Reuse: The Future of Sustainable Waste Management

https://www.pexels.com/photo/27666126/

When you finish having your favourite cold drink, where does the bottle go? Into the bin, perhaps.. But what happens to it after? Overflowing bins, mountains of waste that we walk past with our breath held, cows munching on plastic - these are common sights, but are not to be taken lightly. 

If you checked your bin right now, it’s highly likely that you’d find things like bags/covers, wrappers, bottles/jars and cardboard boxes. A large portion of all waste generated comes from packaging. India generates about 170K tons of waste per day and landfills account for around 20% of human-caused methane emissions globally. This is a crisis. Fortunately, one that can be Reversed - if and only if we take the right path.

• Recycling, Reuse and Upcycling - They’re all different.

Recycling is the solution, some may think. But, we need to delve deeper. It is a term often misunderstood. Recycling is the process which breaks down a material and rebuilds it into a usable product. A glass bottle may be crushed and melted down to create a new glass product. That’s RECYCLING. Using the glass bottle again is not recycling, that’s REUSE. Cutting the bottle mid-way and using it as a juice glass is not recycling, that’s UPCYCLING. If properly segregated and managed, a glass bottle may reach a recycling facility - where it will go through the energy-intensive process of being broken down, melted and made into another bottle. Take a moment to think of the bottle’s condition right after its first use - wasn’t it good enough to be washed and reused? Was recycling even necessary? Reuse could have saved a lot of time, energy, and money. In fact, glass bottles can be reused 70-80 times after proper sanitization process.

• Recycling - Not as great as you may think!

Recycling is notorious for making us believe that it is the perfect solution to the waste crisis - but the reality is far from that. Firstly, the recycling systems in India are nowhere in par with the volume of waste generated, putting a lot of burden on the recycling systems. Furthermore, there are several complications. Materials like paper and plastic can be recycled only a few times, and may require the addition of virgin materials. Around 30% virgin material may be added to recycled plastic to maintain its quality. 

This doesn’t extend the life of the material enough before it eventually ends up as waste. It still supports the demand for virgin material. Materials like glass can be recycled a lot more times, but the current system faces issues with collection and logistics due to its delicate nature.

• The Power of Reuse

Reuse, on the other hand, offers a solution to these issues. Most packaging is made durable to protect the product inside, so it remains in good condition even after its first use. Throwing it away or recycling at that point is unnecessary. The simplest and best option is to reuse. However, the single biggest challenge faced is the absence of a system to enable it. A cardboard box may be in perfect condition, but you throw it away because there’s no way to send it back to the seller. Isn’t it fascinating that we built the system to create a product, package it individually and deliver it right at the doorstep of the customer, but there isn’t one for the other way around? This is not impossible. In fact, we have done this before with soda bottles and milk cans in the earlier days. Unfortunately, priorities changed with the advent of single-use disposables and the system dwindled. 

• Be  a part of the solution

It’s time we brought back that system. And that’s exactly what we’re doing at Reverse. We’re building the system to collect, segregate, sanitise and deliver packaging materials back to brands for reuse. So far, we have enabled reuse of over 1.9 million packaging units, diverted more than 1.2 million kg of waste from landfills and avoided 1380+ tonnes of CO2e emissions. We’ve taken a big step forward by building India's first indigenously designed packaging material sanitization plant. Learn more about the facility here. 

Reuse provides a truly circular solution to manage waste. 

As we move towards making this a reality, it is essential to bring this awareness to individuals and drive behaviour change. As part of our efforts, we work with apartment societies, schools and communities to conduct awareness sessions and collection drives. We need to grow our community of changemakers to make this system an everyday reality for all. If you want to be part of this reuse revolution, follow us on Instagram, and get your community involved with us!