Welcome to the Sustainability Series
Breaking down waste, recycling and the circular economy and exploring issues before the bin, but not beyond your control.
Welcome to The Sustainability Series, a blog series which explores high level waste, sustainability and environmental topics and breaks them down to help you make sustainable choices and changes.
Focusing on waste, recycling and the circular economy, each Sustainability Series will take you on an informative path of understanding from the big picture down to the household level.
In Australia, we generate 76 million tonnes of waste every year1, some from our kerbside bins to and most from industry waste. This amount is growing year on year. When waste ends up in landfill, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Our recovery and recycling rate for the 2020-21 year sat around 60% of products and with waste export bans now fully in place, the reality of dealing with our recyclables is coming to the forefront. Without a strong call for materials made from recycled feedstock, the fates of these items will likely be stockpiled or disposed of in other ways.
The circular economy is based on the premise to: design out waste and pollution, keep materials in use at their highest value for the longest period of time and regenerate natural systems. Sounds like the ultimate option! However, only 13% of consumers actually understand the term ‘circular economy’2 and globally, our systems are only 7.2% circular3
The Sustainability Series will help you understand Australia’s waste and recycling systems, policies, governance and action where I will be taking the technical and making it understandable.
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About the author Emma
I am a sustainability communicator and educator, speaking to the grown up generation to better understand our waste and resources.
Sustainability is not all about storing your food in matching glass jars and feel-good recycling. I talk about current issues you probably have questions about and distil them for your understanding.
I take the technical and make it understandable so that we can all have an impact on sustainable living.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/jobs-and-biz-news/consumers-dont-know-what-circular-economy-means-but-are-willing-to-splash-out-for-it/
Looking forward to learning more! V
Hi! 🤗 I don't know if you might be interested but I love to write about fashion, travel and our relationship with clothes. My writing has not commercial purposes, in fact I focus on sustainability. I talk about anything related primarily to vintage and pre loved fashion 🎀 but also slow living and slow traveling 🌱 I like to explore the impact textile industry and consumistic culture have on the environment and also what people can do to shift the tendency.
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https://from2tothrift.substack.com/