We all need to consume less if we are to save our environment from catastrophe

Irish Times

7 hours ago

The focus on solving the triple crises of
climate change
,
biodiversity loss
and pollution is often on how to reduce harmful emissions by reaching targets for agriculture, transport and energy use. According to the
latest Environmental Protection Agency report
, Ireland will only achieve a reduction of 23 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 instead of the national target of 51 per cent with current measures.
But what if we broadened our focus and added other ways to dealing with these crises? What if we took a sharper look at consumption patterns and resource use as a way of holding on to existing value rather than just focusing on reducing emissions from what is already used and sometimes even wasted?
Experts in organisations such as the Ellen Macarthur Foundation have long argued that energy efficiency and switching to renewable energies will only address 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. How we design, make and use products, materials and food is the other 45 per cent of the solution.
If you take this wider view of
sustainability
, there are things we can all do more of to reduce pollution, waste and emissions too. So rather than praising yourself for being a good recycler, consider how you can reuse stuff, repair stuff and rent stuff rather than always opting to buy new stuff.
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This third strand of global efforts to living more sustainably often goes under the radar. And although repair cafes, tool and toy libraries and online vintage clothes marketplaces have become more popular, it's the scaling up of these efforts across manufacturing and food production that will really have the most impact.
For this to happen, businesses need to embrace the somewhat misunderstood concept of circularity – where resources and materials are kept in circulation for as long as possible at their highest value, creating closed and open loops of production.
The European Commission is desperately trying to build momentum around the circular economy, albeit with the new stamp of competitiveness highlighted.
During EU Green Week 2025 in Brussels, policymakers reiterated how geopolitical tensions are jeopardising global supply chains for rare and critical earth materials essential for the digitalisation of production processes across healthcare, construction, food and manufacturing.
So, for Europe to remain competitive, businesses must find ways to source some of these materials from products already in circulation here. As one Brussels policymaker put it, Europe might not have the raw materials but we are world leaders in recycling. The European Commission now wants member states to source 25 per of rare and critical metals from so-called urban mining – aka taking them out of old cars, electronic and electrical items to reuse as secondary materials for new products.
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But it's not all about rare and critical raw materials. It's also about finding new uses for byproducts in food production that go to waste (think the once neglected whey which is now central to many protein products). It's about taking out valuable construction materials like steel from building sites for reuse in other sites. And it's about creating new products like insulation panels from recycled textiles.
Circular economy entrepreneurs are excited about the prospects of building a new strand to business where people, profit and planet can work in harmony but they are also cognisant that financial incentives and regulations which promote a market for secondary materials are urgently needed.
The backdrop to all of this is the European Circular Economy Act – expected to be introduced in the second half of 2026 when Ireland holds the European presidency. This Act needs to include financial incentives (eg lower VAT on products with recycled content, recertification schemes for reused materials) to help companies take risks to create new uses for things they would have previously thrown out.
Promoting a marketplace for second-hand building materials and building more durable products which can be repaired, reused, refurbished and remanufactured has to be the way forward if we want to live within planetary boundaries.
The elephant in the room is cheap imports of virgin materials from outside the EU. To create a level playing field for 'ecopreneurs' in Europe, some form of tariffs will have to be imposed on these cheap imports so that recycled plastics and recycled textile plants in places like the Netherlands and Sweden can survive or even thrive.
Turning trash to treasure has never been more important if we want to continue to have the products we need whilst not polluting our planet and helping reduce harmful emissions at the same time.
Sylvia Thompson was one of 30 journalists from EU member states to attend EU Green Week 2025 in Brussels in June