Waste

• [New] Clorox seeks to prevent plastic waste and pollution in packaging, pledging to halve its use of virgin plastic and fiber by 2030 while doubling PCR recycled plastic.
• [New] The plastic waste generated worldwide is expected to triple to 155-265 million metric tonnes per year by 2060.
• [New] Indonesia's government last year launched a plan to cut ocean plastic waste by 70% by 2025, and to end plastic pollution altogether by 2040.
• [New] Without decreases in plastic production and increases in recycling, by 2040 plastic pollution entering the ocean will triple from 11 to 29 million metric tons each year.
• [New] In 2020, Canada's solar sector is expected to produce 700 metric tonnes of waste from decommissioned solar panels.
• [New] An estimated economic opportunity for bio-based products to complement or even substitute conventional ones is worth USD $7.7 trillion by 2030 for food and feed waste products, and energy.
• [New] The export ban will mean that Australia must recycle an additional 645,000 tonnes of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres onshore by 2024.
• [New] The United States will have over 720,000 tons of wind turbine blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years - a figure that does not include newer, taller higher-capacity turbines.
• In addition to the RMF, the Australian Government has invested $59.6 million over four years from 2020-21 to implement its commitments under the National Waste Policy Action Plan, improve national waste data and implement the ban on waste paper, plastics, glass and tyres.
• New Zealand could be sending nearly 9000 tonnes of plastic into the environment each year by 2030 - and that does not include the containers of waste we are shipping overseas.
• Plastic waste generated worldwide is expected to triple to 155-265 million metric tonnes per year by 2060.
• By 2025, across sub-Saharan Africa, Dow aims to recover at least 5,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually; have flexible packaging included in the recyclable waste stream, and take valuable waste plastic back and recycle it to use in new applications.
• The first-ever blue loan to a global plastic resin manufacturer will lead to the recycling of 50 billion PET bottles globally a year by 2025 including four countries in Asia and one in Latin America, diverting plastic waste from landfills and oceans.
• As the U.S. waste and recycling industry pivots to face the risks and opportunities around climate change - or accelerates ongoing efforts, depending on who you ask - the coming decade could be potentially transformative.
• Food waste is a problem not just because it adds to Singapore's only landfill - which is expected to be full by 2035 - but also because of the significant amount of resources and energy wasted that goes into growing, processing and transporting food.
• Sustainable Development Goal 12 of the United Nations on 'responsible production and consumption' states that by 2030 food losses and waste, should be reduced by 50%.
• The oil and gas industry plans to spend US$ 400 billion on infrastructure to make more new plastic, while spending less than US$ 2 billion to reduce plastic waste.
• The joint entry into the global waste to energy market now represents the next step in the WE PLAN TO AGGRESSIVELY TARGET THE EUROPEAN WTE MARKET, WHICH IS EXPECTED TO GROW TO 1.6 GW BY 2024.
• The waste management investments in US cities are expected to grow from 1.0 waste management in the cities USA: billion US-Dollar in 2018 to 1.7 billion US-Dollar by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4% during the forecast period.
• In a move to evolve global farm to fork eco-efficiency, the UN Environment Programme and other climate actors are now pushing forward the agenda of meat-free diets while further outlining that reductions of food loss and waste could reduce emissions by up to 4.5 Gt of CO2 emissions per year.
• The UN SDGs have set the target of halving per capita food waste by 2030 at retail and consumer levels, and reducing losses along production and supply chains in order to move towards responsible consumption and production.

Last updated: 17 January 2021