Recycling: Water Quality Is Essential to Human Health

According to UN-Water, which is coordinating the United Nations’ work on water and sanitation, a more circular and therefore more sustainable economy requires to value wastewater for its potential. “More than just an alternative source of water, safe wastewater management could help protect our ecosystems and give us energy, nutrients and other recoverable materials,” the United Nations inter-agency coordination platform stresses the advantages.

However, reality paints a different picture: As described, globally – estimated – 80 percent of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being adequately treated or reused. This would contribute to a situation in which around 1.8 billion people use a source of contaminated drinking water and thus putting them at risk of water-related diseases like cholera and dysentery, to name but a few. “Far from being something to discard or ignore, wastewater will play a major role in meeting the growing water demand in rapidly expanding cities, enhancing energy production and industrial development, and supporting sustainable agriculture.” This also applies to the industrial sector.

The costs of wastewater management would be outweighed by the advantages, “providing new business opportunities and creating more ‘green’ jobs,” UN-Water is convinced. The realm of future business opportunities regarding the global water and wastewater market is described on pages 3 and 4. Furthermore, from page 13 onward an interview focuses on the Italian company Tecnoidea Impianti, a provider of plants for water purification and the treatment of sludge.

In September, the UN published the first global report on sustainable development since 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted. Entitled “The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development,” the report finds that the current development model is not sustainable. The scientists conclude that a far more optimistic future is still attainable, but only by drastically changing development policies, incentives and actions, a press release said. As emphasized, creating economic growth just by increasing consumption of material goods is no longer a viable option: Projections would indicate that the global use of materials is set to almost double between 2017 and 2060 (from 89 gigatons to 167 gigatons) with correspondingly increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions and other toxic effects such as those from mining and other pollution sources. To change course, the world must transform several key areas of human activities, including food, energy, consumption and production, the authors say. “Developed countries need to change their production and consumption patterns, including by limiting the use of fossil fuels and plastics, and to encourage public and private investments that align with the SDGs.”

Particularly concerning plastics, some initiatives are aiming at more sustainability. While the ubiquitous use of plastic has resulted in an enormous volume of waste, poor plastic waste management has caused negative environmental effects. This animated governments to implement stringent policies and regulations for the effective management of plastic waste, which will affect the markets for plastics recycling and recycled material (pages 6 and 7). On page 34, Michael Laermann addresses the question of chemical recycling. And the manufacturer SABIC realizes certified Polymers (page 27).

We hope you get a lot of new and useful information from reading this current magazine.

Yours
Brigitte Weber