Towards a green economy
本报告2011年由United Nations Environment Programme发表
Key messages
1. The increasing volume and complexity of waste associated with economic growth are posing serious risks to ecosystems and human health. Every year, an estimated 11.2 billion tonnes of solid waste are collected worldwide and decay of the organic proportion of solid waste is contributing to about 5 per cent of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Of all the waste streams, waste from electrical and electronic equipment containing new and complex hazardous substances presents the fastest-growing challenge in both developed and developing countries.
2. The growth of the waste market,
increasing resource scarcity and the availability of new technologies are
offering opportunities for greening the waste sector. The global waste market,
from collection to recycling, is estimated at US$ 410 billion a year, not
including the sizable informal segment in developing countries. Recycling is
likely to grow steadily and form a vital component of greener waste management
systems, which will provide decent employment. While currently only 25 per cent
of waste is recovered or recycled, under the green investment scenario modelled
in the Green Economy Report (GER), the amount of waste destined for landfills
would be considerably reduced. These gains, implying the development and
expansion of new market opportunities, would be achieved through the doubling
of the recycling rate of industrial waste (an increase from 7 to 15 per cent),
near full recycling of e-waste (from a current estimated level of 15 per cent),
and an increase of about 3.5 times over the current recycling rate of Municipal
Solid Waste – the principal source of recycled materials, from 10 to 34 per
cent. Furthermore, by 2050, effectively all organic waste would be composted or
recovered for energy, compared with 70 per cent under a business–as-usual (BAU)
scenario.
3. There is no one-size-fits-all when it
comes to greening the waste sector, but there are commonalities. Most of the
waste management related standards are national or local; however, as a common
feature, greening the waste sector includes, in the first instance,
minimisation of waste. Where waste cannot be avoided, recovery of materials and
energy from waste, as well as remanufacturing and recycling waste into usable
products should be the second option. The overall goal is to establish a global
circular economy in which material use and waste generation is minimised, any
unavoidable waste is recycled or remanufactured, and any remaining waste is
treated in a manner least harmful to the environment and human health, or even
in a way which generates new value such as energy recovered from waste.
4. Investing in greening the waste
sector can generate multiple economic and environmental benefits. Recycling
leads to substantial resource savings. For example, for every tonne of paper
recycled, 17 trees and 50 per cent of water can be saved. By recycling each
tonne of aluminium, the following resource savings could be accrued: 1.3 tonne
of bauxite residues, 15 m3 of cooling water, 0.86 m3 of process water and 37
barrels of oil. These are in addition to the avoidance of 2 tonnes of CO2 and
11 kg of SO2 released. In terms of new products, the Waste to Energy(WtE)
market was already 292Waste estimated at US$ 19.9 billion in 2008 and projected
to grow by 30 per cent by 2014. In terms of climate benefits, between 20 to 30
per cent of projected landfill methane emissions for 2030 can be reduced at
negative cost and 30 to 50 per cent at costs of less than US$ 20/tCO2-eq/yr.
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