In April this year we marked the 30th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Rio Earth Summit – 30yrs On); a summit which started the beginning of the global effort to address environmental issues through recycling and reusing materials.
Now, 30 years on from the Rio Summit, the Global Development Hub and Grantham Institute at Imperial College London have gathered some of the key figures in the UN to reflect on where we are with the outcomes of Rio in today’s world. This is an important conversation to have, as the world has changed a lot in 30 years, and it’s crucial that we check in on the progress that has been made (or not) since Rio.
In this article, apart from the short summary of Rio Summit anniversary, we are answering some of the most common questions considering the connection between environmental awareness and recycling technology:
- What is environmental awareness and what is recycling technology?
- What is the link between sustainability and recycling?
- What is the role of the private sector in recycling of e-waste?
Becoming more environmentally aware
Let’s start from the basics. Environmental awareness is an important factor in achieving sustainability. The problem is that not everyone has the ability to be aware of their surroundings and make environmentally conscious decisions.
So why should we care about the environment? Because it’s the only one we’ve got! We can do our part to take care of it by becoming more environmentally aware, and focusing our efforts on recycling and reducing global emissions.
Environmental awareness has been a hot topic in the past few years. With the increase in environmental awareness, recycling technology has also become more popular. What’s the purpose of both? Environmental awareness is the knowledge and understanding of the environment and its impact on society. Recycling technology is a process by which we reuse materials that have been used before.
At Votechnik we can clearly see that environmental awareness and recycling technology are interconnected and should be promoted together. We aim to help companies become aware of the newest recycling technology available on the market. We believe that highly advanced recycling technology not only helps to reduce pollution and e-waste, but also provides eco-friendly solutions for running the businesses. At the same time it lowers the environmental impact of manufacturing new products and decreases the carbon footprint of recycled items. It is easy to manage and efficient.
Unfortunately during the Rio Summit anniversary, it has been concluded that half of the rich nations that were supposed to lower their climate emissions by year 2000 failed. Despite 30 years of talks, global emissions are not falling, with 15 per cent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than in 1992, and the world is on course for a disastrous three degrees Celsius of warming.
With environmental awareness at an all time high, the correlation between that and recycling technology is more important now than ever before.
Recycling & Sustainability
The term sustainability was coined in 1987 by the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission with the goal of preserving the earth’s resources for future generations. From that moment, recycling became a major part of managing the waste produced by the ever growing population and its demands for food, clean water, consumer products and housing, in a more sustainable way.
On the other hand, electronic waste, or e-waste is the fastest growing stream of hazardous waste worldwide. E-waste comprises various inputs, including hazardous materials, potentially valuable and recyclable materials, and other information. E-waste follows various pathways after disposal, including formal and informal recycling, storage, and dumping, in both developed and less-developed countries.
How can recycling materials lead to environmental sustainability? Though recycling was originally conceived as a way to reduce the need to extract more resources from nature, it has gone beyond that and offers an array of other benefits. Recycling is an environmentally-conscious method of reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, reducing energy usage by cutting back on production costs, and ensuring your business doesn’t make a huge impact on the environment.
The ability to recycle e-waste is one of key factors in determining how healthy and defined an area is. For example, one city could be better off than another because it has recycling infrastructure in place or due to the cost of disposal/recycle fees.
Recycling is becoming an increasingly important part of the technological field. New recycling systems have been used to recycle metal, plastic, and even water!
A growing number of countries have adopted extended producer responsibility laws, which mandate electronics manufacturers to pay for proper recycling and disposal of electronics. The e-waste recycling industry is becoming more formalised as the potential to recover valuable materials has increased. Still, many recent studies have shown that e-waste recycling carries various occupational health and environmental risks.
The roles of the recycling companies
A company that plans to grow significant needs to serve the urban, commercial, and industrial clusters must put environmental awareness and sustainability at the top of its priorities. When thinking about TV and LCD recycling and sustainability, focusing on the link between those two can make your business (and city!) more efficient and environmentally friendly. How? A recycle company should be able to provide its community with a total e-waste solution, which can include collecting recyclable e-wastes. The company may also make use of the recent AI recycling technology to separate useful materials that can be reused.
The following are some ways that the TV recyclers can use recycling and sustainability to improve their business:
- Reduce the amount of e-waste going to landfills by using high-tech recycling technologies.
- Use renewable resources for your TV and LCD recycling company’s energy needs such as solar or wind power.
- Encourage employees to learn more about recycling robots that can help them in their work.
- Optimise TV and LCD recycling process by using intelligent software and maximising the number of materials that can be recycled.
- Become an eco-friendly company, and put money back into the local community.
We all know that the environment is already in terrible shape. While we can’t solve the problem in one day, there’s a lot that you can do to help lessen its impact on future generations. Learn more about e-waste and how it’s impacting the planet from this infographic created by hp:
