Impressions from this shallow dive:
- Some things are far better to recycle than others
- We should consider full costs (production and disposal) in whether to recycle or not, which probably involves some economic modifications on the present system.
- There are some tractable changes which could be implemented more widely, such as increasing waste collection services and increasing the spread of landfill technology.
- It seems like something which could benefit from much better international practice. It's possible this is something better suited to a large multilateral organisation's scope. In some ways EA is itself a large, multilateral organisation though, so maybe it’s not out of our scope.
Why don't EAs care more about what we leave behind? I have an underdeveloped wondering whether waste is a neglected cause area. I can think of impacts on equity, the long term, biosecurity and health, not to mention wild animal welfare.
Why waste?
Waste management and recycling programs are suboptimal in many countries, and where they are adequate (high income countries) they are still often ad hoc, with less desirable recyclables shifted to the global south to recycle. I’m Australian, we do this, and have a big issue with domestic recycling since China stopped accepting our recycling exports. International trade in waste products adds lots of miles to waste which could be managed in their countries of origin. Managing it better would have environmental, health and economic benefits, particularly in resource limited settings. I imagine one of the simplest improvements we could have made 50 years ago would be reducing plastic use. Wouldn’t it make sense to try and reverse this and other potential waste headaches of the future now?
Previous investigations
From reading EA Forum I can find the following summaries, which I have read and considered:
- Daniel Freidrich’s post on waste & resource scarcity argument as it relates to existential risk
- Sahron Ngaya’s effective E waste management in African countries
- Rob Wiblin’s discussion on waste. I broadly agree with the assessment, but think some arguments, e.g. about individuals reducing consumption and using reusable things are outdated.
Reasons why this might be justifiably not an EA priority (feedback welcomed).
- Not neglected enough - there’s a UN-brokered plastic pollution reduction treaty which might become legally binding in 2024. There are successful bans in 99 countries to reduce single use plastics.
- Perhaps it isn’t tractable enough, as environmental campaigns would have presumably seized upon the easy changes.
- Doesn’t represent enough of an X risk, due to similar arguments from climate change
Some ideas to address this issue (feedback welcomed)
- Better cost benefit assessment of the area to consider the full cost of metals and other very effectively recycled materials. For example, rare earth metals mining which is not only carbon intensive to refine, but has a very limited supply chain that is leaving countries very open to volatility (not just in an economic sense, but exposed to technological shocks if conflict arises).
- E-waste recycling (particularly salvaging working metal parts when the issue is, say a battery or the device is just outdated)
- Research into construction materials and their recycling, especially concrete, and whether subsidy/taxation is needed to change practices
- Policy work extending producer responsibility in places where it doesn’t exist yet (i.e. making producers pay for a portion of waste management)
- Expanding best-practice landfill technology (including methane capture) to places with large landfills
- Capture of wastewater during droughts using different technologi(see Bradshaw, J.L., Ashoori, N., Osorio, M., Luthy, R.G.’s 2019 article)
- Nuclear waste (I don’t know much about this at all)
Please tell me your thoughts, I am no expert in this area (at all). Thanks!
Container-deposit legislation seems like existing policy to investigate strengthening:
https://slate.com/technology/2013/08/bottle-deposit-should-keep-up-with-inflation-time-to-raise-fee-from-a-nickel-to-30-cents.html
Do you mean it seems like it is existing policy or that strengthening it should be investigated?