Valuing the waste

LAHORE: Post Covid-19, the industries would adopt sustainable production methods as besides cutting carbon footprint in the manufacturing process they'd also reuse every input that could be recovered after a product has completed its useful life.

The circular economy was gaining strength even before the pandemic but the shortage of numerous inputs due to lockdowns resulted in closure of many industries world over. Many inputs could have been retrieved from used material had a mechanism of recovery been in place.

Circular economy refers to a model in which economic growth does not go hand in hand with the exploitation and consumption of natural, non-renewable resources. The aim of a circular economy is the resource-efficient and sustainable use of natural resources, their reuse and recycling within a circulatory system and the prevention of waste.

The entrepreneurs in Pakistan have just realized the importance of recycling of usable inputs after an article is thrown out by the users. We have seen that steel is being produced from steel scrap in Pakistan.

We should, from now onward, expect the used clothing would not be dumped but after a process their fabrics would be converted into yarn and new fabric would be made to produce clothing. The apparels made from recycled material are still sold on premium. The PET bottles and the plastic bottles in which beverages are sold are recycled into polyester fiber and then to polyester yarn and foreign buyers pay a higher price for shirting made from this way.

Its main aim is to reduce the huge carbon footprint created when we produce an input through manufacturing or agriculture. Plastic and manmade fibers are two examples, the disposal of which after use is hazardous for the environment. Cotton clothing discarded after use could be recycled to produce cotton and reduce the use of water and chemicals appreciably.

Canada has set a target of having zero plastic waste by 2030 by banning the single-use plastic and boosting recycling. It would decouple waste and pollution from economic growth.

In Pakistan we have been striving without success to ban the use of plastic shopping bags. Plastic takes ages to decompose and continues to pollute the atmosphere. Some plastic recycling projects are operating in the country, but they hardly consume even 5 percent of the plastic that enters Pakistani market each year.

The major problem for the plant operators is the collection of wasted and rejected plastic. Still in Defense Housing Authority Lahore most of the benches in the green area and bus stops are fabricated from the recycled plastic beams and sheets. These are permanent features and save precious wood.

About one-third of the food produced goes to waste even before going to the consumers. With little effort and improvement of supply chain this waste could be reduced and the land thus spared could be used for forestation.

A broken washing machine is a burden on the consumer. Creditable companies like Bosch, Siemens now take back the abundant machines from the consumers and refurbish them as new by replacing all faulty movable parts, while keeping the mainframe and immovable parts unchanged. The performance of refurbished machine is equal to that of a brand new one but it is sold at a much lower price, while reducing the carbon footprint big time.

Why can't our washing machines manufacturers adopt this model? Most of the photocopiers that are imported into Pakistan are refurbished machines on the same principle as used in the washing machines.

There are some repairs that take place in Pakistan that do not fall under the recycling regime. For instance the used auto parts (if they are moveable parts) can never be as efficient as the original ones. We import tons of used auto-parts for cheaper repair of vehicles but these used parts leave a larger carbon footprint than the new parts. Similarly a used car cannot match the efficiency of the same new car produced by their foreign principal.

Industrial water use poses diverse resource and pollution risks. There are many valuable inputs that could be recovered from the industrial waste. Caustic soda for instance could be recovered through a process that is much cheaper than the cost of this input. Very few industries in Pakistan recover this and many other inputs. The waste water is not treated before thrown out of the factory.

In some cases it is thrown outside in the huge vacant plots, sometimes in river channels or sea and even in the canal network spread all round the country. Common water treatment plants are urgently needed in Pakistan.

The government should fund them and take user charges from all industries according to the content of pollutants. Pakistan has lost many foreign buyers because of the absence of water treatment plants in many factories. Our failure to comply with pollution standards is one of the main reasons for our stagnant textile growth.

Pakistani entrepreneurs must change the culture of saving money at the cost of environmental pollution. They must improve efficiencies that would offset the cost of environmental compliance. It would also open many foreign markets to their production.