330
IN CONTEXT
KEY FIGURE
Paul Connett (1940 –)BEFORE
1970 The first Earth Day
takes place in the US to raise
awareness of clean waste
disposal and recycling.1988 The Resin Identification
Code is introduced in the US
to encourage the recycling
of plastic goods.1992 At the Rio Earth
Summit, 105 heads of state
pledge their commitment
to sustainable development.AFTER
2010 The United Nations
launches its Global Partnership
on Waste Management to
promote resource conservation
and efficiency.2012 Goals outlined at the
UN Conference on Sustainable
Development include waste
reduction and eco-friendly
production methods.M
ore than 65,000 people
from at least 180 nations
traveled to Johannesburg,
South Africa, in 2002 to attend the
United Nations World Summit on
Sustainable Development. Its final
resolutions included a call to
minimize waste and maximize
reuse and recycling, and to develop
“clean” waste disposal systems.
In the last decades of the 20th
century, it had become clear that
refuse was reaching unmanageable
proportions. Industrialization, the
growth of large urban populations,
and increasing use of plastic wereall adding to the world’s garbage
heap. Traditionally waste had been
burned or buried, both options now
associated with toxic greenhouse
gas emissions and, in the case of
landfills, the potential for poisoning
ground water. The answer to the
world’s growing waste heap had to
be found elsewhere.The recycling revolution
Recycling for reuse is not a new
concept, but its use as a way
of reducing mountains of public
waste that would otherwise go into
landfill has its origins in the 1960s
and 1970s, when organizations
such as Greenpeace made the
public more aware of environmental
issues. Recently, campaigners such
as Paul Connett, author of Zero
Waste (2013), have renewed the
global call to reduce consumption,
and reuse or recycle items, rather
than discard them.
Since the 1970s, many US states
and most European countries,
as well as Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand, have introduced
curbside collections of recyclable
items sorted into bins. Sweden has
been especially active. In 1975,
Swedes recycled only 38 percent
of their rubbish, but today they leadWE ARE LIVING ON THIS
PLANET AS THOUGH
WE HAVE ANOTHER
ONE TO GO TO
WASTE DISPOSAL
Pollution is nothing but
the resources we are not
harvesting. We allow them
to be dispersed because we’ve
been ignorant of their value.
R. Buckminster Fuller
American inventor and architectUS_330-331_Waste_Disposal.indd 330 12/11/18 6:26 PM