Waste-Resource Marketplaces
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Although, it is important to reduce the amount of generated waste in order to decrease the related environmental impacts like soil and water contamination, air pollution, appropriate waste management, recycling, reuse of waste also have remarkable role in this fight. Waste can be exported and imported, thus, they can be considered as goods which is traded across borders and represents value. We can use waste, for example, to produce heat or electricity.
Description
In total, we generated 5.2 billion tonnes of waste in the EU in 2018 from food, construction, industry, mining, electric devices, batteries, old vehicles furniture, clothes, etc. While construction and quarrying had a significant share (35.9% and 26.6%), households were responsible for 8.2% of the total amount. As the number of one-person households are growing, the amount of generated waste by households is also increasing. Recycling, backfilling and energy recovery are among the most common recovery operations in waste treatment.
We should change our perspective and see unused waste as a potential loss. Waste can be a valuable resource which is simply not in the right place. Nowadays, we can find organizations who are specialised in matching recyclers and secondary material users to companies. They have the relevant knowledge on circular waste management and use AI supported IT infrastructure. The so-called “waste to resource marketplaces” help resources be treated correctly and facilitate the expansion of markets for circular products. Urban waste collection and management should also offer such services. Initiations related to waste-resource marketplaces can bring together all the actors supporting co-creation, reuse, repair, recycling, thus, save energy and water, and reduce the amount of raw materials used for production of new goods. By reducing the amount of waste ending up in landfills, we can reduce methane and CO2 emissions, too.
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