Every year the world produces over two billion tonnes of waste. By 2050, the World Bank expects that will grow to 3.4 billion tonnes.

But the problem isn’t just the amount – it’s what we do with it. Instead of recycling or reusing valuable materials, or turning them into compost, or energy – today, nearly three quarters of the world’s waste goes straight to landfill sites or open dumps.

Molok North America is a waste management company that offers convenience and efficiency to consumers and municipalities seeking to improve the diversion of their waste into recycling and composting streams. The New Economy partnered with Molok North America to find out how, in this four part video series.

Kinsley, Grade 4:

We recycle pop cans, plastic water bottles. Containers; paper and boxes.

Emma, Grade 6:

There’s stuff, and we only have so much of it. And it’s a good thing that we reuse it, because there’s only so much of it.

Jeremy, Grade 11:

When you throw something away that doesn’t need to be thrown away, it not only takes up extra space in landfills, but it also makes us need more resources to replace that product that was just thrown away.

Ainsley, Grade 12:

If stuff keeps going to the landfill then we’re not going to have a place to live. The landfills will overtake, in the long run.

Jared, Grade 11:

I think that the natural resources are still there, but it’s in decline. We need to find a way to either stop using those resources, or reuse them so that we’re not using more of them.

Olivia, Grade 8:

Perfect world, we wouldn’t have to throw away anything. Everything would either be biodegradable or recyclable. Because right now there’s a lot of things that you can’t recycle. Like, you don’t really have much of a choice in the matter of how much damage you’re dealing to the planet at that point.

Kinsley, Grade 4:

So like, we have to recycle. Because we can’t keep on throwing it in garbage, else we’ll run out of things that we can use again.

Narrator:

Every year the world produces over two billion tonnes of waste. By 2050, the World Bank expects that will grow to 3.4 billion tonnes.

But the problem isn’t just the amount. It’s what we do with it. Instead of recycling or reusing valuable materials, or turning them into compost, or energy – today, nearly three quarters of the world’s waste goes straight to landfill sites or open dumps.

Susan Antler, Executive Director, Compost Council of Canada

Well in the perfect world there would be no waste. It would be all resources that we would lovingly collect and put back to be reused.

In a more practical world, we need to have a different perspective on things. Quite honestly I don’t think we’ve done enough. I’m quite embarrassed about the fact that we have not owned up to our responsibilities of people on this planet.

For me personally, I have such an urgency right now. If we don’t change the respect that we need to have for the materials that we use, we basically are not doing what is right.

Narrator:

Changing the way we produce, consume, and dispose of goods is one of the UN’s sustainable development goals.

By 2030, we need to substantially reduce the amount of waste we generate: through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

And countries in North America – home to five percent of the world’s population, but creating 14 percent of the world’s waste – have a lot of work to do.

Brent Wootton PhD, Vice President of Applied Research, Fleming College:

Well, Canada currently produces about 700-730kg of waste per person per year. And that’s a per capita statistic, including commercial waste. But that’s a very high number compared to other nations in the world. In OECD surveys we rank typically last, among those nations.

We need better dissemination of best practices, best tools, incentives. We need to do better at measuring things, we need to do better at implementing some of these programmes, such as food waste diversion, recycling, and textiles.

But because we’re a confederation, we lack a coordinated approach. What would be really helpful is if we had a national government response to some of these waste management challenges.

Bryan Staley, President and CEO, Environmental Research and Education Foundation:

Many discarded materials in North America are placed into the wrong bins by consumers. This tends to happen because in many cases there’s confusion due to poor labelling practices, inconsistencies in the types of materials accepted, and a lack of standardisation in definitions of management practices.

Contamination – materials which are not supposed to be in a particular waste stream – they impede successful management. Contamination reduces the quality of the end product, and it’s a significant issue for recycling and composting waste streams.

Susan Antler, Compost Council of Canada:

One of the biggest barriers is convenience. Pretty much now as Canadians, we all know what we should be doing. But the reality is, as soon as it goes away from convenience, people drop off. And they have great excuses.

And so a company such as Molok that has provided the convenience to do the right thing in terms of recycling and composting, is appropriate this time. Because we have to get beyond the barriers of why they can’t do it, and we have to make everything happen.

Narrator:

Molok is a waste management company, founded in Finland in 1991. The business invented the deep collection method of handling waste: each surface container conceals a cavity up to five feet deep, keeping refuse hidden and hygienic. And because a Molok container can hold more waste for longer – it’s a more sustainable solution.

In 1999 the brand crossed the Atlantic and established Molok North America. And from its headquarters in Mount Forest, Ontario, it’s set itself the goal of making the world a better place.

Mark Hillis, CEO and President of Molok North America:

Sustainability; it’s become something that a lot of people in the world are striving for, because we recognise what’s going on with the world these days. Molok was really at the forefront of that, probably way before it actually became something that was in everybody’s eyes.

As a result of that, everything that we do within the company: our manufacturing, our assembling, the team that we built, our human resources.

Everything we do lends itself towards making the world a better place, and therefore sustainability is in the forefront of what we do.

Tim Corcoran, Vice President of Business Development for Molok North America:

27 years ago when the business was established, one of the tenets of our original business was to make sure that everything we did respected the environment going forward.

So to this day, whether it’s the manufacture of our products, the way in which we sell them, we do everything with a view of bettering the environment. Whether it’s through reduced truck traffic, or whether it’s through the ability to recycle our products after use.

Narrator:

The Molok system is designed to make managing waste as simple and sustainable as possible – for the end user, the local municipality, and the waste collection company. To understand why this green thinking is so deeply embedded in the company’s philosophy, you have to go back to its origins: in a trash-strewn alleyway outside a Finnish hotel.

Watch part two of The future of waste handling: A vision, a drive, a dream.