International Earth Day 2022
Earth Day is a global celebration of the planet’s clean and natural resources. In recent years, Earth Day has been used to raise awareness of climate change and promote local and global actions to protect the environment. Earth day is a day for recognising the collective responsibility for rethinking actions that cause irreversible socio-environmental impacts on the earth.
The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 April as International Earth Day to mark the start of the environmental movement in 1970 and in 1990, when Earth Day went global. Today, it is an opportunity to organise activities to promote environmental education and raise global public awareness of the challenges to the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports.
Why? Our social-environmental impacts on the earth are so vast that it has become necessary to have a date to highlight and discuss the importance of society’s collective effort to protect the planet for future generations.
We are not exaggerating when we say nature is suffering! Human unsustainable actions and the linear business model generate innumerable impacts to all elements of nature, including forests, oceans, soils, and air. Our planet is sending us a warning for future generations: extreme heat, low air quality, superstorms, wildfires, floods, degradation of soil and desertification.
Climate change lowers life quality and how we live and the choices we make are extremely important to protect the environment. This is the most important reason that scientists and politicians are establishing goals, targets, and strategies for the future.
We can slow down destruction of the planet by transforming traditional waste management infrastructure.
Sustainable waste management is integral to every sustainable development goal and address the linear economic model where waste is an immense cause of pollution and emissions. According to the European Commission the central cause of the problem is the global consumption of natural resources (biomass, fossil fuels, metals and minerals) which is set to double in the next forty years, while annual waste generation is projected to increase by 70% by 2050.
The European Commission adopted the Circular Economy Plan in March 2020, an important part of the European Green Deal agenda for sustainable growth which has the potential to increase EU GDP by an additional 0.5% by 2030, creating around 700 000 new jobs. This is a fundamental step towards the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality targets. Scaling up sustainable waste management and zero waste practices in the circular economy model will be vital to achieving climate neutrality by 2050, considering that 90% greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to natural resources extraction and wasted resources.
The 2022 Earth Day theme, “Invest in our plan”, identifies and confirms the same targets of the European Commission. Investments in green economy and environmental technologies create resilience to climate change, and will reduce the impacts of natural resource scarcity on our economy, decoupling our reliance on fossil fuels and resource extraction. Celebrating the earth strengthens the relationship between business performance and sustainable practices.
Investment in the green economy preserves natural resources and promotes quality of life and the growth of green technologies is not just ethical but lucrative, exactly the message that the UN wants to send to the world.
Food waste reuse creates the framework for sustainable business innovation. Investment in our patented Flexibuster technology in Europe has the potential to recycle 161 mega tonnes of waste and create a saving of €45.6 billion/year by eliminating waste management costs and creating valuable energy, water and fertiliser from waste. Flexibuster transforms organic waste into valuable energy and fertiliser using small scale anaerobic digestion. Flexibuster has the potential to reduce Europe’s methane emissions by 14.5% and carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5%.
According to October 2019 data from the World Bank, the investments in the green economy and infrastructure need to be around US$90 trillion by 2030. The transition to a green economy and circularity will provide many benefits and can generate thousands of new jobs. An investment of $1, on average, yields $4 in green benefits.
What is SEAB’s role in the circular economy transition?
SEaB’s mission is to commercialise circular economy technologies to turn organic waste into energy, water and fertiliser onsite, eliminating the unsustainable disposal of organic waste in landfill or incinerators and preventing natural resource depletion. We are actively contributing to the circular economy transition.
The Circular Economy Action Plan is a European bio-economy target for reducing food waste. The statistical data estimates the generation of 2.5 billion tonnes, or 5 tonnes per capita a year, and each citizen produces on average nearly half a tonne of municipal waste. Investing in circular, high quality recycling valorises food waste and is a huge opportunity for the green energy industry. This regulation incentivises society sectors to recycle and reuse in the best way possible the food waste and separate the food for the other type of waste.
Anaerobic digestion has a key role in reducing global methane emissions and the technology is ready today. The importance of anaerobic digestion (AD) was highlighted at COP 26 by the World Biogas Association Chief Executive, Charlotte Morton. There are 111 countries which have committed to the Global Methane Pledge to deliver a 30% cut in methane emissions by 2030, but to meet these targets we need to invest in technology for methane emissions reduction. AD can deliver around 50% of the Global Methane Pledge target and Biogas has the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2030.
The potential of reducing methane emissions from waste is becoming a priority, and in 2023 legislation in the EU will require all food waste to be separated for effective recycling. The generation of renewable energy is possible and efficient. The biogas is produced from the anaerobic digestion of waste and landfill gas can be effectively used as a carbon free fuel source right where the waste is produced and energy is required.
The SEaB Energy was established to be part of the world transformation to a net zero future and contribute to the circular economy transition. Join us in transforming organic waste management and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and finite resources by investing in our patented technology today.
