The latest in the growing number of efforts directed at reducing, repurposing and ultimately eliminating waste in all its forms.
Following the release of a new joint report from the Carbon Trust, Knowledge Transfer Network, High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute, Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse and Coventry University, leading experts from industry and academia have warned that the UK is falling behind other advanced economies in harnessing the value of a rapidly growing remanufacturing industry.
In a report published this week, Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that an increase on product life of just one day across a range of foods could prevent roughly 250,000 tons of food waste each year — in households and in the supply chain — by giving consumers longer to eat the food that they buy.The “life” of a product is the time period over which food remains safe to eat, or over which the quality does not deteriorate to unacceptable levels, usually designated on-pack by companies through “Sell by” or “Best before” dates.
Two years ago at Davos, the sharing economy was a foreign concept. Whenever I asked anyone I met if they had heard of the phrase, I would receive blank stares. Perhaps 5% of people had heard of Airbnb (though they rarely used it). Quite a few more had heard of Zipcar – maybe around 20% of the people I spoke to – but most of them admitted that their familiarity was due to the company’s acquisition by Avis earlier that month.
This March, Scotland will promote a national week of swapping, sharing and donating, encouraging citizens to join in a reuse revolution. Pass it on Week begins on the 7th and continues through the 15th of March. The event is backed by Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) in an effort to get people to pass on things they no longer want to someone else, rather than throwing them away.
Cross-Posted from Product, Service & Design Innovation. Cambodian fashion brand tonlé is revolutionizing the textile industry not only with its ethical business model, but also a creative approach to zero-waste.
Mars Chocolate North America announced last week that all 10 of its manufacturing facilities are now certified landfill-free, a significant step towards achieving Mars’ company-wide goal of zero-waste-to-landfill by 2015. The Henderson, Nevada site was the tenth and final chocolate manufacturing facility to achieve this milestone.Since announcing this goal in 2007, Mars has reached an overall reduction of approximately 4,500 tonnes of waste each year. To do so, Mars zeroed in on three key focus areas: efficient operating processes, recycling programs for multiple waste streams, and mutually beneficial partnerships with disposal vendors and local farm reuse programs.
The most effective technologies for addressing growing global water and energy interdependence — known as the water-energy nexus — are based on reduce, recycle, and recovery and zero-water/zero-energy, according to new research from analyst firm Frost & Sullivan.The report, Technology Convergence Resolving Water-Energy Challenges, identifies six types of technology that contribute to solving the water-energy challenge: renewables-based desalination, wastewater treatment and recovery, hydraulic fracturing, thermal power, water efficiency and energy efficiency.
“Sustainability” isn’t something most of us associate with Las Vegas. However, as one of the top tourist destinations in the world, the Las Vegas Strip presents a host of opportunities for tackling the rampant waste created by the industry.
Sprint today launched its Smartphone Encore Challenge — an attempt to inspire students to generate new ideas about how to revive old smartphones and their components. The competition — launched in partnership with Brightstar Corporations and HOBI International — calls upon students to come up with innovative ways to retrofit their old devices that could be scaled into a commercial business model. The Encore Challenge will be supported by Net Impact, the leading nonprofit that motivates younger generations to find sustainable ways to work within and beyond business.
Project MainStream, part of the World Economic Forum’s Circular Economy initiative, has launched three new programs focused on developing ways of scaling the circular economy through materials management, information technology and business model innovation, among others.
Grand & Toy, an affiliate of Office Depot, and TerraCycle Canada have announced the launch of a new, national retailer recycling program for office products.The program comes after a successful five month K-Cup® Pack pilot recycling partnership between Grand & Toy and TerraCycle for customers in Southern Ontario. The program will now be expanded nationally and will include coffee capsule recycling, as well as recycling for office supplies and computer accessories.
Safeway has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle allegations that its grocery stores improperly disposed of hazardous waste and customers' medical information in California. In a separate settlement, Los Angeles-based 99 Cents Only Stores will pay more than $2 million to settle retail hazardous waste disposal violations in California.
The Canadian city of Surrey has chosen Iris Solutions to build what the city claims will be the first closed-loop, fully-integrated organics waste management system in North America.The Surrey Biofuels Processing Facility will process 115,000 tons of residual kitchen and garden waste from Surrey each year. The process will create a renewable natural gas which can then be used to power the city’s natural gas waste collection trucks. The facility will also produce a compost product that will be suitable for landscaping and agricultural applications.
White Coffee Corporation has introduced a new line of single-serve organic coffees in a new BioCup that is completely biodegradable when aerobically composted.Consumers committed to sustainable packaging will have a large selection of blends and flavors, the company says. These certified organic coffees evoke nature and the environment with earthy, deep and aromatic flavors. The BioCup is available in 11 flavors: Colombian, Breakfast Blend, French Roast, Full City Roast, Mexican High Grown, Peruvian, Rainforest Blend, Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Sea Salt Caramel and Chocolate Morsel.
The Internet of Things (IoT) will include some 30 billion connected devices by 2020, according to analyst firm Gartner. Although the IoT holds promise for promoting global sustainability, there is a growing concern of what becomes of these devices when they reach end of life. Many end up in landfills because, when they are embedded in objects and technologies, it is almost impossible to recycle them.
More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tons, are floating in the world’s oceans and causing damage throughout the food chain, according to new research by the 5 Gyres Institute — but that is apparently a drop in the bucket compared to the amount littering the ocean floor.Data collected by scientists from the United States, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand estimates a minimum of 5.25 trillion plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “microplastics,” measuring less than 5mm.
Waste Management’s just-released 2014 Sustainability Report, Creating a Circular Economy, documents the company’s progress on recycling, energy production, transforming waste into valuable resources and helping businesses move toward zero waste.“As our customers have become more focused on waste reduction, so have we,” said David Steiner, Waste Management’s president and CEO. “By finding new ways of extracting value from the materials we manage, we’re making advancements toward our long-term business strategy, and helping others do the same.”
Nestlé, Kraft Foods and Mondelez International are helping fund a new commercial-scale recycling plant that can turn old toothpaste tubes into aluminum and fuel in only three minutes.This type of plastic-aluminum laminate waste, often used in drink pouches and pet food packaging, typically ends up in the landfill. Each year, around 16,000 tons of aluminum is wasted in the UK alone.To address this waste problem, researchers at the University of Cambridge have been exploring how laminate packaging would react to intense heating, called microwave-induced pyrolysis.
One out of five (20 percent) of Americans will forgo wrapping holiday gifts this year to reduce holiday waste, according to a new survey from ecoATM, a nationwide network of device recycling kiosks.More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they will reuse gift wrapping, ribbon and gift bags from previous holidays. Some 17 percent plan to use newspaper or other recycled paper to wrap gifts. Almost three quarters (74 percent) plan to do something this season to reduce their waste.
VWR, provider of laboratory products, services and solutions, has launched a new recycling initiative that allows U.S. customers to recycle a variety of single-use garments.Through "Gown Up, Give Back”, VWR hopes to help reduce the millions of pounds of single-use garments sent to the landfill each year. The plastic waste from these garments is recycled into resin that is used to make permanent infrastructure, including composite decking, railroad ties and drainage pipes. The recycling program provides a waste collection, shipment and recycling solution for most single-use garments as long as they are free from contamination and purchased from VWR.