Leadership
Introduction
In the United States, it is hard to imagine how climate change affects our everyday lives. If you are in the middle of the US, you might notice hotter weather or strange weather changes that may lead to tornados, or on the coasts, you may experience more hurricanes. But if every year changes, and you don’t track the weather changes, it is hard to notice that the climate is getting hotter, and natural disasters are becoming more frequent, stronger, and more destructive than we have experienced in the past. If you aren’t able to notice the difference, and your life hasn’t been changed because of it, it is easy to believe that climate change doesn’t exist. For most people, the most environmentally friendly change they can make is whether or not they recycle their goods.
Studying abroad in a place where lives are directly impacted, as mentioned in my second key insight, by climate change has changed my perspective of how we do business and how badly it is needed to change the mindset. In the long term, it seems like businesses are going to lose money no matter what. The depletion of natural resources makes them more expensive and climate change is going to cost firms money anyway due to pollution taxes versus the amount of money spent on research, design, and procurement of eco-friendly or recyclable materials for packaging. In recent years, we have seen big corporations switch to become more sustainable in their manufacturing or sourcing efforts, but still, 69 percent of plastic containers and packaging were landfilled in 2018.[1]
While there are processes where packaging can be incinerated and the energy created from the process can be re-used, this method has been proven to be expensive and creates additional environmental risks, which defeats the purpose. I aim to increase the production and use of recyclable packaging to decrease the amount of waste put into landfills. This can be achieved by addressing the top three reasons why recycling fails to be a common practice: a lack of investment in recycling centers, a lack of education about how to recycle which leads to underparticipation, and outdated laws and regulations at the state and federal level.
Recommendations and Implementation
1. Lack of Investment
There is currently a certain mindset that businesses have; once the product leaves their facility, they are not responsible for what consumers do with the packaging. This then leaves the consumers or municipalities in charge of recycling their waste. If municipalities do not take the proper steps to dispose of those that can be recycled, the next option is to incinerate and use the runoff for energy, but only 5% of waste is disposed of this way.[2] So the final option is to send it to a landfill. By fueling landfills, local governments create their enemy. As the demand for these facilities increases, they are constructed closer and closer to residential areas. As a result, this limits the potential for residential development in addition to the homeowners’ unlikeliness to live near a landfill. Now that there is an incentive for local governments to want to invest in a more circular economy where plastics can be reused, there are a few solutions that can be implemented.
My first solution is to tackle one of the biggest items in landfills: plastic bags. In the world, we use 5 trillion plastic bags a year, with Americans using 365 bags per person per year on average.[3] Plastic bags are in landfills, rivers, lakes, and oceans which are contaminating our food and water to the point that it is estimated that we eat the equivalent of a credit card in microplastics every week.
To ensure that waste is being recycled, I aim to negotiate with local governments for part of their waste management budgets with their contracted waste management companies. The extra money in the budget will be to work closely with engineers at these waste management companies to develop advanced sorting technologies and innovate the recycling process so that it is more efficient and reliable. In addition, I will gather funding from fundraising, sponsorships, or grant money to sponsor a project with university students to consult on a process improvement project to assist in the development of these new technologies and how to implement them in the current process. Not only will this allow the chance for experience for engineering students, but it also will raise my second point of increasing education about recycling.
2. Lack of Education
I want to change the way we teach about recycling and reuse from a young age. When the topic is first approached, it is kept very simple. These lessons were maybe accompanied by a video or a cartoon example. Unfortunately, the issue runs much deeper than this as we grow older. To change education is to change the output wanted from the class or the lesson. A class on recycling on its own could be a good idea as lesson plans could teach small crafts like how to turn an old plastic ice cream pint into a plant pot. I propose changing the education to start implementing ways to reuse or recycle waste into something for the lesson.
In this change in education, I will start with the local high school of my hometown. There is a large Future Farmers of America (FFA) club at my old high school where they sell plants every spring to fundraise for the program. Starting with the FFA, I will propose a community drive of paper milk cartons that are cleaned and can be used to start the plants. Paper milk cartons act the same way as a pot or any other seed starting pot and these planters can be transplanted right into someone’s garden at home and over time the carton will break apart and be composted in the soil. Unfortunately, recycling or making small crafts is not seen as cool or trendy, so I propose an additional integration to make recycling more fun for high school students.
Today we see social media influencers flipping clothing into something most people would have never thought of. Unfortunately, the results of transforming an old shirt into something new or using old plastic bags to crochet into a new tote bag are time-consuming and require a lot of focus. It is difficult to inspire people to start projects like this as consumers want instantaneous results and free time is rare. But as high schoolers try to fit in with the trends or look for cheaper ways to get clothes as they get ready for college, there needs to be a program that fits these needs.
I propose to start a club for learning to crochet, knit, and sew. To keep up with the trends or create your style, there is no better way than to reuse clothes or make your own. This club will teach how to properly clean and disinfect old clothes, to take apart seams properly, how to use a sewing machine, and how to work with different fabrics. On social media today, users are often in awe of watching creators create their clothing and use their skills to create their style or keep up with the trends. This club will not only teach useful skills that can be used later into adult life but will decrease the amount of clothes going into landfills and satisfy consumer needs.
3. Outdated Laws and Regulations
Growing up in Wisconsin, there was very little to be taught about recycling besides separating waste and paper into different bins. We would have an agricultural ambassador come every semester to speak about things we can do to benefit the environment. As I am from a farming town, the topics were typically about the benefits of the byproducts from corn or soybeans. Imagine my surprise when they told us in middle school that the bins meant nothing and that the janitors put everything in the same dumpsters because the school could not afford the proper recycling services.
When I was in high school, I investigated what the laws and regulations for recycling were and all I could find was a law from 1990. 34 years later, that law is still the only one in place for “solid waste reduction, recovery, and recycling” in Wisconsin.[4] At the national level, no law mandates recycling. States are currently using outdated laws and regulations when there has been so much advancement in technology and an increasing demand for reused goods as prices continue to rise in today’s economy.
Some states are improving their regulations like Oregon, which are requiring producers of materials to pay for the effort to collect and transport their materials for recycling. This way, they have more incentive to promote reducing or reusing. When I was in Chile, a new law had been implemented to help create a more circular economy by 2040, which mandates that “manufacturers, producers, and importers of priority products are required to organize and finance the collection, disposal, reuse, or recycling of their marketed products in the country.”[5] Both of these governments have implemented laws and regulations that can be used to follow as an example for the State and National level for new legislation on recycling and holding companies accountable.
My solution to the problem is to start with the legislation in Wisconsin. I will start by lobbying for more funding that will go towards the innovation of recycling centers to utilize new technology to withstand more demand in their use. Chile’s new law works on a national level, but due to the size of the population in Wisconsin, I believe a law similar to what Oregon is currently testing out will be a way to involve the government more on this pressing issue in a way that could still fund recycling centers without a change to the state budget. Wisconsin could learn from Oregon’s success with the new laws and the United States could learn from the new laws from Chile. Using case studies like legislation in Oregon or Chile as evidence could help my lobbying efforts build an audience, knowing that there has been success in recycling efforts.
Evaluation
At the end of every month, I will evaluate how each waste management company in contract with local municipalities has grown in their facility innovation and evaluate the efficiency of their process, and the growth of daily efficiency, as well as measure their output. Moreover, I will be in contact with the faculty mentor working with the group of engineering students who are helping to innovate the recycling process and coordinate a time for a midterm progress presentation and a final presentation when the project is completed. I will collaborate with the management of the waste management companies for any feedback or additional constraints that they are facing that could potentially be used as a new project for the next semester with a group of local university engineering students.
Second, at the end of every semester, I will meet with the students participating in the classes that have implemented more eco-friendly methods to gather feedback and evaluate what they have learned from using new techniques or materials. I will also contact the faculty mentor associated with the high school club to create a showcase for students to show off their recycled creations to inspire other students. I will ask the students what new skills they would like to learn and other methods that could be implemented by the faculty mentor.
Finally, I will be working closely with the lobbying efforts to change government legislation and will gather feedback from those working with me about how successful our efforts have been. Additionally, I will look for continuous input on how to improve our process. I will work closely with my legislators who are in the state government and will grade my efforts by how far our efforts make their way into new legislation.
In conclusion, creating eco-friendly and biodegradable packaging is important when looking for long-term solutions. Some companies are unable to budget to invest in research and design to create innovative packaging and still make it accessible to consumers. So, the solution of reinvesting and innovating our current recycling processes, along with some governmental help, allows businesses and consumers to invest in their futures.
Sources
[1] “Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data.” Www.epa.gov, 7 Sept. 2017, www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/containers-and-packaging-product-specific.
[2] “News Release: NREL Calculates Lost Value of Landfilled Plastic in U.S.” Www.nrel.gov, www.nrel.gov/news/press/2022/nrel-calculates-lost-value-of-landfilled-plastic-in-us.html#:~:text=Scientists%20at%20the%20U.S.%20Department. Accessed 10 Mar. 2024
[3] Center for Biological Diversity. “10 Facts about Single-Use Plastic Bags.” Biologicaldiversity.org, 2018, www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html.
[4] “Wisconsin’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Law | Wisconsin DNR.” Dnr.wisconsin.gov, dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Recycling/law.html.
[5] ““Chile Waste Management and Recycling.” Www.trade.gov, www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/chile-waste-management-and-recycling.