Pretty Vectors / Shutterstock.com Voices | Responsibility An Existential Threat Themovement to fight climate change is leading to newpractices for virtually every industry. Here are seven ways to reduce waste, protecting the planet and your business. by Anne Stone, MAS, CAE WE ARE ALL AWARE OF negative articles focused on our industry and the perception that promo is wasteful. The three Rs of recycling (reduce, reuse, recycle) have been updated to the 5 Rs – refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. It is the first R, refuse, that I believe presents an existential threat to our industry. PPAI firmly believes that done right, promo is an essential element of every company’s brand. We have made sustainability a key component of our strategic plan and are committed as an association to learn, do and teach. We will learn what we must do to be more sustainable, put it into practice internally and then share best practices with the industry. I take comfort in knowing the promotional products industry is not alone in its journey toward a more sustainable future but am taken aback by how little progress is being made on a global scale. Do you know that only 40% of waste in the United States is recycled, composted or processed through methods not involving landfilling or incineration? There are over 3,000 active landfills in the United States and another 10,000 landfills that are no longer operational. Landfills, which establish the third largest humancaused source of methane, account for 11% of global methane emissions. Besides landfills, much of the waste goes into the ocean. Eight million tons of plastic waste end up in the world’s oceans every year. That is the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck into the ocean every minute. Diversion methods provide solutions to the waste problem, but not without presenting their challenges. Much of the problem stems from our linear economy that entails taking, making, consuming and disposing of resources. Ideally, we can evolve to a circular economy that invests in technologies related to material science product design, recycling and manufacturing that leads to zero waste, “closed loop” systems in which resources are not wasted. Another description of this model prioritizes products that are “made to be made again.” There are a variety of environmental, health and social problems relating to air and water pollution, soil contamination, habitat destruction and human rights concerns caused by the most popular methods for discarding waste in the U.S. and globally. Promotional products companies and their clients are also demanding solutions to the myriad problems associated with waste. As Seth Godin stated in The Climate Almanac, systemic 34 • JANUARY 2023 • PPAI
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