Transcript Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Symposium

Keep America Beautiful
Public Space Recycling Symposium
Overall Challenges and
Opportunities for Public Space Recycling
November 4, 2010
EPA Overview
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History of Public Space Recycling
US Recycling Overview
Challenges
Opportunities
It isn’t just about Recycling Anymore
(Sustainable Materials Management Preview)
• Your mission should you decide to accept it
History
• Public Space/ Recycling on the Go (A decade!)
– 2005-06 studies in California and EPA
– EPA ROGO Program launched in 2006-7
– DC Collaboration 2006 –
(Great presentation Friday AM on this)
– EPA passing the baton to you fine folks today
MSW Recycling Rates
MSW Waste Wheel 2009
Product Recycling Rates 2009
Challenges
• Messaging – broad public and site specific
• Your program depends upon your existing
recycling and waste management program
– Infrastructure needs
What is the existing system?
Source: American Beverage Association’s RW Beck 2008 ABA Community Survey
http://www.recycletogether.com/sites/default/files/ABA%20Final%20Report09-28-09.pdf
Opportunities
• Lots of lessons learned, case studies etc.
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/rrr/rogo/index.htm
• Recognition of the need
• EPA regional staff seen considerable movements in
this arena (pun intended)
• New $ models and approaches being discussed
• We can only go up from here- with people like you
helping to make the difference
Unsustainable Future
• Growth projections for 2050:
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world population growth of 50%
global economic activity growth of 500%
global energy and materials use of 300%
All from 2000 baseline
• Environmental implications
– About 42% of U.S. GHG emissions are associated with materials
extraction and the production, transportation and disposal of goods
– Resource demands (and associated GHG emissions) will only increase
as developing nations industrialize and increase their consumption
Materials & Land Management GHGs
Materials
Management (42%)
Land
Management (16%)
Economic sectors
Systems / End-uses
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Technical Potential Reductions from Materials Management
Source Reduction
Estimated GHG Emission Benefit*
Reduce packaging use by:
Reduce use of non-packaging paper products by:
Extend the life of personal computers by:
50%
40—105 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
20—50 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
20—70 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
10—35 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
25 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
15 MMTCO2E/yr
100%
150 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
75 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
40 MMTCO2E/yr
100%
300 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
70—80 MMTCO2E/yr
100%
20 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
10 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
5 MMTCO2E/yr
Reuse/Recycling
Increase recycling of construction and demolition debris to:
Increase national MSW recycling and composting rate
from 2006 rate (32.5%) to:
Increase composting of food scraps from 2006 rate (2%)
to:
Technical Potential Reductions from Materials Management (cont’d)
Estimated GHG Emission
Benefit
Energy Recovery / Disposal
Combust percentage of currently landfilled
MSW:
100%
70—120 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
35—60 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
20—30 MMTCO2E/yr
65—110 MMTCO2E/yr
Combust MSW remaining if national recycling
rate is increased to 50%:
Capture percentage of currently emitted
methane at U.S. landfills for electricity
generation:
100%
150 MMTCO2E/yr
50%
70 MMTCO2E/yr
25%
35 MMTCO2E/yr
Unsustainable Resource Consumption
7,000
Material Consumption (DMC)
(million metric tons)
Forestry
6,000
5,000
Agriculture
4,000
3,000
Nonrenewable
Organic
Material
2,000
Metals and
Minerals
1,000
0,000
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
Source: WRI Material Flow s Database 2005.
Figure : Materials Consumption in the United States by Sector of Origin, 1975–2000
Source: WRI Material Flows Database 2005
Life Cycle and Systems Thinking
www.epa.gov/epawaste/inforesources/pubs/vision2.pdf
Unsustainable Trajectory
Materials management is associated with 42% of U.S. GHG
emissions
 In past 50 yrs, humans consumed more resources than in all past
history
 In 2000, U.S. consumed 57% more materials than in 1975; global
consumption increase was even greater
 U.S. has < 5% of world’s population but is responsible for about
1/3 of world’s total materials consumption in 1970-1995
 Our reliance on minerals as fundamental ingredients in
manufactured products used in U.S. (e.g., cell phones, paint,
toothpaste) requires extraction of >25,000 lbs of new nonfuel
minerals per capita each year
 1992 Earth Summit world leaders declared that “a principal cause
of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the
steady increase in materials production, consumption and disposal”
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A Different Future is Needed
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Independently, EPA’s “Sustainable Materials Management: The Road
Ahead” report and the WBCSD’s “Vision 2050” report concluded:
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“Business as usual” cannot continue
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A systems approach is needed
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We must start now to achieve the necessary changes to
minimize negative environmental impacts or unintended
consequences of actions
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“Materials management” means targeting and coordinating
interventions throughout the life cycle of materials, products and
services.
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Which materials to use
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How to use less (materials, energy, water)
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Reduce hazardous inputs
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Design for longer life, reuse, refurbishability, recyclability
To achieve EPA’s 2020 Vision, more powerful upstream efforts
to reduce and change material use throughout the life cycle
is needed.
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What is Sustainable Materials
Management?
• What we currently call “waste” is really a stream of valuable materials,
with environmental investments and impacts at all stages of the lifecycle:
– Raw material extraction, through transportation, processing,
manufacturing, reuse, recycling and disposal.
Additional Studies and Reports
• U.S. Department of State 5th Climate Action Report to United
Nations (2010) – sites EPA’s WasteWise program and states
how recycling has a significant GHG impact
(http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/rpts/car5/index.htm)
• UN paper on climate change and waste (July 2010)
(http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/Publications/spc/WasteManagement&Cl
imateChange%20_Draft.pdf)
• Waste Management Chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment report
(http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3chapter10.pdf)
• Executive Order 13514 – requires a target for federal
government to increase recycling by 50% to reduce GHG and
save energy
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What’s Coming from EPA
• Data Measurement Dialogue on the Internet
• Sustainable Financing of MSW Recycling
Dialogue
• Sustainable Materials Management Initiatives
Materials Matter
Kent Foerster
EPA Headquarters
Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
(ORCR)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW (5306P)
Washington, DC 20460
(703) 308 0199
[email protected]
www.epa.gov/rcc