Supporting a Circular Economy with effective Waste Management
What we do with the waste we create in our day-to-day lives is a matter of considerable importance. For instance, according to figures released in May 2023, the European Union produces over 2.2 billion tonnes of waste every year. That’s the equivalent of about 22,000 fully loaded US aircraft carriers.
Given such numbers, it’s not hard to see why concepts like sustainability and public campaigns along the lines of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle have become the focus of economies and governments across the world. One goal that is increasingly at the forefront of this area is that of the ‘circular economy’.
But what is a circular economy, why is it such an important concept, and how can responsible waste management help us to achieve it? In this article, the CSH Environmental team is digging deep into this increasingly urgent subject.
What is a circular economy?
In the traditional linear – or throwaway – economy, it was all about taking what we needed, making something out of it, using that something and then throwing it away again. At its most cynical level, this approach to manufacturing even had the concept of ‘planned obsolescence’ built in, so that many of the products we bought were actively designed with a limited lifespan so that we would have to buy more.
Circularity in the economic sense refers to the process by which we reuse resources as much as possible in order to reduce waste and limit the amount of new raw materials that we need to extract from the planet. By extending the life of our products, materials and resources, we don’t just help to protect the planet, we can also create new jobs built on a sustainable economic model of reuse, recycle and repair.
Why is a circular economy important?
Quite simply, if we don’t adopt a circular approach to our economy, we risk putting our planet’s whole future in jeopardy. We’re already seeing the damaging effects of industrialisation and unrestricted use of the Earth’s natural resources in the form of climate change, with dire predictions from scientists of what may follow if we don’t change course.
By making a circular economy a key part of its vision for the future, the EU is aiming to:
- Better protect the environment
- Reduce our dependence on new raw materials
- Create new jobs and save consumers money
- Reduce landscape and habitat disruption
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Reduce packaging waste
- Boost innovation
- And much more
Best practices for sustainable waste management
In an ideal world, companies would automatically adopt the most sustainable ways of working in order to protect the precious resources we have left. Unfortunately, competition will often drive those who want to get an edge to adopt the least costly or the least time-consuming methods – regardless of their ultimate cost to the planet.
For that reason, we need to make extra efforts to encourage them to behave in a responsible way.
In 2021, the EU adopted a resolution to aim for a fully circular economy by 2050, with measures that include:
- Tighter recycling rules
- Binding targets for the use and consumption of materials
- Reducing plastic packaging
- Sustainable product design
- Creating a ‘right to repair’ for consumers
Legislation is one way of encouraging businesses to operate more sustainably, but a punitive system is not necessarily the best way to get them on board with acting in the way they should. For that reason, perhaps making responsible waste disposal easier is the best approach to take.
And that’s where waste management companies like CSH Environmental come in.
How does CSH Environmental support a circular economy?
Here at CSH Environmental, we’re committed to supporting local businesses in our area in their attempts to manage their waste in a responsible way that maximises sustainability, protects the environment and cuts the amount of waste going to landfill to the absolute minimum.
In 2023, we were proud to divert more than 99.8% of the waste that we collected away from landfill. That means we are getting ever closer to our ultimate goal of ‘Zero to landfill’. View our waste figures to discover the range of materials we collect and how successful we are in supporting the reuse and recycling of thousands of tonnes of waste.
Find out more about responsible waste management solutions from CSH Environmental by getting in touch with us today.
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