This year’s edition of La Tomatina, the world-famous annual tomato-throwing festival, was cancelled. This festival epitomises the wasteful behaviour in dealing with our planet’s bountiful gifts.
Sadly, the reason for the cancellation of this year’s event was due to COVID-19 and not because of any remorse. The official website is already advertising next year’s event. It unashamedly boasts that 120 tons of tomatoes go to waste in just one hour.
The world has become accustomed to living lavishly and wastefully. In order to compensate for the tons of waste that we generate, processes and recycling targets have been set. Nonetheless, these are rarely achieved.
“These problems are closely linked to a throwaway culture which affects the excluded just as it quickly reduces things to rubbish,” says Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si. In his public addresses, Pope Francis often emphasises that it is not enough to have waste management systems. Our societies need to nip the problem in the bud and tackle issues of waste generation at source.
Five years ago, the UN drew up 17 sustainable development goals aimed at driving a global movement to build a more stable and equitable future. Goal 12, “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, includes among its objectives to “halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030”.
1.3 billion tons of food go to waste annually, while almost two billion people go hungry or are grossly undernourished. Modern wasteful agricultural processes consume close to 70 per cent of all freshwater.
The world has become accustomed to living lavishly and wastefully- Claudio Farrugia
This is having an astounding economic impact on developing countries. Trends show that more people are on the move today than ever before. As much as 3.3 per cent of the world population, or 258 million people, are migrating due to the scarcity of natural resources. Waste reduction has become an important consideration within national and international policy frameworks on migration.
The circular economy model offers a viable solution for sustainable growth and decent jobs, while saving the environment and its natural resources. This production and consumption process, involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended.
This concept moves away from the traditional linear economy. This system which is based on a ‘make, use, throw away’ process relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy. Planned obsolescence, where a product is designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage consumers to buy it again, is also part of this viscous cycle. The European Parliament is calling for measures to tackle and abolish this bad practice.
On the other hand, the circular economy, in practice, reduces waste to a minimum. When a product reaches its end of life, its materials are kept within the economy as much as possible. They are then productively used again and again, thereby creating more value. This results in reduction of waste and greater resource productivity. Thus scarcity issues are addressed and the global environmental impact of production and consumption is reduced.
The ‘Repair Café’ network is a practical attempt of putting these principles into practice. Visitors take their broken items from home to these ‘cafes’ that are run on a voluntary and non-commercial basis. Together with the specialists, they make their repairs in the Repair Café free of charge. Tools and materials are available to help users make any repairs. Locally, this initiative, run by Friends of the Earth, is slowly picking up pace.
Government-induced economic policies are key to promoting business models that embrace the circular economy in its most effective form. However, we all need to do our part in educating ourselves and our children to learn to prepare for the future and to protect our fragile environment by changing our consumption patterns and reduce waste.
Claudio Farrugia is a member of the Catholic Voices Network.