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IB Geography: Recycling and the circular economy
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- hello students this is the very last of the notes for the resource unit again we have some random things to talk about that are all fascinating but let's see
- if we can connect them and be all clever so this is recycling the circular economy and then the sustainable the sustainable development goals because
- why not try to have me proud set multiple times I'm clicking okay so we're gonna talk about trash about waste so here's some
- interesting factoids for you about where our trash comes from in the US were generally very bad about recycling and so our trash comes from all different
- types of sources the top being paper and paperboard which is very easily recyclable on the right you see that different countries are better or worse
- at what they do with their trash so countries like Mexico or like Turkey they just landfill all their trash they pretty much throw it in a hole
- other countries are much better about like Spain and Italy and Austria are better composting things Japan and Sweden get a lot of energy from their
- trash so it's very different around the world what we do about our trash so stick with the top then we'll go to the bottom so perspectives on waste so what
- you can do with your trash are those four things on the last slide is you can landfill it which is pretty much burying it that I would say it's good in that
- it's like it's cheap because you get a hole and you put trash in it but it's really bad for the environment it creates methane when the trash is
- breaking down and aerobic lee and it also is just nasty spreads disease all sorts of bad stuff incinerated so if you you can burn your trash for energy which
- is actually what we do a lot in Fairfax County one negative for the incinerated trash is that you are burning trash so of course that's going to create smell
- air pollution it could send toxic materials into the air but at least you're getting energy out of it instead of the toxic fumes just coming out of a
- hole in the ground that you've dumped trash into you can compost it which means that you're burying your trash so that it turns back into dirt so that's a
- good thing or recycling it which is complicated and we're going to talk about it a lot in this slide you're basically turning into something else so
- one thing that's true about low-income countries that you don't see a lot in HIC s are waste pickers and so in a lot I seas people employ themselves by
- collecting waste and picking through this waste and trying to find things that can be recycled resold broken into parts to be sold whatever could bring
- them in an income even though these people are common across countries I think the most famous are those abilene which are from Egypt mostly in Cairo and
- this was like Cairo's way of collecting trash and they actually tried to get the the city tried to manage their own trash pickup and actually went way worse than
- when this abilene just came and picked up people's trash and so they're they're making it come back but these people make very little money
- off of the scraps that they find and they sell and the rates of disease are very very high and so their life expectancy is in the 30s even though the
- rest of the country might be in the 50s so a lot of the world's waste is created in cities and so we talked way back the
- year the beginning of the year about mega cities and some of the struggles that they have and one of them is trash pickup and what to do with their trash
- once they pick it up so cities around the world generate a ton of trash per year and it's expected to go from 1.3 billion tons to 2.2 billion tons in the
- next seven years now yay and added to that mass of trash is the fact that a lot of countries have no garbage collection system at all and so
- about 40% of countries use open dumps which just means people know where to dump their trash it could be a riverbed it could be a dug out hole it could be
- the bad part of town whatever it is like they just throw trash and leave it there and so this is a huge hazard for the environment because you're leaching
- toxins and creating air pollution you're also spreading disease and pestilence it's just a nasty situation it's very very difficult to pick up this is
- something that I've learned a bit about from a friend of mine who worked at the World Bank that they went from country the country trying to explain why they
- couldn't just let people keep open dumps and trying to come up with a solution of how to create a trash delivery system and is much much more complicated than
- you would think if you actually think through how complicated it would be to get every single person in the country to know what to do with their trash and
- to have a responsible way of getting rid of that trash once you actually figure out how they collect it from everybody
- we're not gonna talk about composting much because it's complex and it's sciency and so we're gonna focus on recycling because this is something that
- is systemic and that's gonna lead us to talking about the circular economy but recycling is any conversion of waste into something that can be reused it's
- you're taking something that you use that you don't need anymore and making it into something else so there's lots of benefits of recycling
- number one you don't need to use new resources to create something else so if you use a plastic bottle and throw it in the trash that means that you now need
- to buy another plastic bottle so that plastic had to come from oil which had to be drilled out of the ground and processed and refined and all that stuff
- whereas if you recycle that bottle or reuse that bottle which is even better you don't need to buy that other bottle and so there is no need for the company
- to have created it so you cut down on the use of new materials less need for landfill space so you don't need to dump that bottle anywhere like it's just
- being reused so it doesn't have to be trashed it also takes less energy to recycle something than it is to create a new product so not only do you not use
- Virgin Resources unused resources but you're also using less energy to make the resources that everyone needs and then that's an extra bonus of you don't
- need to find somewhere to store this trash that doesn't need to be trash so recycling is a good deal I found this online which I thought was fascinating
- it's a little hard to to see because I had the cut and paste but it's basically what happens to our trash in Fairfax County so where's my mouse there it is
- so the mouse goes to the curb or the bin you know so you might take it to one of these sorting areas it might be that companies collect your trash and sort it
- and then it's sent to this recovery facility where they figure out what is actually and what is recyclable and what is
- reusable if it is recyclable it ends up in these bales up here and so these bales are then sold to companies that are gonna turn them into something else
- reusable plastic or recycled plastic isn't a lot of interesting things like park benches fleece jackets are made out of polyester which can be recycled more
- plastic bottles anything you can think of as plastic pretty much can be made from recycled plastic things that aren't recyclable they're sent further along in
- the trash bin they could end up in a landfill which is outside of the county so it's shipped somewhere to be thrown into a hole or to the Covanta plant the
- Covanta plant is in Lorton and so it takes trash from a bunch of different counties in Virginia and burns it for a fuel so they recover a lot of metals at
- this facility that were caught in the that weren't caught up here and burning the rest creates power for 80,000 homes in Virginia so again incinerating your
- trash isn't perfect because you're still creating waste so you're still creating toxic toxins but at least you're not dumping in a hole you're you're creating
- something from it so we don't do too bad as a county I wish we recycled more stuff but you know as especially for Americans it's not too bad international
- waste more things you probably don't think of that some of our garbage and our recycling actually goes beyond our borders to other countries actually
- you're probably not that surprised that Americans send their trash overseas but what's been interesting is that for the longest time China was the largest buyer
- of American trash or what they called foreign garbage so a lot of our electronic waste a lot of our recycling would go to China because
- their manufacturing economy could use these materials to manufacture new goods and they have the factories needed to break down different materials and their
- working conditions there their laws for working conditions and the containment of toxins were a lot worse than in the US so they could recycle things in a way
- that the u.s. couldn't because we're we had environmental laws that protect against that and so it meant that we would send our things there knowing that
- they were going to be broken down in a irresponsible way but you know if they were willing to do it they are willing to do it and so we were willing to sell
- it to them this year though starting in January China said we do not want foreign trash and so a lot of American recycling businesses now don't
- know what to do with this stuff because they can't actually recycle it all they were doing is collecting the recyclables and so there's been a lot of reports of
- recycling companies just land filling these recyclables because they don't know what to do with them and no one will buy them and there's no factories
- here to deal with them so that's kind of an interesting change here as countries develop and want to get away from their environment to leave
- destructive practices like we now don't know what to do with our our stuff that we used to be able to sell to China a lot of this was electronic waste like I
- mentioned before a waste is becoming a larger and larger problem as we create more and more electronics there are precious metals and very expensive
- pieces that are in these electronics but they're very hard to get out of them so you have to break break them down smelt them and try to burn away what is waste
- and collect what is not wasteful so you want to collect copper collect gold so it's a very nasty process and very dangerous to health and then by
- and so as you can imagine they're usually sent to low-income countries and that's where this work is done we create about 50 million tons of e-waste it's
- been increasing well it was 50 million in 2012 and that they estimate that's gone up to somewhere in the 60 to 70 million ton range so you might be
- thinking to yourself mr. Vanderberg why are you ruining recycling for me I thought I was doing a good thing by recycling and you are but there's only
- so far we can get by just recycling some plastic bottles and some paper that's not gonna save the world from how many resources were using so the newest idea
- or the the best idea for how to solve this is called the circular economy and I'm gonna come back to this diagram because it's confusing for now but it'll
- make sense maybe if I do my job so what's the circular economy it's this so you can write them down that definition if you like definitions I kind of broke
- it down into what it means to me hoping it'll make sense but basically it's the idea that everything that is made anything manufactured should be able to
- be reused or recycled or broken down and into its component parts and to make that true you need all political economic systems and every person to be
- willing to work together to make sure that there's no waste in the system all right so if we start making things in a circular way and and binds this circular
- economy idea then in the future it would there'd be no reason to get new materials we would just be constantly reusing and remanufacturing things and
- fixing things instead of making new goods which to the ears of your average American sounds bizarre because we like consuming and throwing out things but in
- a lot of places in the world this is more in line with how things are done and we're gonna talk about that in class like how realistic is this like I
- was just mentioning this is super important to get the consumer on board with so if companies aren't going to make things in this fashion if people
- are going to buy them in that way so it means that we would need to get used to renting things instead of buying things leasing vehicles and returning them to
- the manufacturer instead of buying them buying refurbished goods buying things that we know aren't new buying things that we know were fixed
- buying things that we feel like keeping for a long time so we seem to like going through pairs of shoes and outfits and phones and getting the newest thing and
- we need to to break that habit if this is going to work and also being willing to sort out what you are trashing and delivering it back to where you got it
- from so you can't just take a good and be like it's broken it's not working anymore and just throw it in a trash can you have to be like it's not working
- anymore now I have to drive it to Best Buy so that they can take it and fix it and then I will buy a refurbished one because someone else turned in their
- broken one earlier and it was fixed yes so it's it would be very different different for us so that's where this comes from for the consumer like after
- things are made we would have to try to reduce things a lot or return things to the retailer to be fixed and sold to send it back to the distributor so like
- have it broken down into pieces so it can be made into something else or recycling that so that it can be melted down and and go back into the production
- cycle so without the consumer being a part of this it just goes in the trash we would have to be the ones that feed it back into the system to make it
- circular and these groups would have to make things so that we could return to them so a case study the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is working with
- fashion designers to try to make fashion circular and this is very new it's just in the last year so they've been trying to do this and what they want is for
- textile manufacturers and clothing lines to make clothes from renewable materials that are gonna last and that can be recycled to make new textiles in the
- future and the reason that they're focusing on clothing is that clothing is a super nasty industry for people and for the environment so the clothing
- industry has very poor working conditions for the people making textiles and clothes and shoes a lot of toxic chemicals go into the process
- especially things like tanning making leather release a lot of toxins into the environment we waste a lot of goods through this idea of fast fashion that
- there's like every season there is something else to buy and something new to wear so there's a lot of wastefulness there and another problem with the
- fashion industry is that when we donate clothes a lot of times that is just being sent to low-income countries where people aren't able to fashion their own
- clothes and create their own clothing industry because they're just wearing old American t-shirts that we don't want anymore
- so throughout the system there's waste and there's there's toxic chemicals and there's poor conditions for people and so they're trying to make this a
- healthier system some companies that are involved already or gap H&M Nike and some other companies you've probably never heard of that are trying to test
- this out and see if consumers would buy into this because again if consumers aren't gonna buy hmms renewable materials made from recycled textiles
- then why would H&M do that they would just be making things that no one would buy so again consumers are a huge part of this circular economy idea
- and I want you to think about this a lot because this is what I want to focus on in class last thing that kind of doesn't fit but oh well I'm gonna do it anyways
- the SDGs because I'm a cool kid sustainable development goals these are things that were created in 2015 17 goals that we will reach by 2030 so says
- the UN so this journey with the Development Goals started in 2000 where the UN created eight Millennium Development Goals so they thought you
- know mm it's a big round number we should have goals that we should change things we should have new year's resolutions for the next 15 years of
- what we want to see done in the world so they created these eight goals to fight world problems that were around so things like eradicating poverty and
- ensuring universal education and cleaning up the environment and providing maternal care and all sorts of really good stuff unfortunately most of
- the goals weren't met goal one was met to cut in half the number of people that were in extreme poverty so that was good but a lot of the goals weren't like some
- subtopics were met but that the goals themselves weren't really meant so we got to 2015 the MDGs didn't really pan out and so the UN decided maybe we need
- more goals so they created 17 new goals the sustainable development goals that are supposed to be be things that will be solved by 2030 so here they are these
- are old ones the Millennium Development Goals why Mouse being so dumb and then do to do now we have the sustainable development goals so 17
- things that we're gonna fix you'll notice that a lot of the environmental ones were broken up into bits so you have responsible consumption climate
- action life below water life on lands sustainable cities that affordable and clean energy clean water which are all things that are kind of environmentally
- so that was really the one that that was split into the the most parts some of these are very similar like quality education gender equality that are
- similar to some of the other goals so these goals they are not law they're not some international treaty that countries have to follow
- they are vague goals that the UN has to try to inspire people to action to chart progress and how we're doing with certain certain aspects of the planet
- and to guide interventions and aid programs and government programs to try to reach these goals that are like really important worldwide goals that
- the UN would like to see done but there's no punishment mechanism it's not like if you don't follow the goals your country gets punished
- there's no bonuses there's no cash prizes there's no trophies given out for reaching the SDGs is it's really just to inspire and guide practice a lot of
- these goals also have sub targets so there are things that are more nitty-gritty targets for exactly what they would like done this helps them
- kind of rank how well they're doing with goals so something like life on land what does that mean like what exactly are we supposed to be doing with the
- life on land so they have 12 sub targets of things that are specific targeted interventions that they want to see done around the world so they want to stop
- wildlife trafficking they want to improve land development so it's more sustainable texe habitats they want to prevent
- invasive species from eradicating other species so if you look within all these big goals there are very focused targets that they have and so what I think you
- need to do is a ib geography student who's gonna be tested on this stuff is just be prepared to take data from these sub targets or these goals and try to
- interpret like how are we doing generally with this topic are we generally protecting life on land if I give you stats on invasive species and
- wildlife trafficking or if I give you statistics on water usage around the world and access to clean water how are we doing on our clean water goal could
- we be doing better so it's very statistical I imagine that's what what they're gonna give you on the exam I'm not gonna spend a ton of time in class
- on the SDGs but they are very interesting to to poke around online and see some of the ways the UN uses them to inspire people and to to reach goals
- that are worthwhile so there we go the darkness of we have all the information from this unit it's been fun see you in class