Recycling and Reusing

Making Sustainable Change is a collaborative effort made up of industry innovators and partners who are working to end plastic waste, promote sustainability, and address climate change through the sustainable change in the production, recovery, and reuse of plastic.
• 80% of ocean plastic comes from land-based sources
• Replacing plastics in packaging and consumer products with alternative materials could raise environmental costs nearly fourfold
• Making all plastic packaging used in the U.S. reusable, recyclable or recoverable is our goal
• The total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018 was 292.4 million tons (U.S. short tons, unless specified) or 4.9 pounds per person per day.
• Of the MSW generated, approximately 69 million tons were recycled and 25 million tons were composted.

The Waste Problem:
The use of the earth’s natural resources without a long-term integrated and strategic approach of replenishing them is a very dangerous path for the world especially because of the growing population and constrained resources. Recycling and Reusing helps us to conserve our limited natural resources.

Waste in landfills has resulted in significant gas emissions and the accumulation of waste in the oceans and landfills has reached an alarming levels.

The total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018 was 292.4 million tons (U.S. short tons, unless specified) or 4.9 pounds per person per day. These statistics shows us the devastating environmental consequences of abandoning and disposing of waste without any strategic goals to eliminate it in the long term. It is quite a concern to note that a lot of waste that has been disposed of into the ground or abandoned in the oceans take a lot of time to decompose to eventually become useful again for production or other endeavors. Polluted water and gases, disposed plastics, abandoned litter and many other kinds of garbage that has not been recycled is poised to cause serious environmental and health challenges for the planet and its inhabitants especially human beings and animal life. The dangers of not recycling plastic waste in the long-term causes dreadful landfill accumulation problems that affect agriculture and aquatic life. Waste burning might seem like a reasonable and fair solution to waste damping, but it is equally harmful to the environment because it increases the levels of metal objects and toxic substances

Re-thinking Progress Through A Circular Economy: There’s a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we use our resources. ‘ReThinking Progress’ explores how through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works – designing products that can be ‘made to be made again’ and powering the system with renewable energy. It questions whether with creativity and innovation we can build a restorative economy. In a circular economy, economic activity builds and rebuilds overall system health. The concept recognizes the importance of the economy needing to work
effectively at all scales – for large and small businesses, for organizations and individuals, globally and locally. Transitioning to a circular economy does not only amount to adjustments aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the linear economy. Rather, it represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits.

The New Circular Economy is a vision of eliminating plastic and metal waste, innovating through the creation of new products from the waste and to circulate the products through the process of recycling and reusing plastics and metals to reduce waste and landfills within West Virginia and the U.S.A. The New Circular Economy initiative offers a root cause solution to plastic pollution with profound economic, environmental, and societal benefits. The circular economy strategy for West Virginia will eliminate plastic, electronics and metal waste through a production and supply chain that adds value to waste components by turning them into useful raw materials. We plan to convert at least 50 % of plastic, electronic and metal waste into reuse models that will add value to the new production and supply chain to at least USD 10 billion that directly benefits consumers and federal government through taxes. As part of the New Circular Economy Global Commitment, we seek to involve organizations that will be recognized for their
efforts through awards and incentives. We also seek to inspire the communities and government agents to work closely with us to achieve this initiative through partnerships, legislative guidelines, legislative implementation, and hands on processes. This initiative empowers citizens to build their communities by using their resources with prudence and modesty to achieve self-sufficiency. The main goal is to create an economic model that eliminates plastic, electronic and
metals waste from the environment by establishing an industry that creates products from such already generated waste.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE
Our long-term strategy is to eliminate landfills, incineration, and waste-to-energy in our circular economy target state. The traditional linear model of the economy draws regularly on resources to create products that eventually end up as trash: raw materials are harvested, transformed, sold as goods and wind up in landfills or otherwise outside the economy. The circular economy looks for ways to design out this waste and obtain the most value from resources we use. By looking at the whole system, considering all the inputs and striving to eliminate the linear components, we can use resources more efficiently and for longer periods of time. A circular economy presents an economic opportunity for West Virginia, a state which has traditionally maintained a poor economic position among the other states in the united states. Several factors have prompted out-migration since World War II. In the 1950s and ’60s mine mechanization and declining coal use contributed to a decreasing demand for labour. Rugged land and limited farm size has hampered mechanization of agriculture, and the competitive advantage shifted to states with more level and expansive land. Foreign competition in the glass and ceramics industry also reduced economic opportunity. Increasingly, the lack of flat land for industrial and commercial expansion also has hindered development. While there are initiatives to avoiding waste and over-consumption as one of the key elements of responsible waste management, there are sustainable environmental and business benefits to be tapped into though the process of recycling waste. Recycling and reusing help us to protect the environment and conserve useful raw materials and minerals that are used in different production processes that benefit mankind. The recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products.

Please join us in our cause to rebuild and reshape the economy of West Virginia through active participation and partnerships with a progressive and responsive approach to success and accomplishment. We appeal to you to partner with us in this noble cause of building a circular economy for West Virginia that will utilize existing resources that takes collective and progressive action towards success and collective achievement. The circular economy will prudently and effectively give the West Virginia economy a platform to use existing resources that provide opportunities for the rebuilding of its communities into a more sustainable and independent economy by using alternative energy sources to fully capitalize the green revolution.