WASTE is a problem all over the world. It affects us in two ways. First, improperly managed waste causes a lot of environmental and health problems like pollution, flooding, global warming, diseases, etc. Second, waste is a misuse of natural resources. It deprives others too of the Earth’s limited resources. Food waste for instance, is pitiful because many are dying of hunger and millions go to sleep everyday without taking a single meal.
I admire those who go out of their way to address the problem of waste. In the course of my research on environmental issues, I come across noble and innovative ways to combat this problem. Let me share a few of these latest innovations so that others may be inspired to follow their lead.
Fighting food waste: A lot of food is wasted in grocery stores when it is thrown away after their “best before” dates. This type of food labeling however, doesn’t categorically say that food is unsafe to eat after the date. So, in an effort to reduce food waste, a British grocery store chain sells food past its 'best before' date. The East of England Co-op, a grocer with 125 locations throughout East Anglia, has begun marking down certain foods to a mere 10 pence (around seven pesos) in order to encourage customers to buy them. The reduced price applies only to non-perishable foods, such as pasta, chips, grains, dried foods, canned goods, and rice.
Roger Grosvenor, joint chief executive for the Co-op, said in a press release: "The vast majority of our customers understand they are fine to eat and appreciate the opportunity to make a significant saving on some of their favorite products. This is not a money making exercise, but a sensible move to reduce food waste and keep edible food in the food chain. By selling perfectly edible food we can save 50,000 items every year which would otherwise have gone to waste."
Reusable coffee cups: The bottle deposit system has been around for a very long time in the Philippines. But in the city of Freiburg, Germany, the deposit system was applied to coffee cups. In November 2016, the city launched the Freiburg Cup, a hard plastic to-go cup with a disposable lid that is provided to businesses by the city. Customers pay a one-euro deposit for the cup, which can be returned to any one of 100 stories in the city center. These stores will disinfect and reuse the cups, up to 400 times.
Having a reusable cup option is particularly relevant for Germans, who drink 300,000 cups of coffee per hour. That’s around 2.8 billion coffee cups a year, all of which are used for an average of 13 minutes before being tossed out. Disposable coffee cups cannot be recycled easily, because the paper is lined with wax or plastic to make it waterproof. I know this for a fact because I worked in the paper industry where I took charge of the procurement and processing of waste paper.
Reusale and collapsible stadium: Qatar already has five stadia, but it needs another one as host of the world’s biggest sporting event. What will happen to the extra stadium after the event? The answer- dismantle it.
The Ras Abu Aboud stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar was designed to be totally demountable and removable after the event. The stadium has a capacity of 40,000 and its structure is based on shipping containers which can be easily assembled or disassembled as required. Its parts will be used in other sporting or non-sporting projects, setting a new standard in sustainability and introducing bold new ideas in tournament legacy planning. The venue’s temporary nature and clever modular design will mean that fewer building materials will be required than in traditional stadium building, helping to keep construction costs.