Beyond recycling: the cost of avoidable waste
‘Seriously?’
That was my response to being asked to write an article on the theme ‘Not recycling is better’. Just when everyone is becoming increasingly aware of the need to recycle as much as possible? And companies are making huge investments to make that possible?
But my doubt was not justified—not at all. What is sometimes forgotten is that recycling processes also release CO2, which means we should avoid unnecessary recycling.
An example is avoidable production waste in the packaging and printing industry: unused packaging materials and printed matter that never reaches the consumer due to production defects. Much of this waste is avoidable, but because it is recycled (good job!), it doesn’t seem to bother us.
Recycling – magic word to justify unnecessary waste?
Of course, I started writing the article. The challenge was: How do you get such a message across? How do you shake up producers and help them avoid unnecessary costs and environmental impact? By showing what happens in words and pictures: not producing a saleable product but paying for recycling, loss of materials and production time, and unnecessary CO2 emissions, illustrated with a collage of the precious materials that go straight into the bin and burden the environment.
And, how do you prevent that unnecessary production waste? You can read about that in the original post.
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