recycling

By Jacob Wallace - Waste Dive, May 30, 2024

A strong majority of shareholders voted against the proposal, which urged Republic to more explicitly detail how its investments in automation and artificial intelligence affect workers.

Dive Brief:

• Republic Services shareholders voted down a proposal last week that would have required the companyto prepare a report on how its climate-related policies affect workers and its supply chain. Republic’s board of directors urged a no vote.
• The International Brotherhood of Teamsters made the proposal. The labor union argued that Republic needs to address the impact of artificial intelligence and automation —which Republic plans to use to pursue a circular economy for plastics, among other climate priorities — on workers and communities.
• The company responded that its climate plan already includes engagement with stakeholders and said it would “continue to responsibly integrate technology” while balancing upskilling and retaining employees, per a securities filing ahead of the meeting.

By Ann S. Maest - Earthworks, January 9, 2024

In this report, Earthworks, Transport and Environment, and Earthjustice highlight the potential of remining to help meet the increasing demand for transition minerals. However, further study and stronger regulations are necessary before this new innovation can support a safe, just, and sustainable clean energy transition.

• Press Release
• Watch: US Remining Webinar
• Watch: EU Remining Webinar
• Frequently Asked Questions

Developed to assist policy makers and technical experts in initiating discussions with environmental and human rights leaders, as well as representatives of impacted communities, “Remining for the Energy Transition” dissects what is known and unknown about remining today: how renewable energy minerals can be recovered from mine waste deposits, its possible benefits and dangers, and practices that best reinforce gains and mitigate risks.

Remining mine waste is touted as an alternative to virgin extraction for its promise to deliver better community, conservation, and climate outcomes.

But is remining the silver bullet many deem it to be? 

This report highlights its potential to meet some of the demand for transition minerals. Remined cobalt, for example, could power more than 185,000 electric vehicles. However, more work is still needed to ensure remining is safe and sustainable for people, communities, and our planet.

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

By staff - International Alliance of Waste Pickers, November 13, 2023

The IAWP position paper outlines the essential steps that need to be taken to ensure that the transition to a circular economy for plastics is fair and inclusive for all workers, particularly waste pickers. These steps include:

• Recognizing and formalising the role of waste pickers in the plastic waste management system.
• Providing social protection and decent work conditions for waste pickers.
• Investing in training and capacity building for waste pickers.
• Ensuring that waste pickers have a meaningful say in the design and implementation of plastic waste management policies and programs.

Waste pickers are essential to the global plastic waste management system. They collect and sort recyclable materials, which helps to reduce pollution and conserve resources. However, waste pickers often work in hazardous conditions and are denied basic labour rights.

Download a copy of this publication here (link).

For further background see this site.

By Kalina Arabadjieva, et. al. - European Trade Union Institute, October 30, 2023

By staff - European Environmental Bureau, July 10, 2023

The 21st century demands global efforts that provide solutions to multiple social and environmental crises that negatively impact economies. Many solutions are available to us, and demand a political will to advance on some existing tools (such as product ecodesign legislation or product bans), and a political discourse to develop new tools (such as energy production limits) that will all potentially result in societal transformation that brings humanity comfortably back within planetary boundaries in an equitable way.

Most of the converging social and environmental crises we are facing are a result of the over-consumption of resources due to unsustainable production and consumption patterns in increasingly unequal societies regardless of the level of development of any given country.

This Position Paper (download file here) delves into the main issues that arise within this context in regard to the Critical Raw Materials Act, and has been written by a multitude of civil society organisations.

The version in other languages:

• Position paper (FR)
• Position paper (DE)
• Position paper (ES)

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

By Nikki Skuce - Northern Confluence, June 29, 2023

A new report “Critical Minerals: A Critical Look” seeks to expand the conversation around “critical minerals,” to ensure reducing consumption and incorporating other alternatives into an energy transition – like recycling and re-mining – are taken into consideration. 

While the federal government has already launched its Critical Minerals strategy, the Province of British Colombia has put forward $6 million in its budget toward developing one.

As B.C. moves forward with its “critical minerals” strategy, it needs to look beyond mining and toward other opportunities. What policies and programs are needed to support re-mining, recycling and urban mining? Can re-mining help to reclaim or close some of the abandoned and orphaned legacy mine sites littered throughout the province? How can B.C.’s strategy look at reducing consumption and link to its circular economy strategy? What investments does B.C. need to keep making in transportation alternatives, such as the recently announced e-bike rebate and investments in active transportation? How can B.C. work with the federal government on ensuring batteries and other technologies are designed with dismantling and recycling in mind? 

And for new mines that may open, how are Indigenous rights being respected and free, prior and informed consent achieved in the pursuit of mining critical minerals? What steps are being taken to improve B.C.’s reg­ulatory regime to ensure more responsible mining that minimizes environmental harms and risks?

We can’t just mine our way out of the climate crisis. As “critical minerals” gets lodged into our collective psyche, we need to ensure that policymakers do not just focus on the need for more mines. We hope that this report provides some facts and background information, and stimulates a broader conversation about what is needed for the energy transition.

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

By Maristella Svampa, Thea Riofrancos, and Ashley Dawson - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, April 25, 2023

By Amy Westervelt - The Intercept, May 8, 2023

In 2019, Thea Riofrancos was splitting her time between researching the social and environmental impacts of lithium mining in Chile and organizing for a rapid energy transition away from fossil fuels in the United States. A political science professor at Providence College and member of the Climate and Community Project, Riofrancos was struck by the contrast: Lithium is essential to the batteries that make electric vehicles and renewable energy work, but mining inflicts its own environmental damage. “Here I am in Chile, in the Atacama Desert, seeing these mining-related harms, and then there I go in the U.S. advocating for a rapid transition. How do I align these two goals?” Riofrancos said. “And is there a way to have a less extractive energy transition?”

When she went looking for research that would help answer that question, she found none, at least not for the transportation sector, which was her area of focus. “I saw forecast after forecast that assumed basically a binary of the future,” she said. “Either we stay with the fossil fuel status quo and the existential crisis that that is causing for the planet and all of its people. Or we transition to an electrified, renewably powered future, but that doesn’t really change anything about how these sectors or economic activities are organized.”

Riofrancos wanted to look at multiple ways to design an electrified future and understand what the costs and impacts of different scenarios might be. So she linked up with other Climate and Community Project researchers and put together a report mapping out four potential pathways to electrification for the transportation sector. Titled “Achieving Zero Emissions With More Mobility and Less Mining,” the report concluded that even relatively small, easy-to-achieve shifts like reducing the size of cars and their batteries could deliver big returns: a 42 percent reduction in the amount of lithium needed in the U.S., even if the number of cars on the road and the frequency with which people drive stayed the same.

It’s the sort of thing politicians and electrification advocates need to think through now, when decisions can be made to guide the energy transition in one direction or another. It’s also critical to an underdiscussed component of climate action: demand for products and services and the role energy plays in fulfilling those demands. Which connects right up to another topic that American politicians don’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole: consumption.