The planet is drowning in waste

The planet is being overwhelmed by waste of all kinds, from plastic bags to throwaway digital devices. Even remote areas such as Alaskan beaches, often refuges for rare species, are increasingly blighted by tonnes of indestructible   objects and harmful and unsightly refuse.

The UK produces some 228 million tonnes of waste a year. In addition to household rubbish, there are growing mountains of agricultural and industrial  waste, as well as by-products from from power generation such as toxic nuclear waste. 

The waste issue has become so serious that the government has been forced to work on a “waste prevention programme”. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is due to publish the result of a consultation this December.

The way in which leading electronic brands brazenly defy the letter and spirit of laws and regulations is a global issue. Over the last decades a new and dangerous situation has arisen as millions of digital devices are used and jettisoned after only months of use.

As electronic waste increases exponentially on a global scale, a new study from India highlights that even where rules and regulations are in place, implementing them is another matter.

The report reveals that state pollution control boards and implementing agencies have failed to put any systems in place in the two years since the rules came into force.

The way in which companies evade regulation in India is naturally as true in other countries, including Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, Ghana and Nigeria which have become dumping grounds, often from richer states, spawning an escalating e-waste crisis. 

Short Circuit, a wide-ranging report by the Gaia Foundation, documents the scale of electronic waste on a global scale. It says that what we see as “re-cycling” is in fact turned into “down-cycling”, and can give people (consumers), a “false sense of security”.

Using a Buddhist term “Bardo”, the report says that humanity is at a critical juncture and that this requires a different view of our relationship with the earth. Amongst other proposals, the report lays down some excellent strategies for “zero waste”.

These are: reducing consumption and discards; reusing discards; extended producer responsibility; comprehensive recycling; comprehensive composting or bio-digestion of organic materials; citizen participation; a ban on waste incineration; effective policies, regulations, incentives and financing

structures to support these systems.

You could add to the list by including a ban on unessential packaging and the use of non-recyclables; including waste products within the production process a whole; the phasing out of landfill as a form of waste disposal; the nature and source of materials to be labelled on all products; products to be vetted for built-in obsolescence; the standardisation of interfaces for all devices and electronic products; the re-use of materials, especially metals and minerals; and resources  allocated for training in up-cycling skills.

The speeding up of built-in obsolescence in order to increase sales is vital for corporations to generate profit as the rate of technological change increases.  It is the system of production for profit – aka capitalism – which is at the heart of the problem.

So, ascribing the root of the eco-crisis to human existence on the planet as Gaia theorists do, is seriously misguided. The capitalist system of production alienates us from nature, not our desire to consume. As the example from India shows, even with laws in place, the needs of corporate profit will trump ecologically desirable ones.

Breaking away from the lethal cycle of production for profit is the great challenge of our time. We are part of this system and consumers within it. But we have the urgent need, the right and the power - collectively to put an end to it before it ends us.

Corinna Lotz

A World to Win secretary

Plundering the planet

The battle for the planet’s dwindling resources has taken a further trade war twist with China placing limits on the export of the 17 chemical elements collectively known as “rare earths”.

These elements found near the bottom of the periodic table are absolutely crucial for manufacture of a wide range of modern technology products including superconductors, magnets used in wind turbines, catalysts for electric cars, electronic polishing for optical products, laser technology, fibre optics, cathode ray tubs, microwaves, and – less usefully perhaps – i-Phones and flat-screen TVs.

China gained a virtual monopoly of the “rare earth” market during the 1990s, stepping up production and driving down world prices, putting other mining operations out of business. Now it controls as much as 97% of the market.

Rare earths are not found in high concentrations – you have to move a lot of earth to get at them. The extraction process produces radioactive slurry and toxic acids are used in refining. The Chinese government’s operation in inner Mongolia, has caused major damage to the environment. The photograph (thanks to Keith Bradsher, Chinh’s News) shows a slurry pit outside the city of Bautou, centre of the mining industry, where the air is acrid and the people suffer respiratory illnesses.

If the Chinese continue to limit exports, there will be a rush to restart elsewhere. In fact the Mountain Pass mine in California – closed since 2002 – will re-open next year with new owners, and there are plans for a big operation in Canada. Shares in rare metal mining companies have soared in recent months.

Whilst the market in rare earths is worth $2bn a year, mining is not highly profitable since it is at the refining stage that most of the value is added. But that could all change as demand outstrips supply.

Some of the rare earth elements are becoming harder and harder to come by even in China – and the pressure to mine all known deposits is growing, in the same way that the rush is on to extract all known deposits of uranium to fuel a new generation of nuclear power plants.

The reality is that the world is running out of some of the most crucial chemical elements.

For example there is a growing shortage of Helium 3, an inert gas which is a by-product of radioactive decay. It is used in cryogenics, medical imaging research, and radiation detection devices. Stocks are dwindling whilst demand soars as a result of its use in security scanners. The “war on terror” is actually threatening cancer research rather than terrorists. There is about 10 years supply left of the elements indium and hafnium, thanks to the manufacture of flat-screen TVs. Both are essential for solar cells and computer chips.

A recent United Nations report called for urgent expansion of recycling of speciality metals. Thomas Graedel, the leader of the working group which is assessing world supply, warns:

“Scientists should anticipate the possibility that they may not have the whole periodic table to work with in future. Except for the major base metals and a couple of the most valuable metals, rates of recycling for almost all metals in the periodic table are low. That means that they will be used one time and discarded, and that's a non-sustainable approach.”

But sustainability is the last thing on the mining corporations’ minds. Extracting metals in useable form from manufactured products is expensive –particularly so in terms of the energy used to do it. Extraction of the raw material in low wage economies is cheap and controls are few. Apparently Afghanistan has significant deposits of rare earths – any bets on the future of those?

The only long-term and sustainable solution is to shift from profit-driven manufacture to needs-driven production, where valuable elements are husbanded for use in essential products. At that point, built-in obsolescence – an obscenity in the current crisis – becomes something we look back on with horror as we look back on the mines and mills of the industrial revolution.

Penny Cole
Environment editor