Guest post by Anne Staley
The products we use in our daily lives impact the climate at
every stage of their lifecycle. From the way we manufacture these products to
the way we use them and even the way they’re disposed – it all has a bearing on
the climate.
If you’re wondering how human consumption has an impact on the
climate, there’s a one-word answer for it – energy. All the activities related
to consumption whether it’s manufacturing, distribution, or the management of
the resulting waste, require energy.
Where does this energy come from? It mostly comes from fossil
fuels, which are universally acknowledged as the largest source of greenhouse
gas emissions (GHG).
What we’re staring ahead at are more extreme weather phenomena like floods, heat waves,
storms, and other climatic catastrophes.
Climate change & Consumption: ticking time
bomb
Circling back to the point that human consumption has a huge
impact on climate change, the EPA report indicates that as much as 42 percent
of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. result from the energy used for the
production, processing, transportation, and disposal of the goods we use (29
percent) and the food we eat (13 percent).
The other major contributors are passenger transport, HVAC &
lighting, and appliances and devices. Traditional waste management systems,
which include landfilling, incineration, etc., account for 1 to 5 percent of
America’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Given this fact, it should hardly come as a surprise that
landfilling features last on EPA’s list of preferred waste management methods
after reuse, recycle/compost, and energy recovery.
Recycling & climate change: The lesser
known truth
Most of us are aware of the direct benefits of recycling, but
what about indirect benefits? They are not as commonly known and one of the
greatest benefits of recycling is prevention of greenhouse gas emissions.
To understand this lesser known correlation between recycling
and global climate change, we need to drill down and learn how human
consumption leads to greenhouse gas emissions in the first place.
Like mentioned earlier, these greenhouse gases are released at
every stage of a product’s lifecycle.
Here’s what happens and how recycling can
help:
- Material extraction: When raw materials are extracted from the earth, they require a large amount of energy, most of which comes from burning fossil fuels leading to greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling generally uses much less energy than extracting and processing virgin materials.
- Manufacturing: The process of manufacturing products also requires a great deal of energy, which again leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing consumption or manufacturing products with less or recycled materials helps cut back greenhouse gas emissions.
- Distribution: All products need to be distributed at various stages of their lifecycle. Distribution by any mode of transportation requires fossil fuels resulting in greenhouse gas emissions and consequently global climate change. Buying local, sustainable, and recycled products helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Usage: All products require energy to be used. Food needs to be cooked, appliances need to be powered on, and cars need fuel to run…get the drift? Using energy-efficient products and unplugging devices when they’re not in use are a couple of ways to reduce the consumption of energy at this stage of a product’s lifecycle.
- End-of-life management: This refers to the way we manage our stuff once it has reached the end of its useful life. Landfills, where a lot of our solid waste ends up, are the largest human-caused source of methane– a greenhouse gas 72 times more potent than CO2 over 20 years. Any other alternative – reusing, recycling/composting, or energy recovery – is preferable to this.
According to the EPA, increasing the
national recycling rate to 35 percent would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
9.8 MMTCE. Clearly, there is a definite correlation between recycling and
climate change, and the sooner we realize it, the better it is for our planet!