The dialogue to build on Waste in the oceans and the circular economy, held at the CEBDS 2019 Seminar, aimed to establish indicators to be consolidated in the review of CEBDS's Vision 2050. The discussion had intensive audience participation and was led by CEBDS's senior project and process advisor, Tatiana Araujo. Representatives of CEBDS member companies participated as debaters: Carlos Artexes (Sesc); Claudia Leite (Nespresso) and Fabiana Quiroga (Braskem).
In recent years, solid waste has become one of the central problems in terms of urban planning and public management in practically all major cities in the world. The study The Collective Organization of Recyclable Material Collectors in Brazil: dilemmas and potential from the perspective of the solidarity economy, by Ipea planning and research technician Sandro Pereira Silva, presents recent estimates that indicate a generation of urban solid waste in Brazil of around 160 thousand tons per day – 30% to 40% of this amount are considered capable of reuse and recycling. With a sector still little explored in the country, only 13% of this waste is sent for recycling.
The data also reveal the composition of the waste discarded in the country: 57.41% of organic matter (food leftovers, spoiled food, bathroom waste), 16.49% of plastic, 13.16% of paper and cardboard, 2.34% of glass, 1.56% of ferrous material, 0.51% of aluminum, 0.46% of inert materials and 8.1% of other materials.
Brazil is behind only the United States, China and India. The country is also one of the countries that recycles the least of this type of waste: only 1.2% is recycled, that is, 145,043 tons.. About 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean annually, according to WWF. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. Without urgent systematic changes in the way plastic is produced, consumed and disposed of, plastic pollution is expected to double by 2030.
In January 2019, the “Alliance to End Plastic Waste”, which is already starting its activities by dedicating US$1 billion (R$3.7 billion) to projects and the development of technologies to end the disposal of plastics in the environment, especially in the oceans.
The Alliance aims to increase investment to up to US$1.5 billion (R$5.5 billion) over the next five years. With around 40 global companies from the plastics and consumer goods sectors, the Alliance aims to develop and implement solutions that minimize the inappropriate disposal of plastic waste and promote sustainable destinations for used plastics.
How do companies view the circular economy?
A report by Circle Economy, a group supported by UN Environment, showed that only 9% of the global economy is circular. According to the research, which was released this year, the planet reuses 9.2% of the 92.8 billion tons of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass used every year in production processes.
Focusing on the opportunity generated by the transition from the linear economy to the circular economy, CEBDS puts the topic up for debate with its associated companies to build a proactive agenda on the circular economy.
The same research highlights the vast opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the circular economy — especially reuse, remanufacturing and recycling — in key sectors such as construction, for example.
Given these data and the growth of the world population in recent decades and the prospect of millions of people entering the job market, there is an increasing urgency to change the current production model from a linear economy to a circular economy. Natural resources are finite and the impact of incorrect disposal on the environment is already considered one of the biggest environmental problems in today's society. The concept of “make, use and throw away” is unsustainable.
The current linear production system is not sustainable in most situations: it generates a large accumulation of waste that cannot be used again and leads to excessive exploitation of resources, which can lead to the depletion of raw materials. With this scenario in mind, CEBDS created an e-book, which you can download here, so that you can understand the concept of Circular Economy and the application of reverse logistics in its context; learn about the application and benefits in waste management; and confirm successful actions carried out by large companies associated with CEBDS.
Immediate change in production and consumption patterns
The Circular Economy proposes the immediate change in production and consumption patterns that still follow a linearity: extraction of natural resources, manufacturing, distribution, use or consumption and disposal. Thinking about the entire product, connecting the end of the production line to the beginning of it, the circular economy aims to guarantee, in the long term, the life cycle not only of products and services, but, mainly, of living beings.
Now is the time to redefine the economic model based on the consumption of disposable products and to invest in technologies and models for reusing and optimizing global resources. What are the risks to the planet if nothing is done? How will this transition take place? What is needed for the circular economy to gain scale in Brazil?
One of the stages of the circular economy is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a product, which consists of a complete study of the impacts generated throughout the life cycle of a product; a measurement of its 'environmental footprint'. LCA studies cover everything from the extraction of raw materials to their final destination, including the stages of production, distribution and consumption.
A major contribution of LCA is to identify where the most relevant impacts are in a product's life cycle, in order to seek alternatives. Often the impact is in stages that are “invisible” to the eyes of the consumer and society, such as high water consumption or emissions in transportation, and therefore, when introducing improvements, the company must develop a consistent advertising campaign to value the effort made.
At the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global organization to which CEBDS is linked, a working group is working on the development of Circular Transition Indicators, with the aim of establishing a harmonized set of indicators that will help the private sector identify circular opportunities and linear risks and determine its circular priorities and goals. The document will be launched in 2020.
