Zero Waste – Billion Dollar Business Opportunities for Canada
- economic opportunities for Canada, Innovation in zero waste, what is zero waste, Zero waste, zero waste in Canada
When one hears zero waste, one assumes that it is a movement where only zero waste is acceptable. Zero Waste is a process aiming to achieve an end goal of zero waste. It is important to develop the process because there are so many areas where countries can reduce their waste and consequently, extend the life of their landfills and save ongoing costs. Zero Waste focuses on the top part of the Zero Waste Hierarchy: reduce, redesign, reuse and much less on recycle.
Why is waste reduction so important?
In Ontario, Waste Management companies are predicting that in about 11- 12 years, our waste capacity will be filled. Where then will our waste go?
In 2022, according to the Global Waste Index that measures 38 of the largest countries in the world, Canada sent the largest amount of waste per capita to landfills, beating out the United States and the UK (China was not included in the study). Of our 702 kilograms of waste generated per capita, 643 kg was sent to landfills. Our current choices to deal with this large amount of waste are either to build another landfill or build an incinerator or waste-to-energy incinerator– all solutions will cost millions of capital dollars, will take years to put in place and are showing to have harmful public health and environmental impacts. As well, these solutions eliminate jobs and do not provide a long-term, sustainable solution.
What are we currently doing with waste?
While most of the world has focused on increasing their diversion rate, more evidence is showing that the recycling market fluctuates so what happens with the materials that are not sold to market? Glass jars, cans, other metals, cardboard and some paper have markets because they are recyclable, but plastics are limited because not all plastics are recyclable. Plastics that can not be used are sent to landfills.
It is still unknown the full impacts of chemical migration from plastics. However, nano and micro plastics are appearing in our water and are impacting our aquatic life and our ability to enjoy fresh water. Scientists in Europe who focus on plastics are beginning to warn of the health impacts from these smaller plastics ie disruption to our endocrine systems and to male reproductive capacities to name a few. Yet, we continue to produce, buy and eventually stick plastic in recycling bins of which only a small portion is recyclable.
Moreover, plastic does not degrade into a harmless substance. Recyclable plastic will eventually become waste after one to two rounds since each recycled round makes the plastic less durable. Currently, there are only piecemeal attempts to rid our planet of plastics in a harmless way. Hopefully, a few of these pilot initiatives will lead to something, but in the meantime, chemicals deemed toxic remain with us and perhaps within us. It is projected that plastic production will continue to increase substantially by 2050.
Some Current Solutions:
In Europe, it is estimated that about 130 kg of waste per person is packaging, of which only 2% is reused (ZW Europe). As a result, many companies are trying to capture the approximately $270 billion-dollar eco-packaging market.
The City of Vancouver has committed to be a Zero Waste Community by 2040. To achieve that one strategy is to develop up to 10 “Zero Waste Demonstration Hubs, a demonstration and incubation site for innovative technologies focused on zero waste.” The City of Toronto is investing in “Community Reduce and Reuse Programs…which is based primarily in neighbourhoods and community hubs. These programs are focusing on education, skills and job training opportunities, social space and providing opportunities for sharing and repairing.” Repairing and reusing is big in Europe. The City of Munich piloted one such hub and saved over 1000 kilograms so they are now expanding the number of hubs.
Recently, Reuse Ottawa has re-designed a packaging process whereby local stores on Banks Street offer reusable containers to avoid single use containers. This is a great start.
Further Opportunities:
Re-design or update current products to create “no harm” products that would require less technology and do no harm to the environment – multi-billion-dollar market.
Our solution
We have created a project that would work within a sizeable community to start. There will be opportunities to re-design, reuse, reduce and repurpose many household and business processes and products, creating small business growth opportunities for youth.
Overall, we are looking to integrate the principles of the famous book, “Cradle to Cradle” and “Small is Beautiful”, and explore and update the perhaps lost traditional ways of doing things.
The world is already looking for and already researching new ways of doing things, Canada needs to be part of this emerging, multiple billion- dollar market.