Today in Ireland the EU directive that was agreed on in 2019 on single use plastics will come into effect.
The following will be banned from the Irish market from today
Cotton bud sticks
Cutlery
Plates
Stirrers
Chopsticks
Straws
Expanded polystyrene single use food and beverage containers
All oxo-degradable plastic products
There wil be a number of further introductions in the years to come under the Directive.
By January 2023, producers of packaging of certain single-use plastics will be required to cover the costs of cleaning up the litter their products create
From January 2025, it will be a requirement for drink producers to have at a minimum of 25% recycled plastic in their single-use plastic bottles
I believe that this will help int the promotion of the circular economy in Ireland. and reduce the amount of wastes entering our oceans.
You can find out more about these about this directive on by clicking on the following link:
My thesis will be focused on one country in the Horn of Africa. There is a lot of migration in this area because of impacts of climate change on agriculture and secuirty. The Horn of Africa faces serious environmental and economic challenges in the future because of climatic change(Denney et al., 2018) The horn of Africa is locate in Eastern Africa and comprises Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea. The Horn of Africa has With a population of 257 million in 2015 the Horn of Africa. accounts for approximately 20% of the total population of Africa (Nations, 2017).
The horn of Africa suffers from a wide range of extreme weather conditions. The frequency and insensity of these weather events are expected to increase over time(Singh, Rao and Bechingham, 2020) (Singh, Rao and Bechingham, 2020). There is a history conflict due to ethnicity, control of resources and technical means and these conflicts are likely to be increased because of climate change (Gamst, 2020). Throughout the world, there has been efforts made to mitigate against these issues through the implementation of sustainable projects and policies (Denney et al., 2018). These policies and projects needs to be coherent of on another. This helps ensure postives outcomes from the implementation of policies (OECD, 2015). Policy Coherence will be discussed in alater blog!!
References:
Denney, J. M., Case, P. M., Metzger, A., Ivanova, M. and Asfaw, A. (2018) ‘Power in participatory processes: reflections from multi-stakeholder workshops in the Horn of Africa’, Sustainability Science, 13(3), pp. 879-893.
Gamst, F. C. (2020) ‘Conflict in the Horn of Africa’, Peace and War: Routledge, pp. 133-151.
Nations, U. (2017) ‘Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World population prospects: the 2017 revision, key findings and advance tables’, Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/248.
OECD 2015. Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development in the SDG Framework. Paris.
Singh, M., Rao, M. and Bechingham, A. (2020) ‘The Complex Effects of Extreme Weather Events in the Greater Horn of Africa’, in Akhtar, R. (ed.) Extreme Weather Events and Human Health: International Case Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 279-291.
Solomon, N., Birhane, E., Gordon, C., Haile, M., Taheri, F., Azadi, H. and Scheffran, J. (2018) ‘Environmental impacts and causes of conflict in the Horn of Africa: A review’, Earth-Science Reviews, 177, pp. 284-290.
Today I attended the Climate Security webinar series 1: Is climate driven migration a threat to security? It was very informative and it is well worth having a look at! In this webinar there was many points highlighted were improvement is required in the future. Some of the overall findings of the webinar were:
A change of perspective around the topic of migration
A whole society and whole governmental approach to the introduction of policies
Interstate dialogue and co-operation on issues is needed
Data should be shared across all areas
Particular focus for adaptation should be given to those that are vulnerable to climate impacts and the areas that they live in!
CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future that is dedicated to reducing poverty enhancing food and nutrition and improving natural resources. CGIAR has 50 years of experience and knowledge. It has 15 research centres. It has a presence in 108 countries. It has more than 3000 partnersthroughout the world.
A the moment I am reading a variety of papers in the area of climate change and mitigation for the portfolio review with CGIAR. I will include the links to some papers I have read!!
During the last week, I have started my research project. It is in the area of migration and climate security. I am working with CGIAR, I will keep you updated! I will be reviewing a number of scientific papers. I will include the links to some papers I have read analysed with CGIAR!
TheFood Systems Summithas been set up to achieve action on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which relies on a healthier, sustainable, and equitable food system. In order to achieve progress on these sustainability goals5 key action trackswere developed which include:
Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all.
Shift sustainable consumption patterns.
Boost nature-positive production.
Advocate equitable livelihoods.
Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress
“The Action Tracks will draw on the expertise of actors from across the world’s food systems. Together, they will explore how key cross-cutting levers of change such as human rights, finance, innovation, and the empowerment of women and young people can be mobilized to meet the Summit’s objectives.” https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/action-tracks
It must be noted that the action tracks are not induvial but rather intertwin with one another! There are many synergies and trade-offsbetween them. For example between action track 1 and 2. The synergy that exists is in order to make consumer patterns more sustainable food systems can be shortened and this can be achieved through food safety and tracing programs. One trade off between action track 1 and action track 2 is that increasing food safety could lead to more food waste which is not sustainable (Haddad et al., 2020). More synergies between other action tracks can be found in the table below.
(Haddad et al., 2020)
Action track one provokes a lot of thought. How can we ensure access to safe and nutritious food for everyone? One innovation I believe the world needs to improve is in the area of food regulation and safety. Illness and death occur regularly across the globe due to contaminated food. Zoonoses or animal diseasesare diseases that transfer from animals to humans as a result of direct contact through the environment or through food (Authority, 2017).
Food borne disease (FBD) outbreaks are common. They caused 600 million illnesses and 420,000 premature deaths in 2010 (Havelaar et al., 2015). Animals are often asymptomatic carriers of pathogens, excrete them with faeces. These pathogen are then in the environment where they may enter another induvial, thus delivering them to the environment. Therefore, pathogens may invade new individuals, as well as reside on vegetables and fruits. For example in the EU annually there are 200,000 cases of bacterial zoonoses reported and thee number are likely to be higher (Chlebicz et al., 2018).Food quality and safetyneeds the attention of both government agencies and consumers because of the major risks it poses to health and economic of the country (Witjaksono et al., 2018). Covid_19 , H1N1, Swine flu, Ebola and the Nipah virus, have occurred due to inadequate food systems safeguards to detect, trace and eliminate threats that are linked to zoonotic diseases (Aiyar and Pingali, 2020). The Covid_19 pandemic in the past year has shown us how quick disease can spread and the implications that can occur across many sectors including the health service, economics and the food supply chain.
There are many methods that can be used in order to improve food safety. One method is the improved implementation of food tracing, quality and regulation. There is need to develop technologies that can ensure the safety of food through all levels of the food safety chain including production, packaging, packaging, transportation, storage, distribution, and sale to the consumer in order to ensure harmful pathogens don’t enter the supply chain.
This could be achieved using a food system tracing service across the world similar to Bord Bia where the meat can be tracked from farm to fork across Ireland. Internet of Things (IoT) also provides a great opportunity to improve food safety. An app that can take a picture of the food and it can show the freshness of the food, which can help with the safety standards of the food (Witjaksono et al., 2018). An additional innovation to this app maybe be the inclusion of nutritional value of the foodstuff and how it should be cooked and eaten and the inclusion of a food tracing and standards system similar to Bord Bia in Ireland. This innovation could link action track with other action tracks. Other options may include the payment of farmers or community groups for what nutritious food they produce on their farms or gardens, adhering to food quality measures and standards on farm and at processing and transportation level, producing more on less ground hence decreasing their environmental footprint. Perhaps this app could include these changes and record the relevant details!!
I understand that apps and food tracking services may not be an affordable innovation in every country. In these areas farmer efforts should be made to ensure that there is a safe way of storage and cooking the food to reduce food Bourne diseases. This in my view is one innovation that can be used in order to improve health and ensure access to safe and nutritious food to everyone.
References:
Authority, E.F.S., 2017. The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food‐borne outbreaks in 2016. EFSa Journal, 15(12).
Chlebicz, A. and Śliżewska, K., 2018. Campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, yersiniosis, and listeriosis as zoonotic foodborne diseases: a review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(5), p.863.
Aiyar, A. and Pingali, P. (2020) ‘Pandemics and food systems – towards a proactive food safety approach to disease prevention & management’, Food Security, 12(4), pp. 749-756.
Haddad, L., Nordhagen, S., Hendriks, S. and Qayyum, N. (2020) Discussion Starter
Havelaar, A.H., Kirk, M.D., Torgerson, P.R., Gibb, H.J., Hald, T., Lake, R.J., Praet, N., Bellinger, D.C., De Silva, N.R., Gargouri, N. and Speybroeck, N., 2015. World Health Organization global estimates and regional comparisons of the burden of foodborne disease in 2010. PLoS medicine, 12(12), p.e1001923.
Witjaksono, G., Rabih, A.A.S., bt Yahya, N. and Alva, S., 2018, March. IOT for agriculture: food quality and safety. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 343, No. 1, p. 012023). IOP Publishing.
Plastic and Sustainability form a Central part of the Circular Economy
On Thursday the 4th of February I attended the virtual Circular Economy Action Agenda launch. The circular economy is one that aims for the elimination of waste from production chains. The circular economy is one which replaces the linear concept (MacArthur, E, 2013). The principles of the circular economy have been founded on the three R’s which are reduce, reuse and recycle, but just adhering to the three r’s isn’t sufficient, because there can be social and economic problems (Banaitė, D., 2016). The main objective of a circular economy that there is no end to a product. There is need for society to move away from the use and throw away mentality. During the circular economy launch, there was a lot of focus placed on the actionable agenda of a more effective circular economy. The actionable agendas are 1. Food 2. Electronics 3. Textiles 4. Plastics and 4. Capital Economy (Pace, 2021). The Circular Economy I believe offers great opportunities for sustainability throughout the world. At the conference it was interesting to hear from the CEO of Philips which has become one of the first technological company to adapt to the circular economy
Plastics:
Plastics can be form part of the circular economy. It is undeniable that there a lot of plastics wasted throughout the globe everyday. This is having an effect on all aspects of the environment e.g. on aquatic life. Plastic packing accounts for the largest column of the plastic economy. It accounts for 26% of the total packaging (Kaur et al., 2018).
It is necessary to phase out plastic waste from society. Plastic packaging is often discarded after use and this causes enviromantal problems (Guillard, V. et al., 2018). There are many idea and actions that can be used to reduce the amount of plastic that is used throughout the world. In Chilli they have already banned the use of plastic bags, this has been a big step. As part of the Galway Climathon 2020 in November myself and six other colleagues from NUIG developed the idea “Green Rewards”. This is an initiative by where you get a finical benefit by returning plastic packing to the shop and you also get a benefits when you purchase items that are not in plastic containers. Perhaps the 100 % compostable bags now available in Aldi and other supermarkets will become the way of the future and phase out non recyclable plastics.
Its not just food plastic packaging that is a problem. A very relevant examples in terms of plastics and the circular economy is the use of surgical masks vs reusable masks. Surgical masks are single use and often that is the end of the cycle.
The reusable mask can be used multiple times and when the mask is no longer used it could be made into another item of clothing starting the cycle again. Environmentalists are urging people to use reusable masks and frequently wash their hands instead of using gloves. More information can be found by clicking on the following link: https://weather.com/health/coronavirus/video/face-masks-other-covid-waste-polluting-the-ocean
There are man aspects that need to be considered moving forward in the case of plastics and the circular economy there needs to be an upgrade in the scale of polymer recycling centers. There needs to be more awareness of how plastics can impact on the environment (ERM, 2021).Single use plastics are effecting marine ecosystems, biodiversity and human health, hence they pose a threat to sustainability. (European Commission, 2020).
Sustainability
Sustainability is the idea that future generations will be able to have the same quality of life as this generation. Living sustainably ensures that a good standard of living can be provided for future generations. It is clear that without a circular economy in terms of plastics the future generations are likely to be severely impacted.
I believe that the Covid_19 Pandemic offers us a great opportunity to improve sustainability and promote and encourage circular economy. Until next time!!
References
Banaitė, D., 2016. Towards circular economy: analysis of indicators in the context of sustainable development. Social Transformation in Contemporary Society, 4(9), pp.142-150.
Guillard, V., Gaucel, S., Fornaciari, C., Angellier-Coussy, H., Buche, P. and Gontard, N., 2018. The next generation of sustainable food packaging to preserve our environment in a circular economy context. Frontiers in nutrition, 5, p.121.
Kaur, G., Uisan, K., Ong, K.L. and Lin, C.S.K., 2018. Recent trends in green and sustainable chemistry & waste valorisation: rethinking plastics in a circular economy. Current opinion in green and sustainable chemistry, 9, pp.30-39.
MacArthur, E., 2013. Towards the circular economy. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2, pp.23-44.
Today I am learning to blog the system is slow. I found an interesting quote about climate change from former US President Barrack O’Bama which I will attach below!
