SPEECH DELIVERED BY LIGIA NORONHA, ASSISTANT-SECRETARY GENERAL AND HEAD OF NEW YORK OFFICE ON BEHALF OF INGER ANDERSEN
SPEECH DELIVERED BY: Inger Andersen
FOR: International Day on Zero Waste
My thanks to Türkiye for spearheading the first International Day on Zero Waste. The UN Environment Programme and UN Habitat are proud to be facilitating the observance of this day.
Our throwaway culture drives the triple planetary crisis we face today. Not just the crisis of pollution and waste, but the crisis of climate change and the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss. What we produce too often ends up dumped in landfills or in the environment – directly or through leakage and burning. And we then go straight back to the source, the environment, for more, causing untold damage to the planet.
Over two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste were produced in 2020. We are heading for close to four billion by 2050. This is incompatible with our climate, nature, and sustainable development goals. Our planet cannot give of resources endlessly. Our atmosphere, our waters, our soils cannot absorb infinite poison and filth. We need to move to a zero-waste society.
Here are three things we can do:
One, start thinking of waste as an upstream issue.
Right now, we deal with waste after it has been generated. This is topsy turvy. We need to cut off the waste upstream by moving to circularity; in so doing taking hold of many benefits for people and planet. To give just one example, zero waste initiatives in cement, aluminium, steel, plastics and food alone can eliminate almost half of the emissions from the production of goods – equivalent to cutting current emissions from all transport to zero.
Two, start thinking of waste as a valuable resource.
We are literally throwing away resources, such as precious metals, minerals, and other materials.
For example, less than 1 per cent of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. This represents a loss of more than USD 100 billion worth of materials each year. Meanwhile, 95 per cent of the material value in plastic packaging, up to USD 120 billion, is lost annually.
This is before we even start considering the many potential jobs that could be created in the reuse and recycling industry. Waste is incompatible with economic sense.
Three, get behind the deal on plastic pollution.
An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is thrashing out a deal on plastic pollution, which must be finished by 2024. The benefits of this deal could be spectacular, playing out in cleaner oceans and waterways. In lower greenhouse gas emissions. In millions of new jobs. And in showing other sectors that circularity is the best way forward. But to attain these benefits, we need everyone involved in shaping and implementing the deal – from governments to industry to consumers.
Friends, in my view, we are not just aiming for zero-waste societies. We are in fact aiming for societies in which the word “waste” no longer has any meaning – because everything we produce and consume is part of closed, circular loop. If we can reach this ideal, then humanity may finally be able to live within planetary limits – and ensure prosperity, equity, and health for all.
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