Sustainability Focus: Reverse vending machines

Health event by Connswater Community Greenway on Thursday, October 15 2020…

A recent study by global consultant Frost & Sullivan finds that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member nations’ aspirations for sustainability are driving the replacement of linear waste management models with circular models, creating a new wave of opportunities. The report titled  Circular Economy Redefining the GCC Waste Management Market, 2021, gives a detailed analysis of the growing opportunity in waste management in the region.  Population growth and accelerated economic development are increasing total waste generation in the region (including construction and demolition (C&D) waste, municipal solid waste (MSW), plastic waste, and lead-acid battery waste). If unchecked, this could result in an increase from 130.6 million metric tons in 2021 to 163.9 million metric tons by 2025. A transition toward circular models is already underway, as with the UAE’s Circular Economy Policy 2021-2031 and the KSA’s Circular Carbon Economy. The policies reflect the region’s commitment to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) while enhancing the quality of life for residents.

Using a novel modelling approach, new research published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution reveals the location and intensity of key threats to biodiversity on land and identifies priority areas across the world to help inform conservation decision making at national and local levels. A team of leading researchers have produced global maps for the six main threats affecting terrestrial amphibians, birds and mammals: agriculture, hunting and trapping, logging, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. Results show that agriculture and logging are pervasive in the tropics and that hunting and trapping is the most geographically widespread threat to mammals and birds. There are sizeable continental areas in which there is more than a 50% chance that any particular amphibian, mammal or bird species is threatened by logging, hunting and trapping, agriculture, invasive species or climate change.