Global Warming

One of the leading causes of global warming on Earth is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The burning of petroleum products to produce energy is one of the major sources of these carbon molecules.

Our modern society is consuming products and energy faster than ever before. Of the vast amount of raw materials we mine, harvest, process and transport (all requiring energy), and then, manufacture and further transport (more energy), only one percent is used in products ’durable’ enough to still be in use six months later, according to the industrial ecologist Robert Ayes.

By minimising the extraction of virgin materials, by redesigning and reusing the products we manufacture, energy use and therefore carbon dioxide emissions can be radically reduced.

Recycling saves energy.
It reduces the need for energy-intensive resource extraction by reusing or recycling materials.

• Net carbon emissions are four to five time lower when materials are produced from recycled steel, copper, glass, and paper.
• They are 40 times lower for aluminium (1).
• Making one ton of aluminium cans from its virgin source, bauxite, uses 229 British thermal units (Btus).
• In contrast, producing cans from recycled aluminium uses only 8 Btus per ton, an energy savings of 96% (2).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that increasing the United States recycling rate from 28% to 35% would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.8 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE), the basic unit of measure for greenhouse gases, compared to landfilling the same material.

The EPA also estimates that by cutting the amount of waste North Americans generate back to 1990 levels, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 11.6 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE).

Together, this waste prevention and recycling would reduce emission by more than 21.4 million MTCE - an amount equal to the average annual emissions from the electricity consumption of roughly 11 million households (3).

In New Zealand we buried 3,180,000 tonnes of products, packaging and by-products in 1995 and then expected new products and packaging to be made from virgin materials to replace the ones we had disposed of. Not only does this increase the use of virgin materials and the associated energy consumption, but it also adds to the production of methane, another potent greenhouse gas.

In fact methane is 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. It is estimated that 36% of man made methane is released from landfills, during the decomposition of organic waste.

Zero waste has the potential to radically reduce energy consumption and virgin material use, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and methane emissions.

Resources

(1) EPA Climate Change Website, http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/actions/waste/whatis.html

(2) GrassRoots Recycling Network, Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 2000, Page 24.

(3) Same as (1)

Bibliography

Australian Greenhouse Office website, http://www.greenhouse.gov.au

County Environmental Quarterly, Climate Change and Solid Waste Management, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1999, National Association of Counties Research

Bill Sheehan, Zero Waste, Recycling and Climate Change, GrassRoots Recycling Network, 2000.

GrassRoots Recycling Network, Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 2000, Page 24

State & Local Climate Change Program, Statewide Recycling, January 2000

United States Environmental Protection Agency website, http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/actions/waste/whatis.html

United States Environmental Protection Agency, Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Management of Selected Materials in Municipal Solid Waste US EPA, Report EPA530-R-98-013, September 1998 http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/ghg.htm

See also Ten facts about global warming, The Kyoto Protocol