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Make Europe a Recycling society

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Subido el 19 de julio de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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The European Commission wants to turn Europe into a recycling society. This term describes a society with an economy based on a rational use of natural resources. That means, on the one hand, drawing on those resources efficiently without overexploiting them and, on the other hand, systematically recovering resources at the end of their life span to re-inject them into the economic system in the form of recycled materials, composting, energy recovery, etc. Two strategies – on the sustainable use of resources and on the prevention and recycling of waste – are launching this debate on the future of the European economy.

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The world's economy is consuming more and more natural resources, those which come directly 00:00:00
from nature such as fish or wood, and non-renewable raw materials like coal and petroleum. 00:00:10
This tapping of resources is accelerating at the same rate as economic growth, which 00:00:18
is based on the use, transformation and consumption of natural resources. 00:00:22
The European Union is one of the largest economic blocs in the world, and accordingly it is 00:00:28
one of the largest users of natural resources. 00:00:34
Many of these resources need to be imported from third countries. 00:00:38
Many of them can be produced internally. 00:00:41
In the world, and in the EU, we are facing a situation where, despite some back-settings, 00:00:46
economies are growing and growing very fast, and that means they are using more and more 00:00:55
and more resources. 00:00:59
That is a truth we cannot avoid. 00:01:00
The problem is the environmental impact of the exploitation of these resources. 00:01:03
The more we consume, the greater the environmental pressure. 00:01:07
For example, petrol consumed by vehicle traffic produces carbon dioxide emissions and consequently 00:01:12
contributes to global warming. 00:01:17
This phenomenon is on the increase, even though the environmental performance of each vehicle 00:01:20
taken separately is improving. 00:01:24
Today we have products, as some people call them, as mobile carriers of pollution. 00:01:27
That means if you have a product, in many cases the main pollution is not created in 00:01:34
the production phase, it comes during the use phase and later on when the end of use 00:01:39
is reached. 00:01:45
So that is why environmental pressures grow with the growing economy. 00:01:46
The more we consume, even if the individual product becomes better, we still have more 00:01:53
pressure on the environment because we have more products. 00:01:58
One of the most visible environmental impacts of the use of resources is the increase in 00:02:02
the amount of waste. 00:02:05
Every European produces 500 kilos of household waste a year, most of which is placed in landfills. 00:02:08
In spite of recycling regulations, this mountain of waste is not shrinking in Europe. 00:02:15
Kees Willinger is a waste management consultant to the European Commission. 00:02:23
For him, this phenomenon is simple to explain. 00:02:26
Even if you have seen that in the last ten years the total amount of recycling has doubled 00:02:30
– 100% more recycling than ten years ago – you still see that the amount of waste 00:02:35
going to landfill is not going down dramatically because there are more people and the economy 00:02:40
is growing so there is more waste generated. 00:02:48
Industry shares that view. 00:02:52
Bill Duncan, who advises businesses on the use of natural resources, estimates that the 00:02:54
environmental impact of economic growth has to be better controlled in the future. 00:02:58
It's really a subset of sustainable development. 00:03:04
How can we continue to protect and improve standards of living across an expanding EU 00:03:08
through economic growth and jobs but without the environmental impacts we've had from 00:03:16
growth in the past? 00:03:22
That's the trick we have to find the answer for. 00:03:24
The European Commission has been working for a number of years to find that answer, which 00:03:30
today takes the form of two strategies, one on the sustainable use of resources and the 00:03:34
other on waste management. 00:03:39
We cannot find the solution in simply reducing the amount of resources that we are using. 00:03:41
The reason is very simple. 00:03:47
We have, for example, new member states in the Union who need to build up enormous amounts 00:03:48
of infrastructure, housing, durable goods. 00:03:54
It is clear that that will take additional and more resources. 00:03:59
If we look worldwide, the picture is even more dramatic. 00:04:02
Think of huge growing economies like China or India, where there is no doubt that they 00:04:06
will use more and more resources. 00:04:10
Some statistics tell us that resources used by tonnage will quadruple until 2050. 00:04:13
Economic growth goes hand in hand with environmental objectives. 00:04:21
We can achieve both the growth of our economy and the increase in employment, and at the 00:04:27
same time a good environment and good health for our citizens. 00:04:34
The big challenge is decoupling. 00:04:40
So far, regulations have succeeded in slowing the increase in environmental damage, which 00:04:43
is already slower than that of economic growth. 00:04:47
But in the future, the Commission wants to change radically the environmental impact 00:04:50
curve while maintaining economic growth. 00:04:54
That's what's called absolute decoupling. 00:04:57
We have to aim for absolute decoupling, that's to say maintaining the environmental impact 00:05:00
as flat as we can, zero or even less, very difficult in some situations, and then working 00:05:07
for economic growth to move ahead of that. 00:05:15
I think in many sectors, even if we all agree that absolute decoupling has to be the long-term 00:05:19
goal, we're going to have first to show some relative decoupling. 00:05:25
So the solution must be to use our resources more efficiently in the terms of making more 00:05:31
of a given amount, but also, and that is the added value of the strategy, in the terms 00:05:36
of creating less environmental pressure, or impact as we call it, per given tonnage. 00:05:42
Obviously the question is how to achieve this decoupling in all sectors of the European economy. 00:05:49
To start with, the Commission proposes a phase of analysis by experts in study groups at 00:05:56
European level and in the framework of the United Nations. 00:06:00
One thing is certain, the solution will require technological progress and the use of financial 00:06:07
instruments. 00:06:12
I think we're reaching the time where we could apply the cost of the environmental 00:06:14
impact to the price of the product. 00:06:21
You could, for example, look at two cars and say, well, this car consumes less, has fewer 00:06:24
emissions, therefore has no surcharge. 00:06:29
If you choose to buy this car, which may be a larger, heavier car, then there is an 00:06:34
added €100 reflecting the environmental cost that comes with that choice being made 00:06:40
in society. 00:06:47
For waste management, the Commission proposes to apply the main principles of the resource 00:06:49
strategy. 00:06:53
For every 16 tons of resources consumed yearly by every European citizen, only 10 tons are 00:06:55
transformed into durables, such as housing or infrastructure. 00:07:01
The other 6 tons are lost in the form of polluting emissions or waste. 00:07:06
The Commission therefore proposes measures for putting back into circulation the resources 00:07:11
contained in waste streams. 00:07:15
We want, through the possibilities of waste management, to contribute to the reduction 00:07:17
of environmental pressure. 00:07:23
That can be done, and one of our greatest targets is by making less waste to begin with 00:07:26
and by using the waste that we are creating in a more efficient way. 00:07:33
A main step in doing that is, of course, to improve the way and to improve the efficiency 00:07:39
with which we are reusing waste in the sense of recycling or energy recovery. 00:07:45
There is a huge stock of raw material in society. 00:07:52
I think there's enough aluminium and steel which could be recycled to support 400 years 00:07:58
of economic growth. 00:08:05
It's already here, it's not in the mountains, it's not in the ground, and we can recycle 00:08:07
that effectively and maintain our use of that. 00:08:12
For industrial waste, normally the vast majority of this waste can be recycled. 00:08:16
For construction and demolition waste, it's easy to recycle up to 90, maybe 95 percent 00:08:21
of the construction and demolition waste. 00:08:27
The most complicated waste stream is actually the waste from households, because there's 00:08:29
so many different materials, so many different products, that you have to set up a quite 00:08:34
elaborate system to continue to improve recycling. 00:08:39
To encourage the recovery of waste on a large scale, the European Commission proposes to 00:08:45
overhaul the framework legislation on waste by introducing new measures. 00:08:50
First manufacturers have to be persuaded to take into account the biological cycle of 00:08:55
their products, particularly for the product's end-of-life phase. 00:08:59
Second, to stimulate the development of a genuine European recycling market, the Commission 00:09:04
wants to introduce minimum standards for recycled products and for recycling installations. 00:09:10
And finally, the flow of waste needs to be reduced, so Member States will be asked to 00:09:16
put in place national prevention strategies. 00:09:20
The Member States will be able to go even further in that direction, for example by 00:09:25
using financial instruments. 00:09:29
If landfilling is the option which is most used, one of the obvious things to do is to 00:09:33
make landfilling more expensive. 00:09:39
If landfilling is more expensive, people will less be tempted to go to the landfill. 00:09:40
And a number of countries have done this and have implemented landfill taxes. 00:09:46
And this proves to be a very effective way of reducing the amount of waste going to landfills, 00:09:51
because it immediately makes all the other alternatives more attractive economically. 00:09:57
Recycling a tonne of steel takes fewer resources, consumes less energy and causes less pollution 00:10:04
than manufacturing a tonne of steel from iron ore. 00:10:09
The Commission wants to transform Europe into what would be called a recycling economy, 00:10:13
a society where nothing goes to waste and where everything is recreated, a society which 00:10:17
nurtures growth by using resources rationally and polluting as little as possible. 00:10:23
It gives itself 25 years, one generation, to achieve that objective. 00:10:28
The strategies gives us a framework we need in order to use our natural resources on a 00:10:34
sustainable footing and reducing its environmental impact. 00:10:44
They will also strengthen our efforts to prevent waste and to move us to a recycling society 00:10:51
for the waste that cannot be avoided. 00:10:59
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
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      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
766
Fecha:
19 de julio de 2007 - 12:01
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
11′ 04″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
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Tamaño:
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