced, packaged,
distributed and retired with their long-term environmental
impacts in mind. According to the non-profit GrassRoots Recycling
Network (GRRN), "Zero waste maximizes recycling, minimizes
waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made
to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the
marketplace." GRRN is calling on companies to take responsibility
for the entire life cycle of their products and packaging,
and on governments to not subsidize non-recyclable waste processing.
"Waste is the result of bad design," says Eric Lombardi
of EcoCycle, a recycler in Boulder, Colorado. "The concept
of zero waste leads upstream to the designer's desk, where
waste needs to be designed out." Lombardi, a leading
light in the fledgling U.S. zero waste movement, lays out
four basic principles for achieving zero waste: (1) Make producers
responsible for the waste their products create; (2) invest
in infrastructure rather than in more landfills and incinerators;
(3) end taxpayer subsidies for wasteful and polluting industries;
(4) and create jobs and new businesses around the re-use of
discards.
While the concept has been slow to catch on here, it has been
standard practice in parts of Europe and elsewhere for over
a decade. In fact, some 25 countries require companies to
take back their packaging, and some have gone so far as to
mandate "Extended Producer Responsibility" laws,
whereby companies must pay for the waste generated in the
production, packaging and distribution of their products.
In Germany, a 1991 ordinance seeking to address packaging
waste was a huge success. By 2000, the agencies charged with
collecting and recycling such materials were recovering over
90 percent of the plastics and glass used in German packaging.
(In the U.S. we reclaim 5.3 and 26 percent respectively.)
Another success story comes from Australia, where its capital
city, Canberra, embarked on a "No Waste by 2010"
campaign in 1996. By 2001 the city had reduced waste sent
to landfills by 40 percent and more than doubled the garbage
it captured for reuse. The city also began fueling two of
its power stations with re-captured methane gas from its landfills,
which is plentiful enough to power 3,000 homes for 30 years.
In the U.S., industry has continually put up roadblocks to
any serious consideration of adopting such initiatives at
the federal level. But, according to the Zero Waste International
Alliance, at least 18 local communities have taken it upon
themselves to adopt their own strategies for achieving zero
waste. These include a dozen California cities and towns;
Boulder and Summit counties in Colorado; Carrboro, North Carolina;
the Central Vermont Waste Management District; and the cities
of Seattle and New York.
"Zero waste is about challenging the ruling paradigm
that says we can manage waste safely in landfills and incinerators,"
says GRRN's national coordinator, Bill Sheehan. GRRN helps
coordinate efforts to implement zero waste campaigns in the
U.S., and offers a wealth of free resources on its website.
CONTACTS: GrassRoots Recycling Network, www.grrn.org
; EcoCycle, www.ecocycle.org
; Zero Waste International Alliance, www.zwia.org.
Dear EarthTalk: How could there ever
be a "water scarcity"? Isn't water the most plentiful
thing on Earth? --Chris Carroll, Austin, TX
Ocean water may
cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, but thirsty
humans rely on finite supplies of freshwater to stay alive.
And with exploding human population growth, especially in
poor countries, these finite supplies get quickly spoken for.
Further, in places without proper sanitation, water can become
tainted with any number of diseases and parasites.
According to the World Bank, as many as two billion people
lack adequate sanitation facilities to protect them from water-borne
disease, while a billion lack access to clean water altogether.
According to the United Nations, which has declared 2005-2015
the "Water for Life" decade, 95 percent of the world's
cities still dump raw sewage into their water supplies. Thus
it should come as no surprise to know that 80 percent of all
the health maladies in developing countries can be traced
back to unsanitary water.
Sandra Postel, author of the 1998 book, Last Oasis: Facing
Water Scarcity, predicts big water availability problems as
populations of so-called "water-stressed" countries
jump perhaps six fold over the next 30 years. "It raises
tons of issues about water and agriculture, growing enough
food, providing for all the material needs that people demand
as incomes increase, and providing drinking water," says
Postel.
Developed countries aren't immune to freshwater problems either.
Researchers found a six-fold increase in water use for only
a two-fold increase in population size in the United States
since 1900. Such a trend reflects the connection between higher
living standards and increased water usage, and underscores
the need for more sustainable management and use of water
supplies even in more developed societies.
With world population expected to pass nine billion by mid-century,
solutions to water scarcity problems are not going to come
easy. Some have suggested that technology--such as large-scale
saltwater desalination plants--could generate more freshwater
for the world to use. But environmentalists argue that depleting
ocean water is no answer and will only create other big problems.
In any case, research and development into improving desalination
technologies is ongoing, especially in Saudi Arabia, Israel
and Japan. And already an estimated 11,000 desalination plants
exist in some 120 countries around the world.
Others believe that applying market principles to water would
facilitate a more efficient distribution of supply everywhere.
Analysts at the Harvard Middle East Water Project, for example,
advocate assigning a monetary value to freshwater, rather
than considering it a free natural commodity. They say such
an approach could help mitigate the political and security
tensions caused by water scarcity.
As individuals, we can all reign in our own water use to help
conserve what is becoming an ever more precious resource.
We can hold off on watering our lawns in times of drought.
And when it does rain, we can gather gutter water in barrels
to feed garden hoses and sprinklers. We can turn off the faucet
while we brush our teeth or shave, and take shorter showers.
As Sandra Postel concludes, ?Doing more with less is the first
and easiest step along the path toward water security.?
CONTACT: United Nations Water For Life Decade, www.un.org/waterforlifedecade
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