When we talk about recycling, the focus is often almost exclusively on plastic. However, the problem of waste is much broader and more complex. Every year, humanity generates between 2,100 and 2.3 billion tons of urban solid waste. *
The generation of waste is directly related to our lifestyles and levels of consumption. And among the most problematic sectors in this scenario are the fashion, energy and mining industries and food. These three categories that have been left behind in many conversations about recycling, but which urgently need attention.
Why also look at other wastes?
The United Nations (UN) Report that,”In accordance with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the fashion industry is the second most polluting in the world.” Every year it generates 92 million tons of textile waste, while the useful time we give to clothes is getting shorter and shorter. According to the UNCTAD, making a single pair of jeans may require up to 7,500 liters of water, the equivalent of what a person drinks in seven years.
In parallel, the organic waste represent another sector to which attention must be paid urgently. According to the Food Waste Index Report 2024 of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the world wasted in 2022 the equivalent of more than 1 billion plates of food a day, while 783 million people were hungry. ** Food waste not only affects food safety, but also aggravates the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity and pollution.
And then they are metallic waste, which are often linked to the most polluting industry: energy and mining. Sectors that, although unfortunately indispensable today, must urgently be reinvented if we want to truly move towards a circular economy.
Apropos of World Recycling Day (May 17), At ReciVeci, we take the opportunity to broaden our view and share three initiatives that demonstrate how it is possible to begin to transform the world with innovation and creative thinking.
1. Osom Brand (USA): spinning the future of fashion with discarded clothes
The fashion industry currently has an immense environmental cost. In the United States, they are almost discarded. 11 million tons of clothing per year, and 99% of these textiles are technically recyclable, according to figures from Osom Brand. And this initiative decided to act on this reality by developing a technology that makes it possible to manufacture yarns and fabrics without water, without dyes and without chemicals, using discarded clothing as raw material.
One of their most iconic products was a collaboration with Nike, in which they created shoes with 100% recycled materials, including plastics. This type of initiative not only avoids the use of virgin natural resources, but also significantly reduces the pollution generated by microplastics and dyes in textiles.
2. Neptuno Pumps (Chile): circular economy in the energy and mining industry 🇨🇱
These industries —especially mining— are some of the most intensive in the use of natural resources, highly dependent on extraction of virgin raw material and responsible for large greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to causing profound environmental injustices.
From ReciveCI, it is important to establish our position in the face of extractivist logic. We firmly believe that the current model needs to be transformed towards systems that are less invasive with nature. However, we also recognize that The ecological transition is progressive, especially in strategic sectors that today support a large part of the functioning of the global economy.
In this context, the Chilean company Neptuno Pumps, offers an alternative vision from the circular economy. They have developed solutions of recycling and reuse of raw material from industrial pumps used in mining and fluid transport, sectors where conditions are highly abrasive and corrosive.
Instead of manufacturing new equipment (with the ecological footprint that this implies in its production and transport), Neptuno focuses on recover, redesign, recycle and extend the useful life of existing ones.
We highlight this experience because it shows that circularity is not exclusive to mass consumer products or household waste, but it can, and must, also be implemented in the toughest sectors of the productive apparatus.
3. Agrovivas (Ecuador): community composting from homes
In Ecuador, it is estimated that more than 55% of the waste generated is organic, according to a study from Zero Waste Alliance.*** In other words, more than half of our waste could avoid reaching landfills if we simply separated the leftover food from the source.
Agrovivas it is a project that works precisely along that line. Currently, 500 families in Quito are transforming their organic waste into compost thanks to this initiative, which promotes separation at source and community composting. In a city where the level of industrialization is low, but the production of waste is high, solutions like this have enormous scalability and replication potential.
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Projects that also promote innovation and circularity in Ecuador:
At ReciVeci, we are proud to design waste management systems that provide creative solutions to the specific needs of companies and institutions to make the most of resources and recycle.
This is the case of the recycling project for polyboard cups in McDonald's establishments, where we designed a system for using cups that were not recycled before, obtaining environmental KPIs and including basic recyclers, to be transformed into napkins with the support of the company Tork of the Essity group. Here you can learn more.
Another project that makes us proud is the Glass Hub by ReciVeci, this space that began operations in September 2023 and which, more than a glass collection center, is a catalyst for changes in glass recycling in the country. This project came to boost the recycling of a 100% and infinitely recyclable material that was being wasted because it did not have an efficient logistics chain. Find out more here.
At ReciVeci we promote inclusive recycling, but we dream of a world where materials and consumption habits are rethought and redesigned, so that Reducing waste production is the real goal.
Are we moving in this direction together?
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