Читать книгу Circular Economy For Dummies - Eric Corey Freed - Страница 53

Waste is a luxury we can’t afford. It’s expensive to simply throw things away and replace them with new items all the time. Whether it’s a simple plastic water bottle or a complex new laptop, all waste comes with a hidden cost.

In the US healthcare system, medical waste annually costs between $760 billion and $935 billion. Cutting this waste could save a total of $191 billion to $286 billion every year.

In the US construction industry, demolition and construction waste accounts for nearly 65 million tons a year, making up almost a quarter of all landfills. Contractors must pay to dump all that waste, but could instead make money by recycling it into new building materials.

In the US restaurant industry, about a third of the food is wasted. The US Department of Agriculture estimates the total annual cost of the wasted food at $1,866 per household. Those food scraps could feed the hungry, of course, but could also be made into a form of energy called biogas — a mixture of gases released when food decomposes.