Lecture 10 - A World of Resources Flashcards
What is Waste?
-Noun = unwanted materials or products
-Verb = To discard a product that is no longer useful
Why does Waste Matter?
-The UK sent 65,000 tonnes of plastic waste to non-OECD countries in the first 7 months of 2020 (equivalent of 300 tonnes per day)
-Waste is a lens through which to explore environmental politics, capitalism, modernity and governance
What happened during Enclosure and the “Clearance of Waste”?
-Clearing of forests in the dark ages/ medieval Europe
-Forests were regarded as unproductive, useless, and even dangerous
-They were a waste of potential resources, e.g. for farming or manufacturing of goods
-This enhanced long-term deforestation, which extended the agricultural resource base and the frontier of society
-Later on, the idea of this “waste” land was used to justify the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their native land
How has Humanity impacted on the World’s Natural Resources?
-It has mis-treated natural resources and expended them with little thought to what happens when they’re gone
-Waste has been created through this exploitation of resources; food waste, nuclear waste, slag heaps, plastic pollution, GHGs
Stats and Figures on Waste Production
-USA, Iceland and Mongolia are among the top countries for waste generation per person (lbs/ year)
-The 2030 forecast for waste production globally is that South Asia’s will increase from 368 million tons (2016) to 514 million tons, and Sub-Saharan Africa’s will more than double from 142 million tons (2016) to 297 million tons
What is Meant by a Circular Economy?
-Resources kept in use for as long as possible
-Extract the maximum value from them whilst in use
-Recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
-Discovered in 1997 (North Pacific)
-Est. 15 million square km (50x size of UK)
-Contains 46,000 pieces of plastic per km2
-Large and micro plastics kill marine life and sea birds
-There is evidence for a correlation between the amount of debris on the sea surface and concentrations of plastic fragments below in the water column
