A decade of environmental change

One of the things that surely characterizes the decade that we’ve just left behind us is that it was a period which saw an incredible rise in our collective environmental conscience. This is not to say there was no environmental conscience before the turn of the century. Between 2000 and 2009 though, that conscience really grew into something that is now deeply entrenched in many of our lives in a way that it never was before. Even those who don’t live with an environmental conscience these days can’t really help at least hearing about it.
During the last decade, the term “green” started appearing seemingly everywhere, to the point now where many would say the term has been greatly overused. Unnaturally rapid global warming and climate change became realities known well not only to scientists and environmentalists but to all citizens with access to TV, radio or print. And we were hearing those scientists, as well as activists and public figures all over the world, pleading publicly and loudly for change from governments, corporations and citizens. It could be said, in our last decade, that it was the beginning of the time when the majority of the population in the Western world first truly realized how serious things had become on the environmental front. We realized that we cannot simply continue to live the way we’d been living in the 20th century – that is, without nearly enough respect for our planet.
As for actual concrete, positive results coming out of the first decade of the 21st century, there have been minor ones certainly – too many to mention here – and there have been solid progressions. The rise of alternative energy is one good example. The technology that has fed the rise of energy from biomass and waste, solar and wind power, geothermal and marine energy came a very long way in the last decade, and there is real hope that they will eventually provide at least part of the answer to our problems with oil and coal.
On the recycling front, we’ve seen first-hand the way technology in our industry has progressed, and we’ve seen the rise of commingled collection and recycling rates that have increased greatly around North America, Europe, and the world. Steel recycling rates can be taken as a case in point, as steel remains the most recycled commodity in the world. In this issue, on page 11, we look at a report from the Steel Recycling Institute which tells us that global steel recycling rates reached a record high of 83.3 percent in 2008.
This is an impressive number in my books. It’s the kind of number that affirms that progress has been made. And it’s the kind of number that provides a solid platform from which to continue forward in the recycling industry and on the environmental front in general as we move into a new decade.