I don’t know about you but this is a problem evident in my home as I am sure it is for many of you. Our apartment’s storage locker has a growing pile of discarded electronics including a netbook, digital projector, electronic writing board, several hard drives for which I have no use, modems, range extenders and cables. And here in the den where I do most of my writing, a discarded Chromebook sits abandoned on a shelf, while several old mobile phone models are stashed in a desk drawer. When we move sometime next year I will need to clear out all these items and bring them to a special electronic waste disposal site and who knows what will happen to them after that. It seems like such a waste.
That’s why this topic is an important one and I thank Christy for offering it to us to publish here. If you have similar tales or would like to comment please feel free to do so at the bottom of this web page.
According to a report by the United Nations of the 53.6 million tons of discarded electronic gadgets, only 17.4% were recycled. Digital waste is a significant source of environmental pollution causing potential health problems in adults and children exposed to the materials contained within them. And as consumers upgrade electronic devices and throw away old ones every year smartphones, computers, and laptops are ending up in landfills.
Today, many organizations are raising awareness about digital waste. Businesses are starting to take steps to recycle their old electronics properly. Why? Because digital can have damaging impacts on the environment.
Here are some reasons why you should focus on the problem right now.
Can we implement e-waste recycling and reduce its growth? What would the world accomplish by implementing such strategies? Most of us when buying electronics don’t consider the long-term effects of these purchases. It is why digital waste ends up in landfills domestically or abroad. But the cost to the environment is significant and that’s why governments and non-profits are actively seeking to implement recovery, refurbishment, and reuse programs.
If you are not familiar with the term, the circular economy, it very much describes the digital waste paradigm being described here. Circular economies look at products and services from sourcing to end-of-life and develop strategies to optimize the use of resources to eliminate waste. Circular economies are all about sustainability and achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
As we direct our global efforts to mitigate climate change, rethinking digital waste within the context of circular economic principles makes sense. Companies and industries that source materials by upcycling old or used items to create new products are following these principles.
]]>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is empowering the new Industrial Revolution, one based on sustainability with energy efficiency, waste reduction, and green material application to all processes from material sourcing to the end-user customer experience.
Manufacturing business processes lend themselves to the use of AI tools. As use cases for the technology expand, we are beginning to get a clear picture of how AI is improving all facets of manufacturing.
Applying AI can lead to efficiencies from data collection to management decision-making. The top e-commerce manufacturing trends include companies being able to shift with the constantly changing landscape whether it be at the supply end or in customer interactions.
So where does sustainability fit in? A good example is Uptake, a Chicago-based company that develops AI software for manufacturers and other industries to study the amassed data of these businesses and make suggestions on how to holistically improve operations from reducing energy costs, and carbon footprint, while optimizing labour and product quality.
Industrial waste produces as much as 50% of the world’s garbage. Applying AI tools can offer insights, data organization, and analysis, to allow factories to implement smart zero-waste policies and procedures.
For Subaru of Indiana, the company has already achieved a zero-landfill status by reducing, reusing, and recycling the waste it produces. Using AI to categorize all materials that go into manufacturing and ensure they can find a new purpose, produces patterns that can lead to the implementation of closed-system circular processes that eliminate waste and recycle where possible.
Reducing waste is a key strategy in moving towards a net-zero future. It is also critical to any new green business. So what makes a business green? One that combines economic sustainability with social justice principles that include living wages, benefits, and labour inclusivity in the operations and decision-making of the company. Applying AI tools can help management see the whole enterprise more clearly through data mining, seeing trends, and making suggestions for overall process improvements.
Alternative, renewable materials are important components of truly sustainable manufacturing. This means biodegradable plastics and parts that require fewer non-renewable elements in their construction. In many cases, implementing alternative materials in manufacturing is only possible with the help of AI.
Alloys that are stronger and better for the environment than metals and plastics exist. However, finding the right combinations of these materials can be incredibly difficult. Researchers using AI at the SLAC, National Accelerator Laboratory for example have been using machine learning to find replacement materials at a 200 times faster rate than by conventional experimentation. They have been able to produce metallic glass that is stronger, harder, and more corrosion-resistant than steel.
These are just three of the ways AI can improve the sustainability efforts of manufacturers around the world. Because AI operates on data analysis, the number of innovations it can produce is virtually unlimited. As scientists and manufacturing professionals continue to team up on creating efficient alternatives through AI, we can count on a cleaner and less wasteful world.
If you are a manufacturer reading this posting, you can enjoy the many benefits of sustainable manufacturing through AI-powered insights. Integrating these tools can help to create savings and efficiencies to take your business into the future, all while making the world a better place for future generations.
]]>So what is it? If you are anything like me you may have accumulated quite a trove of digital devices that have outlived their use.
When I got Jenna’s article I took a look around in our home to take an e-waste inventory and discovered my wife has almost every cell phone she ever acquired from clamshells to smartphones. I, too, have some lying unused in my desk drawers. In our basement storage locker in the apartment building, we have a router, a range extender, a working micro-laptop, an electronic writing to digital text tablet, and an old but still serviceable audiovisual projector. All of these items take up space and fill a large sealed tub. I don’t need them but don’t know what to do with them. I know there are e-waste depots here in Toronto but all these devices still work. I just don’t have a use for them anymore now that we have downsized and I have retired from consulting.
Feeling like a packrat with all these devices made me wonder how others are handling their obsolete or discarded digital technology. I went online to find out just how much is out there. The World Counts website states “we generate about 50 million tons of it every year. This is equivalent to throwing out 1000 laptops every single second.” That’s an astounding amount. So with no further ado, I give you Jenna’s look at e-waste and what we can do about it.
Recycling is a major factor in the push for sustainability and green living. In recent years, you may have heard the term e-waste in discussions about recycling. If you’re not sure what it means, you’re not alone. E-waste is simply electronic waste. It can include anything from cell phones to laptops to refrigerators and more. Anything with an electrical aspect to it can become e-waste.
The problem lies with its handling. Recycling e-waste comes with a whole set of issues but there are ways to combat this environmental threat.
E-waste affects the environment in numerous ways from the presence of toxic materials and pollutants within it to its transportation.
Producing electronics relies on the mining of materials such as gold, silver, platinum, lithium and more. In extracting these raw materials there are process byproducts including toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Lead and mercury are among these.
The housings of electronic devices are often manufactured using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic which in itself can prove to be hazardous in disposal.
Most electronic e-waste ends up in landfill where it breaks apart over time exposing the toxic materials inside to pollute the air, ground and water supply. This type of pollution produces many different health risks for people let alone harm to the environment.
Some e-waste gets incinerated which can also be a source of airborne toxins and emissions.
And some is recycled to prevent some of these risks. But even in recycling, there are problems because most of these operations take place overseas.
Many countries in the Developed World export their e-waste to the Developing World. The practice has environmental consequences releasing greenhouse gas emissions during transportation and if recycled can release toxins into the environment. Workers in some Developing World countries often attempt to refurbish and sell salvageable e-waste but in the process they are exposed to dangerous chemicals and substances during the sorting process.
Then there is the issue of e-waste containing digital content that has not been removed by former owners potentially creating security issues and identity theft.
You can no longer separate technology from your life, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The e-waste that is a byproduct of our technology dependence, however, is something that human society has to consider as we continue to be lured into buying a growing number of new devices. It seems that one can never keep up with the latest smartphone model with all of its bells and whistles making the device you already own seem obsolete when in fact it isn’t.
Manufacturers feed the demand by shortening the life cycle of their products. It often becomes easier to replace a device rather than repair it, and manufacturers making fixes more expensive than buying something new.
Raising awareness is an important first step. Consumers have a say and can let manufacturers know that e-waste is a problem for which they need to participate in finding solutions. That means improving production methods, replacing harmful materials in manufacturing with eco-friendly ones. And it means recycling e-waste has to be built into the product lifecycle.
Standard recycling is a beneficial way to help the environment. E-waste recycling is no different with those who do it implementing safety precautions and the wearing of protective gear during disassembly, cleaning, and sorting for material recovery. This type of recycling needs to be adopted globally to be effective and brings us to the issue of product lifecycle management.
The concept known as the circular economy is built around an industrial model involving not just material sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution, but also in the managing of a product after it is no longer being used. It is a solution that has become a growing practice for waste management and the electronics industry. In a circular economy, 100% of the materials going into a product get reused reducing waste and pollution significantly.
Today, there is a disproportionate gap between what society produces and what it discards and e-waste is no exception. This, however, is changing as more manufacturers and waste management companies adopt circular economy principles within their operations. The mantra is repair, reuse, remanufactured and refurbish with non-recyclable and single-use materials being removed from production processes.
The growing demand for new technology is not going to slow down. So the future of e-waste will require a revolutionary change. A move by manufacturers to a circular economy offers a sustainable model for recycling and reuse. And finally, each of us individually, by changing what and when we buy, can save the environment from piling up an increasing amount of e-waste.
]]>The deal will have a consortium of companies processing 500,000 tons of municipal waste and 200,000 tons of construction and demolition waste annually beginning in 2020, to provide heating to the city of Belgrade, and reducing natural gas consumption from the city’s largest thermal-energy plant by 80% during the cold season. It will also lead to the closure of a 40-hectare (98-acre) active landfill site, one of the 50 largest in the world.
3-Stage Membrane for Biogas Upgrading Plants Coming to New York State
A Dutch company, Bright Biomethane, is upgrading biogas produced from manure in Upstate New York. The gas will be compressed and then injected into pipelines to be used to generate energy. The 3-step membrane technology provides maximum methane (CH4) recover exceeding 99.5%.
Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade Backs Plastic Waste to Hydrogen Tech
A United Kingdom-based company, Powerhouse Energy, is bringing is DMG process to Japan, a method to convert plastic waste to hydrogen to generate electricity. Under the name Waste2Tricity, the goal will be to create a zero-carbon emitting energy source while removing waste plastic from the environment. Japan is currently investing in the development of a Road Map for Hydrogen Infrastructure.
First Large-Scale Organic Waste to Energy Facility to Go-Ahead in New Zealand
New Zealand is launching its first large-scale waste-to-energy plant to take food waste and turn it into renewable biogas energy. The energy derived will be used to power greenhouses as well as New Zealand homes. The government noted that every year 327,000 tons of food waste enters landfill sites in the country. By turning it into biogas, it is hoped it can help lower overall national carbon emissions. The Reporoa Organic Waste Recovery Facility will receive its first supply of organic waste from a neighbouring greenhouse tomato grower, amounting to 1,000 tons of tomato vines per year. The facility’s capacity is 20,000 tons annually and should be more than adequately supplied by neighbouring dairy processors, commercial bakeries, milk sheds, and fruit grading facilities.
The world of waste management these days talks about the circularity gap. The gap is defined as the delta between what our modern society creates and discards, and what can be achieved by repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling. This is what is meant by a circular economy arguing that climate change and material use are inheritably linked. It is estimated that 62% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, not including what is produced from land use and forestry, comes from the extraction, processing, and manufacturing of what we consume. The remaining 38% of GHG emissions come during delivery and use. That’s why the waste management world is gung-ho about altering our existing economic paradigm – reducing dependence on new extraction of resources by reusing what is already in our hands, and ensuring that any residual waste products can also be repurposed. In this way, economic growth no longer has to be tied to rising carbon emissions.
The C40 cities group, of which I have written often in the past, (just type “C40” in the site search window to find currently, 16 different articles) currently has 94 members. And they are into a zero-waste initiative in which city members have pledged:
The actions that C40 members have agreed to achieve the above three milestones include:
For local readers of this blog, Toronto is a C40 city. Are we living up to the C40 circular economy pledge?
In its latest email, the publishers of Waste Management World note that with much of Europe gripped by an unprecedented heatwave, “there’s no better time to reflect on the consequences of global warming” and how the waste management industry can help to significantly reduce GHG emissions to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.
“Letting nothing go to waste,” and “no time to waste” should be humanity’s marching orders.
But much of what we recycle does not get sold and ends up in long-term storage or in landfill. There is an enormous cost to building this recycling infrastructure. What if we could find another way to extract the value of recyclables from the waste stream without all of the collecting, sorting and storage? That’s what waste-to-resource technology is all about.
In the last week Wood Buffalo, Alberta, announced an initiative to convert waste into resources without recycling. Residents will place all materials in regular garbage for pickup. Instead of cleaning off the residue from metal cans after emptying them, residents will just throw them in the trash with everything else. No sorting, no separating required.
When collected the residual organic material within the garbage will be converted to energy through gasification and the metal from the can will be recovered. Combustible material will be converted to energy. This will eliminate the need for landfill sites permanently. In Northern Canada, landfill is even a bigger problem than in the South. Winter freezes and permafrost make developing garbage storage sites environmentally challenging.
Wood Buffalo is one of those northern municipalities. Located in northeastern Alberta, the area encompasses 68,454 square kilometers (26,430 square miles). This makes it one of the largest regional municipalities in North America containing within its area 11 towns, from Fort Fitzgerald in the north to Fort McMurray, in the centre and Conklin in the south. The total population in 2010 was 104,338 with 75% living in Fort McMurray, the heart of the oil sands.
The waste-to-resource technology announcement appeared in a special report entitled “The Future of the Oil Sands” published in The Globe & Mail, one of Canada’s national newspapers.
Is this more about public relations? Is this just a cleverly designed incineration process? Or does the project actually produce a net technology gain while improving the environmental impact of our throw away society?
