Waste recycling can help save the planet.
Every year the Earth produces billions of tons of natural resources, but they are overexploited and destined to run out.
And with them, scientists warn, life itself is destined to run out.
While recycling is the solution to climate change, it increases local employment worldwide and helps conserve the earth's "six precious primary resources -- water, air, oil, natural gas, coal and minerals, on which everyone depends today." our possessions. Today humanity cannot survive without them".
Recycling is therefore the "seventh resource".
This is the message that comes from the Global Recycling Foundation which established the World Recycling Day in 2018 which occurs on March 18 to raise awareness among the international community while still billions of tons of waste pour into landfills every year.
Recycling, on the other hand, supplies 40% of the world's need for raw materials.
In the race to recover materials, Italy is the leader in Europe, having already exceeded the targets indicated for 2025. But more can be done, looking at "our cities as mines that produce resources, opportunities, not waste", he says the president of Conai (National Packaging Consortium), Luca Ruini, estimating that in 2023 we should recycle 75% of all packaging.
In short, Italians "are increasingly good at correctly differentiating waste", assures Ruini, predicting that this year more than 77% of steel packaging, 67% in aluminum, more than 85% in paper should be recycled and cardboard, around 63% in wood, almost 59% in plastic and bioplastics, and around 80% of packaging in glass.
Even if, warns Coreve (the consortium that recovers glass), not everyone knows that it is an infinitely recyclable material and collection still needs to be improved by starting to fight misinformation.
Recycling saves over 700 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year and is estimated to rise to over a billion tonnes by 2030, according to a study by the Bureau of International Recycling.
The "seventh resource" offsets all CO2 emissions generated by the aviation industry each year, and employs around 1.6 million people worldwide;
The recycling industry's annual contribution to global GDP is projected to exceed $400 billion over the next 10 years.
