Materials and Waste

The price of green energy | DW Documentary

Electric vehicles, wind and solar power: The age of fossil fuels is grinding to a halt. At the same time, demand for other raw materials is rising. It’s a billion-dollar business, with serious environmental consequences.

These days, rare-earth metals like graphite, copper and lithium are key components in many hi-tech products. These include not just smartphones and laptops, but electric vehicles and wind power plants, as well. Despite being key to an environmentally-friendlier future, the extraction process for these rare metals often completely fails to take into account workers’ health and safety or basic environmental standards.

China is a market leader in the mining and trading of rare-earth metals. The negative consequences can be seen in places like the province of Heilongjiang. Here, toxic residues from the graphite extraction process can be found several kilometers from the graphite mines. Copper and lithium, used in the production of batteries, are mined on a huge scale in Chile and Bolivia.

The global trade in raw materials is a burgeoning billion-dollar business. But reserves are finite. That’s why consumption should be reduced and recycling quotas for these sought-after resources increased.

Zero Waste Industry.

So much of the zero-waste movement is caught up in consumerism

American Way

I am often appalled by the embrace of consumerism by the zero waste movement — the bamboo tooth brushes, the metal straws, the compostable and organic products — that are hallmarks of the industry movement. Rather then a focus on reducing consumption, making do with what you have, saving and investing, buying in bulk and with less packaging.

From Farm to Trash

A picture of a styrofoam egg carton that blew away from the barn. We reuse old egg cartons at our farm for the sale of eggs, as new egg cartons are expensive, and a waste of resources to keep sending them to the landfill.

Taken on Tuesday January 16, 2007 at Trash.

A Short History of Packaging Innovation – Waste & Recycling

A Short History of Packaging Innovation – Waste & Recycling

Examining historical methods of managing waste can inspire and inform modern day packaging innovations that prevent waste from entering a landfill. In North America during the 1880s, most packaging was reused. Broken packaging was mended or transformed into new products. For example, a barrel might be transformed into a chair. Previous generations conserved and reused materials, and thus produced less waste