Worldwide, humans generate two billion tonnes of waste every year.
Since there are around eight billion of us on this planet, that’s 250 kilograms of waste annually for each and every one of us — 44 per cent is organic (banana peels, rotting fruit, fat trimmings, etc), 17 per cent is paper and cardboard, 12 per cent is plastics, five per cent is glass, four per cent is metal and 18 per cent is “other.”
That comes to 4.8 kilograms of waste each week. People in wealthy countries produce 34 per cent of this waste – but we are just 16 per cent of world population.
On the other hand, wealthy countries developed systems for collecting waste. In developing countries, I have often seen plastic bags blowing in the wind and caught in tree branches. Rigid plastic and metal containers are generally reused until damaged.
Plastic bags too are sometimes reused. Nairobi, Kenya’s famous “flying toilets” are secondhand bags used for defecation and then thrown away. (My household has several uses for used plastic bags.)
In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD – rich country “club”), 60 per cent of collected plastics are recycled. However, just 15 per cent of recyclable plastics are collected. So, only nine per cent (60 per cent x 15 per cent = nine per cent) of plastics sold into the market are recycled.
Waste generation and recycling rates vary widely within Canada. Nova Scotia generates the least waste and has the best recycling record; Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are worst on both counts. Ontario is slightly better than the Canadian average.
With a diversion rate of 47 per cent (2020), the City of Barrie compares well against other Ontario municipalities (average 43 per cent), according to the Resource Productivity & Recovery Authority.
Metals, largely steel and aluminum containers are dealt with well. They are melted and reappear as new metal. (Attached labels, paint, food, etc. burn off during melting, preventing contamination.)
Plastics are harder to recycle. Far too little plastic is re-made into new materials. Collected plastics are dirty. Contaminants (food, labels, etc.) create imperfections in products made from molten plastic. Cosmetic imperfections might be acceptable, but bottles or bags with holes are unsalable. One product which can be made of retrieved plastics is “lumber,” but its price is far higher than the wooden lumber it competes with.
Plastics are polymers made of millions of small units (monomers) chemically linked together. Heated strongly in the absence of oxygen (to prevent combustion), they break up into their original monomers. These monomers are gases like propane or ethane (natural gas) which are collected, leaving impurities behind.
New polymers can be formed from these (cleaned) monomers. Indistinguishable from virgin plastics, this is the best way to recycle polymers. However, it is costly and seldom used because the final product would be uncompetitive in the market.
Waste materials which are not collected and properly dumped become trapped in gullies or trees, or may be discharged to the sea. Metal corrosion takes 50 to 200 years. Degradation of plastics takes hundreds of years, depending on the type of polymer and where they end up.
More worryingly, as they degrade, bottles and bags become microplastics (tiny polymer shards). These wash into surface waters, are ingested, and enter animals’ bodies. Although plastics are chemically inert, their accumulation may have effects on the animal. We can be sure these effects will not be beneficial.
Natural materials like paper, cotton, wool, leather, etc., biodegrade rapidly (within a year).
Organics (food waste) used to be dumped in landfill (some still are) along with other waste. Some municipalities collect organics separately and “compost” them.
Barrie sends our “green-bin” waste to Arthur, 110 kilometres away, where it simply “rots” into carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), which are released into air. (Both are greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.) Over two decades, this has created the “Arthur Alps” – perhaps a future ski hill.
Trucking our organic waste 110 kilometres (220-kilometre round trip) represents a lot of fuel burned and CO2 emitted. It is also a waste of resources. That solid organic waste could have yielded CH4 which would have been burned to generate electricity.
Organic waste can be digested under anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions. This yields CO2 and CH4, the latter of which can be burned for energy. Barrie’s sewage treatment plant generates enough CH4 that way to supply most of its energy (heat and electricity) needs. Some landfills are sealed and collect CH4 (and odours) to generate electricity. Our solid organics should be treated the same way.
Some jurisdictions incinerate waste for energy. This is common in Europe where dump sites are scarce. Ultra-efficient energy capture from incineration is possible in Europe. Many cities have district heating schemes allowing them to achieve energy efficiencies above 70 per cent — far higher than a power plant without district heating could ever achieve. (That's a topic for another column.)
Unfortunately, the materials in waste streams yielding the most energy on combustion are paper and plastics. Incineration competes with recycling for the same resources. Still, the North American record on recycling and reuse is nothing to brag about. Incineration might indeed be better. After all, we too face issues finding landfill sites.
European incinerators operate at high temperatures with filters and scrubbers to remove particulates and toxics (eg: dioxins, heavy metals, soot, etc.) from their flue gases, according to a friend who toured several such installations around the Baltic Sea in May 2024.
Worldwide, metal recycling operates fairly well. Recycled steel represents 45 per cent of annual production, copper 40 per cent and aluminum 33 per cent.
As electric vehicles become common, systems will develop to recycle lithium, nickel, cobalt and other metals.
Metal recycling works because the recycled material is cost and quality competitive with metals smelted from ores.
With plastics, the reverse is true. Recycled plastics cost more than virgin polymers from petrochemicals. If worldwide carbon charges becomes high enough, recycled plastics should become more common.
But truly, we throw away far too much. In hardware stores, we buy screws, nuts and bolts in blister packs, and jettison the packaging. We buy tubes of toothpaste and immediately toss the cardboard box. Grocers sell fresh foods such as meat, and some vegetables prepackaged. We discard the packaging.
Most of our household waste is packaging. Convenient for the vendor, it’s pre-weighed and labelled with a bar code incorporating the price, plus telling head office when it is time to reorder.
A few decades ago, European consumers began to revolt. They started unpacking purchases, leaving the packaging at the checkout. Retailers complained and manufacturers rapidly minimized packaging.
Since packaging is a cost, this saved money. When I bought a refrigerator in England, it was delivered on a wooden pallet with cardboard protecting its corners and polyethylene sheet guarding its enamel surface.
The delivery lads took the packing materials away. They explained that it would return to the manufacturer for reuse. Several refrigerators would be delivered in the packaging before it was discarded.
Decades ago, various European regulations appeared to reduce waste by minimizing packaging.
When my wife and I returned to Canada 36 years ago, we were astonished by volume of garbage our neighbours left at the curb. We made an effort to further reduce the already modest amount we were discarding. We avoided overly packaged goods, and recycled carefully.
Months ago we were told Barrie’s waste collection was changing. We learned our blue and grey boxes will be replaced by wheelie bins (end of 2025), and others for garbage and organics. But we use our garage for its intended purpose – car parking. Where would those (huge) wheelie bins go?
Since the “new regime” began, we have had eight collections. Our garbage was ignored on weeks one and three. On week five, I put our garbage bag on a cardboard labelled “I am garbage. Take me please.” That week, the small bag was taken.
I thought that “fixed” the problem, but on week seven, our little bag was again ignored. Must I write the chaps a note every time? And why must I put my tiny two-litre bag into a 100-litre bin?
At the start of the blue-box scheme, we learned the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle,” also known as the Three R’s. But we only practise the last – recycle. There is pitifully little “reduction” or “reuse.” Surely, they should be first.
Instead, we are being given supersize containers. I predict many folk will simply fill them.
Consider my first sentence: “Worldwide, humans generate two billion tonnes of waste every year.” We throw this away.
We have only one planet, our home. There is no “away.”
