-Europe & waste>

-Saves resources

-What is it?

• Waste production is increasing
• How much material resources do Europeans consume?
• How heavy is the ecological rucksack
• Mining facts
• Water
• Forest
• World population growth
• If Chinese consumed like Americans
• Consumption in the world

Waste production is increasing

• municipal waste represents 14% of total waste produced in the EU.
  Source: EEA a
• In 2010, the generation of paper, glass and plastic waste will have increased by around 40 to 60% compared with 1990 levels.
  Source: EEA b
• a decrease in total waste generation recently occurred in some countries. This is mainly due to the stabilisation or even decrease in the generation of industrial and mining waste. In contrast, consumer and commercial behaviour is resulting in increases in the generation of municipal waste including packaging waste.
  Source: EEA c

How much material resources do Europeans consume?

• 540 kg = municipal waste produced by 1 European in a year (1999)
  Source: EEA a
• 50,000 kg = material resources consumed by 1 European in a year.
• 80% of material resources consumed by 1 European are non renewable
• 37% of material resources consumed by 1 European come from non-EU countries
  Source : Wuppertal Institute

How heavy is the ecological rucksack?

The ecological rucksack of 1 kg of "pure" metal used in manufacturing :

The ecological rucksack of a product is many time heavier than the product itself:

A 20 kg computer has an ecological rucksack of 1,500 kg !
A 5 g-gold ring has an ecological rucksack of 2,000 kg !

Mining facts

• 4 to 7% of energy demands in the world is used in mining
• More than 20% of the world electricity production is used for non-ferrous metals production.
• 6,000,000 tonnes of SO2 are released each year in the atmosphere from the smelting of non-ferrous metals (8% of worldwide SO2 emissions).
• In the world there are 8 tailing dams higher than 150 meters, 22 higher than 100 meters and 115 higher than 50 meters.
• Six impoundments are known to have a surface greater than 100 km2 and a storage volume over 50.000.000 m3 (on a football pitch this would give a heap of 10 km height ).
• 500,000 is the estimated number of former mines in the US only.
• 5,000-6,000 of those sites present the majority of the serious environmental or public safety hazards.
• US$ 50-60 billion would be the cost of cleaning up all US abandoned mine sites
  source: Mineral Policy Center
• US$1 billion is the estimated rehabilitation cost for the Clark's Fork River region (Montana, USA) where gold and silver mining started in the late 19th century and continued until the early 1950s.
  source: UNEP, IIED

Water

60% of the Earth's surface is covered with water:

• 97% is salty - inappropriate for drinking or irrigation.
• 3% is fresh water but most freshwater is locked up in ice and snow and in aquifers to deep to tap. The rest is unevenly distributed.

In 2000, water consumption results in:

• 54% of the fresh water available on Earth is already used
• 508 million people suffered from water stress in 31 countries

In 2025 if water consumption remains stable:

• 70% of the fresh water available on Earth would be used
• 3,000 million people would suffer from water stress in 48 countries

If consumption becomes equitable, 90% of the fresh water will be used.
source: Atlas of population and environment

Forests

Between 1990 and 2000, around 140 million hectares of forests were lost. Thau is a total area larger than the combined size of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
source: Margot Wallström

World population growth

World population is increasing faster and faster:

Chinese

What if Chinese consumed like Americans?

• they would consume more paper than the world currently produces;
• they would need 100 million tons of seafood = the entire world fish catch;
• they would need over 80 million barrels of oil a day = slightly more than the 74 million barrels per day the world now produces.

This alone would roughly double global CO2 emissions, accelerating climate change.
source: Eco-Economy

Consumption in the world

Source: UNFPA

Disparities in Consumption :
Annual per Capita Cosumption in Selected High-, Medium-, and Low-Icome Nations

*Adjusted to reflect actual purchasing power, accounting for currency and cost of living differences(the"prchasing power parity" approach).
Sources : Total Private Consumption (except China and India):World Bank 1999: Table 4.11; (fish) Laureti 1999: 48-55;(meat)WRI et al.2000a: Agriculture and Food Electronic Database; (paper)WRI et al.2000b: Data Table ERC.5(fossil fuels)WRI et al.2000b: Data Table ERC; (passenger cars)WRI et al.2000b: Data Table ERC.5.

Source: UNDP & al