Circular Economy

Something we do not see often in circular economies is electronics. Of course, we have donated electronics, or hand me downs from friends and family, and these tend to be older electronics, that do not work as effectively as when they were first bought. But when certain parts of electronics stop working, the other parts could still be working just fine. Even just parts like the outer shell, or screens, could be used again instead of having to make new ones. A lot of things, even outside of electronics, can be stripped for parts so that the functional parts of items can be used to make something new. A lot of things end up being thrown out even though they still have useful aspects of them, and being able to reuse those aspects could reduce a lot of waste and creation of new items.

 

Disruption in Bulk Trash

Although this example does not have to do with forms of protest or resistance, something that comes to mind is the time of year when large trash is picked up, like furniture and other things that are difficult to transport and dispose of normally. During this time of year, there is a common agreeance that you can go into someone else’s property in order to look through this trash and see what you want. During any other time of year, looking through someone else’s trash is frowned upon, and could result in the property owners being upset, or even calling the police. During the large trash pick up, you often see people driving around in their cars or trucks, stopping outside people’s houses, and digging through the piles of trash. This time of year is when things are the most reused since things that were being thrown out get to have a new chance at life in a new home, reducing the amount these people need to buy, and showing a level of community and care that is not normally present during the rest of the year.

Pollution in Online Shopping

Something I do regularly that produces waste and pollution is online shopping. Although most people can agree that it is a convenient service, we also tend to forget that this is a massive producer of pollution. Everything from the multiple forms of transportation to the packaging it comes in produces pollution and waste that while we all know exists, we do not talk about as much as we could. If regulations were put in place that banned pollution from this, I do not think the service would entirely disappear, but rather it might be delayed while the companies adapted to the new rules. Many companies are already making their packaging more sustainable, while others are making their packaging and practices look better for the environment without making proper or significant changes. As for the transportation of products, the easiest way to find a solution would be to make all transportation powered by electricity, but even that might lead to some pollution, so finding a pollution-free mode of transportation might pose a threat to many businesses.

Paper Plates

A disposable item many of us interact with regularly is paper plates. Whenever we are in a setting where we are eating meals but do not want a lot of cleanup, we use paper plates and disposable cutlery. These items obviously are meant to be temporary substitutes for their real counterparts, and what separates them is the ability to clean and reuse them. If you try to clean a paper plate, it will fall apart, so any messes that end up on the plate can not be cleaned off. This is what makes these paper plates disposable. Any food residue that ends up on them can not be cleaned off, so eventually they will mold, or attract insects, and they might cause a health risk if they were reused on a different day. The item itself is made from paper, a material that is not known to be particularly durable, and although paper can be composted or recycled, most of these paper plates would probably end up in the trash and taken to the dump. Especially in larger party settings, in which paper plates are used the most, it often becomes a hassle to separate trash and keep track of how people are disposing of things, so having a single place to dispose of things is often easier for cleanup.

Out of Place, Filthy, Resource

I have a small collection of sticks in my room, which when outside wouldn’t be considered waste but since I have brought them inside, they have become out of place, and therefore waste. I keep them around because I tend to think that I would use them for something at some point, which makes them a potential resource. Sticks are also, in a way, filth. They were brought from outside and weren’t really cleaned off at all, so they have dirt and other debris on them. People will see these sticks and think of them as filthy, because of the debris they might leave on my floor that I have to clean up, which makes them the most like waste, since they are creating more waste and filth in the area they occupy. Out of all of these conceptualizations, they are the most out of place. When outside, they have the chance to complete their life, from falling from their tree to decomposing into the ground, but by bringing them inside, with no connection to the dirt or their lost trees outside, they don’t get to have that chance. Instead, they’ll dry out and stay there for as long as I want them. 

Snack pack

I eat a lot of snacks. I don’t always have the energy to cook for myself so I will rely on food in wrappers and shiny metallic bags to provide me sustenance. I throw away a lot of these shiny wrappers as there is not a way to recycle them. They are even in most paper boxes of food to preserve the food from humidity and mold. This is important for me as someone with severe allergies that I need those packaged foods as bulk stores are not safe for me due to cross contact with allergens. An archaeologist may look at these empty wrappers and wonder why there are so many scattered around, they are quite colorful and shiny so maybe they will think they were used as offerings or as decorations. If they find a bag full they may think about how this culture had a general mistrust of fresh foods and had an obsession with packaging food. There is a strong sense of sanitation when it comes to foods but I am sure in 1000 years they may be concerned about the leaching of these containers and the amount of them there. We as a society have an obsession with wrapped goods. It is much more convenient to eat a bag of chips then find a vendor who makes them fresh or make our own. There is currently not a convenient way to store much of this food and I rely on it for accessibility to safe food. Once medicine has evolved and I can take something that makes me have to worry less about cross contact and be able to participate in bulk stores and the like. We are food hoarders like squirrels storing away nuts for the winter, we buy in excess to ensure in an emergency or a craving the food will be there. We are in a time where food is something we do not have the time for. With time being a commodity, “wasting” time cooking meals from scratch is not efficient and buying prepackaged foods and snacks is much better so we can work longer hours. Food packaging will cover the earth, as there is simply too much of it and it is light enough to flow in the wind. They will be everywhere like glitter.

Pile of empty bags from chips and snacks prepared to be recycled Stock Photo - Alamy

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-pile-of-empty-bags-from-chips-and-snacks-prepared-to-be-recycled-31887098.html

 

Medicine Bottle Mountain

An item I have talked a bit about before but still want to see in a circular economic system is Medicine bottles. Medicine bottles could easily enter a circular economic system as it is an item that is used daily by most people and when it is empty it loses value. You can’t ask for your medicine in the same bottle and pharmacies don’t request them back. These bottles could either be sanitized again or melted down to create them again. In the past medicine was in glass bottles which could also be an option due to it being generally chemically inert. It is frustrating to see a lack of a circular system for this item as the pharmaceutical industry produces 194 billion plastic pill bottles a year! There is no reason besides profit for this lack of sustainability especially as 90% of these bottles land in landfills. Due to the size of medicine bottles they are generally not recyclable as they will simply fall through the machine. The plastic they are made from is recyclable but the size makes them unable to be sorted at most recycling plants. We need a place to recycle and refine this plastic so we do not create more of it. With that in place pharmacies and stores can provide a drop off location for these bottles which can then be recycled into the same goods. A switch back to glass is also an option, but glass is heavy and can break easier which makes it less desirable. A company known as Cabinet Health is trying to create a new system for this issue by sending medicine in parcels that can then be emptied into glass bottles which are reused. This is an option but still creates waste and the bottles are expensive. The world just needs to be open to renovation and innovation to help create a safer world without the need for single use plastics that are thrown into landfills.

Shit as a Resource in Edo Period Japan

When thinking about shit and it being used as a resource I remember this youtube video.
https://youtu.be/0tYaXBkiq70?si=qshd9gKm02ovfKxB
During the Edo period of Japan (1603-1868) poop was not just a form of waste it was also seen as a resource. While big cities in Europe had constant issues with contaminated water and dirty streets during this time, Japan had clean streets and the water was not filled with poop. Poop was seen as a valuable resource for farming as a fertilizer one that increased with an increasing population. Japan did not have a culture of meat eating like many European countries so they did not have as much animal waste as a resource so they needed to rely on people’s waste for fertilizer. This is known as night soil. The farmland in Japan was also very limited and with an increasing population, night soil helped keep the land fertile and helped produce more crops. People who collected poop created great wealth for their family but they were seen as public outcasts due to doing the dirty work of the population. This reminded me of the Strike Breaker reading as the family that recirculated waste was outcasted from society in a similar way. This was a useful and safer way to dispose of human waste as other countries would simply throw it into the surrounding waters which were then drunk from. When you collect and divert waste the water supply stays cleaner and is healthier. Using waste as a resource is something that is important to look into as we progress as it can recirculate nutrients and create less harm through our current artificial fertilizers and harmful farming practices.

Archaeology

If I were an archaeologist 1000 years from now I would find a cataloged collection of everything that we have made from plastics. For example, just the masks from this global pandemic and every other for the next 1000 years. The mountains of waste that we create. There is a chance that we decide to stop producing plastics and single use plastics in the future but it will not be anytime soon. We are going to find out the repercussions of our mistakes and innovations. The solutions surrounding the global climate crisis will not be found in the heaping piles of plastic. We need to find the change in ourselves to stop using all the plastic that we don’t need. We just could say no to plastic. It may make our lifes a whole lot less convenient, but learning to live without the conveniences would be revolutionary. The large corporations that are making certain people wealthier and wealthier aren’t taking the problems seriously enough. The landfills are filled with out waste that is packed down years and years at a time. If someone could catalog every year’s waste in one place, we could learn so much about human habits and evolution. The evolution of what we are making, creating, and destroying  would be in one place.

Circular Economy

The circular economy of the plastic bags that run around in the world, changing hands so often. The mass production of these small bits of plastic are polluting the environment. Spreading awareness of reusing and not just throwing these plastic bags away is very important. Reduce, reuse, recycle. The societal mentality of single use objects is dangerous. Consistently people are using single use plastics for everything. Our day to day lives are filled with plastics like these plastic bags. Everytime we go to grocery stores we take home a couple of these plastic bags. It’s crazy to understand the mass quantities of just plastic bags that are in landfills. They are floating in our oceans and waterways. It makes me worry about the future of our planet. The irreversible destruction created by turning crude oil into plastic will haunt us forever. “Humans took substances from the Earth’s crust and concentrated, altered, and synthesized them into vast quantities of material that cannot safely be returned to soil.” (Braungart, McDonough) This quote explains exactly what the human race has done with the materials we found in front of eyes.