Waste is a universal problem, and some innovations are helping to solve it
Reduce, reuse and recycle. These three words are essential to the growing waste problem. However, recycling may be another problem.
Recycling: What’s the Problem?
When John Stossel interviewed some people, most of them believed that recycling would save the planet. He admits that recycling paper and cardboard saves trees, and recycling aluminum saves energy. However, other materials are probably not going to be recycled. For example, huge amounts of the materials sent to Eureka Recycling will not be recycled.
Plastic is the worst for recycling. Problems arise everywhere, from plastic bags clogging machines, making workers unclog them using box cutters for hours, to fake recycling signs. Not only that but only about five to nine percent of plastic is recycled.
What’s the Solution to Recycling?
According to PBS Terra, there are solutions to all of the waste problems, including landfills and food waste.
The Apex landfill is one of the largest landfills in the world. Though it has used a lot of space, mountains around the landfills are being dug underground, creating enough space for the landfill. It should be estimated to last 300 more years. Though trash can be piled up for a very long time, methane emissions would be through the roof. So, they used 160 wells to take in all that methane, purify it, burn it to spin turbines and create energy. This powers 11,000 homes in southern Nevada. The total amount of energy generated through trash annually can power up to 1 million homes!
Trash is not the only problem with waste. Food waste is a growing problem as Las Vegas has many buffets, which produce a lot of that waste. Humans enjoy the buffets, and so do the hogs at the Las Vegas Livestock Farm. Hank Combs, the co-owner of Las Vegas Livestock, has said that not many farmers have hogs because of the amount of feed needed. To solve the food waste and feed problems, they put them together. They take in 40,000 pounds, or 18,140 kilograms, of food waste per day. All of the food waste goes into giant cookers to make it safe for the hogs to eat. The stew is given to the hogs to eat, solving both problems easily.
These solutions will not work everywhere in the world. Developing countries around the world do not have this kind of technology. It will be very difficult for them to use these specific solutions. However, some young innovators are working to make an impact on the worldwide problem.
Innovations
According to Business Insider, eight young founders have used trash to help solve the pollution problem.
In Kenya, Nzambi Matee is the founder of Gjenge Makers. Nzambi’s team uses plastic to create bricks for roads. They pulverize the plastics into small pieces, mix them, feed the plastics into the extruder, create a dough-like substance, mold the brick, use a hydraulic press to create the shape, dry the bricks and break the jagged edges. This innovation may be very important in the future, as it is as strong as concrete while being 25 percent cheaper than concrete, selling one pallet for 150 dollars. Nzambi wants her business to grow, as the plastic waste problem is not just their local problem.
On the other hand, in India, Ashay Bhave launched Daily, a shoe-making company. In India, there are plastic bags everywhere, but Bhave was having difficulty getting these materials. So, the company partnered with another company that takes all materials that can be recycled. Then, Daily takes all of the plastic bags they can find, washes them with pure water, dries them, cuts them, compresses them and creates shoes with them. Each pair of shoes takes up ten plastic bags and twelve bottles. All materials for the shoes are made from plastic, and they recycle almost everything. Shoes that have been worn and have been given back to the company will be refurbished and donated to charities and refugee camps.
In Louisiana, Franziska Trautmann started Glass Half Full with her boyfriend in February 2020. They started with an idea to recycle bottles because of the sand shortage, and that was it. They had no experience with recycling bottles. So, they raised 18,000 dollars to buy a bottle crusher, which only crushed one bottle at a time. Now, they have a much bigger crusher and have saved 4 million beer bottles worth of glass from landfills in two years. They collect about sixteen metric tons of glass per week. They take all of the glass except for specific colored glass into their landfill. Then, they scoop them up, put the glass into the crusher and sift it into five different sizes. The biggest glass pieces will be sold to buyers as gravel. The smallest glass pieces will be used for sandbags for free, as Louisiana is prone to flooding. The middle-size glass pieces will be used for coastal reservations since they are not sharp at all. They are not 100% sure if the glass is edible for animals. However, since Franziska’s dog came out fine after devouring their sand, it may be possible for animals to eat the sand produced from the glass bottles.
Instead of glass, Mo’s Crib in Africa uses PVC pipes to create high-end home goods. Morongwe and Moshibudi partnered with a pipe company to receive broken or damaged pipes. They are softened with an open flame. The company said that in 2023, they will use an enclosed oven as the softening process can release dangerous chemicals. The softened pipes are then cut into long, thin strips. To create a basket, they first create the form of the basket. Then, they add the strips, finally finishing the basket in one to three hours. Because of an increase in demand, they had to do something to use the PVC pipes that were not the correct thickness. To make more of their products, they partnered with another company to change the thickness of the other pipes to the correct thickness for them. Now, they also use natural plants from different parts of Africa. They hire 100 part-time artisans to create the home goods out of materials from nature.
In Sierra Leone, Alhaji Siraj Bah founded Rugsal Trading for a few reasons. First, he wanted to become an entrepreneur, trying to relieve his mother’s stress after losing his father. So, he went to Freetown without thinking about who would take care of him, who would feed him, or other important questions. He spent his life on the streets for four years before being adopted. After seven to eight months, his adoptive family died in a mudslide. Mudslides are caused by deforestation, as there are no roots to hold the ground. So he saved money for his machines, perfected his recipe and started creating briquettes from coconut shells. Coconut shells were usually waste that had to be paid to get rid of. Alhaji took away these coconut shells for free, collecting 2 metric tons of coconut waste per week. The company first cleans the shells, dries the shells for about a week, fires them inside a steel drum, pulverizes the shells into a fine powder, adds water with a secret ingredient, binds everything together, puts the shells into an extruder, pushing out slimy rectangular logs, dries them and delivers the finished product. Rugsal Trading can produce about half a metric ton of briquettes a day.
In Alberta, Canada, two brothers, Adrian and Martinus, create furniture and bowls out of busted skateboards. As skateboarders themselves, they saw how many trashed skateboards there were in landfills. So, they use those busted skateboards to create something beautiful. First, they get around 55 busted skateboards each month from skateboard shops. Then, they take off the grip tape. After that, they get the boards back down to bare wood. They gut the boards into their relative parts. They use those pieces to create bowls, jewelry, tables and more. Martinus makes about 70 bowls a year, each costing almost 400 dollars!
What These Innovations Have in Common
Most of these innovations are from developing countries. If developed countries find a solution to some types of waste and help developing countries solve the waste problem the developed countries have solved, waste could be a smaller problem. But, there are other factors to put in, such as the amount of jobs that these innovations make, the amount of money made and the products that are produced. So, what should everyone try to do?
What Should We Do?
Waste may be inevitable. However, as the world population grows, waste will increase. To solve the problem, there are two steps to take. First, fewer products should be produced and used. That way, we can reduce the amount of waste produced. Second, more innovators should start to think big and try to reuse all of the waste humans have and will make. Taking these two steps can create jobs, create more products, reduce waste, reduce poverty and bring many more benefits. These two steps may be the only way to stop the growing waste problem.