Earth Equity News

EPA Report Suggests Waste Reduction and Recycling Significantly Reduces CO2 Emissions. By John Collins Rudolf, NYTimes, September 21, 2009. "A new report [PDF, 98 pp] from the United States Environmental Protection Agency suggests that way Americans procure, produce, deliver and dispose of goods and services…accounts for 42% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions…generated by land use, food and product production across the entire life cycle -- from resource extraction (think mining, agriculture and forestry) to manufacturing, packaging, transportation and ultimately disposal. The report breaks from conventional analyses of greenhouse gas emissions, which typically focus on sectors such as transportation or electricity generation. According to Joshua Stolaroff, a former science and technology policy fellow with EPA.'s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and the report's lead technical author, it suggests that emissions savings from waste reduction, recycling and improved product design can be significant… Doubling the recycling of construction and demolition debris, for example, would result in an emissions savings of 150 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, equal to the entire annual carbon emissions from the state of North Carolina, the study found. Reducing product packaging by half could also reap significant benefits -- as much as 105 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year. Increasing the lifespan of personal computers by 25%, meanwhile, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by 15 million tons of per year. 'Extending the life of products in general is probably a huge opportunity,' said Mr. Stolaroff. 'Manufacturers need to reduce the lifecycle cost of their products.'"