The ‘age of the consumer’ dawned shortly after World War II. The depression was over; the war was won. Servicemen came back from overseas and began families. Happy times were here again and optimism reigned.
Americans generated about 2.6 pounds of waste per person daily in 1960. By 2018, that had almost doubled to 5 pounds per person. And the same thing happened with industrial, institutional, and business waste.
As a result severe environmental issues began emerging as early as the 1960’s. Mountains of garbage grew, and piles of discarded tires began catching on fire. Greenhouse gas emissions rose and air quality suffered from waste incineration. It was clear that we needed better waste management.
In response, society focused on recycling as a solution, but reduce and reuse were largely ignored. Widespread recycling programs emerged in the early 1980’s to address the paper, glass bottles, tin cans and steel products within existing waste streams. Curbside bins and recycling depots became common.
People learned about recycling, and liked it.
But the focus on recycling overshadowed other important aspects of sustainable living – reducing consumption and reusing items. We have less reuse happening in 2023 than we did in 1960. We now realize that recycling by itself is not the solution. Recycling can only account for approximately
60-70% of residential waste – we need to rethink our approach to include ALL three R’s: Reduce AND Reuse AND Recycle.
iWastenot Systems has been working on how to encourage and facilitate reduce-reuse-recycle since 2003. Our material exchanges help people find new homes for used materials that still have life in them. Our Recyclopedias go beyond recycling and also include ways to reduce and reuse.
Our ReCap system helps recapture valuable surplus goods for reuse within an organization.
The next Norm’s Notes will focus on some of the tools and services that we provide to encourage and facilitate reuse in Colleges & Universities (as well as other new products in development).
Until next time,
Norm