Future of Waste Part 2: Best ways to reduce waste

UBS has made significant strides in reducing paper waste. We have reduced paper consumption by more than 60% over the last ten years. This is thanks to a combination of shifting to digital bank documents instead of printed ones for clients, and using a secure printing system (whereby employees can only collect printouts by swiping their security card on a device). This second initiative has not only meaningfully reduced paper waste, but also enhanced security and confidentiality.

A second mainstream example comes from Amazon, whose position in the e-commerce market means it’s a big consumer of paper and especially cardboard. The company uses a number of strategies to optimize its paper and cardboard production and to reduce waste and costs. It also applies machine learning to monitor feedback that comes in from customers via call centers and social media on damage during transit, balancing customer satisfaction against design specification and material reduction priorities.

Amazon has also collaborated with companies in the glue and tape industries to create new designs that can be scaled up. These include fully recyclable plastic-free padded envelopes to replace bubble wrap and paper. Amazon claims that, combined, these methods have reduced packaging material by 19% in volume versus a 2016 baseline.

In response to rising restrictions on exporting plastic waste to Asia (where historically it was incinerated or dumped), Pennon is building a new dedicated plastic recycling facility in Avonmouth, UK.

The facility aims to process around 80,000 metric tons of input plastic and generate around 60,000 metric tons of plastic output to be reused in other applications. The facility will save around 12,000 metric tons of CO₂ through co-location with an energy recycling facility and around 1 metric tonnes of CO₂ compared to “virgin” polymer production. The project has an estimated internal rate of return of 15% and a four-year payback period, while supporting the UK government’s targets for 30% recycled plastic content by 2030 and for 70% of all plastic packaging to be recycled by 2025.

One innovative example of how to reduce plastic waste comes from Mondi. The company specializes in craft paper and paper bags, but is exploring new solutions to reduce both paper and plastic waste. Several of its new flexible plastic solutions reduce the amount of plastic required by 70%.

The company is also looking to produce two new flexible plastic packaging products: a recyclable plastic for flexible packaging made using a proportion of post-consumer waste, and a form fill and seal (FFS) pouch for food applications. By reducing the use of multilayer laminates in food packaging, it hopes to increase recyclability rates and bring circular economy principles such as reusing waste into the mainstream. The group’s EcoSolutions division also advises customers on how to design and produce more sustainable packaging using paper in place of plastic where possible.

CLEAResult is a third-party energy efficiency program administrator and solution provider for the utilities sector in North America. The company works with a variety of utility firms to optimize their energy generation programs. Working with one of the world’s largest private impact funds, the company aims to reduce carbon emissions from electricity and heating while also advocating for energy-saving measures with businesses, utilities, and their residential consumers. The impact fund that has invested in CLEAResult has underwritten it to reduce CO₂ emissions by 22 million metric tons.

The company was able to reduce its overall energy usage by 18% and save USD 6bn in costs between 1990 and 2010, while growing production by 40%. Its specific actions were either in the line of ordinary business or required little spending, and the return on its energy-saving investments is estimated at 65%. Examples of measures it took include repairing and improving steam traps to reduce leakage; rectifying metering problems around its purchased energy; upgrading boilers and equipment design to raise efficiency; building efficient heat and power cogeneration plants; and fostering a waste-focused culture across the company.

One example of energy waste reduction in construction and building comes from Microsoft. The company has employed a variety of strategies to keep as much as 90% of its waste out of landfills. It was the first of the major technology firms to receive a Zero Waste certification from the US Green Building Council. Microsoft also focuses on reducing energy waste by, for example, using a dedicated power management system to control 160,000 of its computers (reducing power usage by 27%).

More broadly innovative companies are introducing technologies to reduce energy waste in “smart” buildings. They use building management systems (hardware and software) to centralize control of lighting, heating, climate control, and ventilation systems. Relying on a variety of technologies (including increased use of sensors, the Internet of Things, and big data processing), smart systems can help to reduce energy waste, save costs, and limit greenhouse gas emissions from wasteful energy use.

“Smart” electricity grids can also help cut energy consumption, wastage, and CO₂ emissions by enabling a move from traditional (and inefficient) transmission and distribution networks to a decentralized model.

By avoiding left turns whenever possible on the US’s right-hand drive roads, UPS was saving an estimated 10 million gallons of fuel per year by 2017, with drivers covering 6–8 fewer miles per route. UPS has achieved this waste reduction by applying routing software to each of the 18 million deliveries it makes in the US every day (as of 2017), analyzing 250 million address points a day, and performing 30,000 route optimizations per minute. This optimization has also saved the company USD 300–400m a year in fuel, wages, and vehicle running costs.

One example of more innovative ways to tackle transport waste comes from Valeo. The company is a major supplier of automotive parts in Europe. It fits one in every three vehicles worldwide with electrical systems for reducing CO₂ emissions. The company invented the stop-start system, which now equips millions of vehicles across the world and significantly reduces emissions by optimizing engine running. It is also driving car hybridization, producing around 25 million 12 Volt systems per year.