In this linear economy of food production to consumption to disposal, recycling serves as a step towards a circular economy where materials are broken down into components and recycled as new items. In this post, let’s find out about why we should recycle and the environmental impacts and outcomes from recycling.
Although seldom discussed, food waste can be recycled through composting, either within our homes or at a community compost. Composting refers to “decayed organic matter that has been broken down to the point where it resembles rich, dark-coloured dirt” (Bennett, 2014). This compost can be used as fertilisers for our home gardens or community gardens. However, this is not as widely practised in Singapore due to inconvenience and lack of knowledge. Hence, our food waste usually ends up in landfills and incineration plants in our previous post. Nonetheless, there are some strategies by food retailers and grocery stores that engage corporations, such as Quest, to do food recycling.
A direct solution to reduce environmental impact from packaging is to change business models and “minimise the packaging material impact, such as removal of excessive packaging, smarter product packaging, light-weighting, concentration of liquid products, refill packaging” (Wikstrom, 2016). However, we have a role to play too! Recycling of food packaging is a simple way for us to be more conscious and responsible consumers. “Currently, food packaging is estimated to be more than one-third of the total global packaging market. However, the amount of recycled food packaging waste still is not sufficient” (Nemat et al., 2019).
Recycling is better than incineration as it reduces atmospheric emissions and toxic ashes which may be converted to secondary pollutants that get deposited on soils and in water bodies. In the late 1990s, there was a rise of ‘single-stream’ recycling systems where consumers did not have to sort their recyclables, which boosted the number of people engaging in recycling (Howard, 2018). In Singapore, there is a checklist of items that can be recycled such as egg trays, bread plastic bags and beverages cartons (Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, 2020) and these items can be deposited into the blue bins found in our neighbourhood estates. Moreover, when these recycled materials are manufactured, it is also more energy-efficient. “Extracting and processing raw resources, such as wood, oil, ore requires a lot of energy. Recycling often saves energy because the products being recycled usually require much less processing” (American Geosciences Institute, 2014).
However, there are some limitations by countries who encourage consumers to recycle but do not set up proper recycling plants, infrastructure and programmes. For example, the US used to export their plastic waste to China and “imported plastic waste adds another 12% to the plastic waste China generates domestically every year. In 2016, that translated into 8.1 million additional tons on top of the 67 million tons of domestic trash created in China” (Parker, 2018). After China banned the import of recycled waste, this problem was shifted to other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. “Wealthy nations sell their recycled plastic scrap to Asia for the simple fact it’s easier to ship it around the world than process it at home” (ibid.). This shipping of recycled waste not only contributes to greater pollution from transportation, but it also hides the environmental impact from consumers in their home countries and also shifts the environmental and health burden overseas.
Recycling is a good first step, but it’s not sufficient to resolve the environmental issues yet. States, corporations and individuals need to play a bigger role in recycling and also providing suitable physical and social infrastructure to cope with recycling. For the state, having the infrastructure to recycle packaging, storing facilities at home, distance to recycling facilities can influence consumer behaviour (Wikstrom, 2016). For corporations, they can provide visual icons on their packaging to provide consumers with’ knowledge for action’ so they are equipped with knowledge on environmental awareness and the appropriate behaviour which can increase recycling rates (Nemat et al., 2019). For consumers, we should try to minimise single-use plastics, adopt reusables and recycle whenever possible.
“Progress requires us to address the structural inequality that encourages and normalizes the waste of resources, ecological destruction and the perpetuation of colonial systems” (Borrelle, 2020). In the upcoming posts, we will share some strategies that different stakeholders along the value chain can adopt to reduce their foodprints.
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
American Geosciences Institute. (2014). How does recycling save energy? [online] Available at: https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/how-does-recycling-save-energy [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Bennett, S. (2014). How to Recycle Food Waste. [online] Recycle Nation. Available at: https://recyclenation.com/2014/05/recycle-food-waste [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Borrelle, S.B. (2020). Recycling isn’t enough — the world’s plastic pollution crisis is only getting worse. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/recycling-isnt-enough-the-worlds-plastic-pollution-crisis-is-only-getting-worse-144175 [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Howard, B.C. (2018). 5 recycling myths busted. [online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/5-recycling-myths-busted-plastic/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. (2020). What to recycle. [online] Towards Zero Waste. Available at: https://www.towardszerowaste.gov.sg/recycle/what-to-recycle/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Nemat, B., Razzaghi, M., Bolton, K. and Rousta, K. (2019). The Role of Food Packaging Design in Consumer Recycling Behavior—A Literature Review. Sustainability, 11(16), p.4350.
Parker, L. (2018). China’s ban on trash imports shifts waste crisis to Southeast Asia. [online] National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/china-ban-plastic-trash-imports-shifts-waste-crisis-southeast-asia-malaysia/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2020].
Wikstrom, F., Williams, H., Venkatesh, G. (2016). The influence of packaging attributes on recycling and food waste behaviour – An environmental comparison of two packaging alternatives. Journal of Cleaner Production, 138, p.895-902.
