Editor’s Note: This story by Sami Lachgar and graphic by Lyndsay Wilcox are part of a contest submission by Pine Whispers. The website BeginWithTheBin.org is encouraging students to “Raise Your Green Point Average” by thinking about the world of waste management and recycling. This submission will be posted at BeginWithTheBin.org and finalists will be voted upon at a later date. First prize in the contest is $1,000!
By Sami Lachgar, Editor-in-Chief
Will we have found a sustainable way to keep our cities running? Will poverty and hunger still be prevalent issues? Will the polar icecaps be almost entirely restored? These questions posed by citizens of the early 21st century seem absurd to our greener, cleaner society.
Our world in 2050 seems to be devoid of the waste woes of history. Although the world’s population continues to grow, advances in waste management and innovative ways to deal with pollution have left us with a cautiously optimistic attitude as we barrel toward a new age.
Mankind has utilized more resources than in all of history. Those who grew up in the early years of the 21st century seemed to be trapped in a contest of consumption, which could have led to negative environmental effects that their generation was unprepared to deal with. Luckily, developments in sustainable technologies and intensive research for ecological materials pointed those young people in the right direction as they attempted to limit greenhouse gas emissions and resorted to recycling more.
Reynolds Biology teacher Eric Findeis knew in 2014 that evolving waste management was vital to the continued well-being of the planet.
“I truly believe the day is going to come when they’re going to put all the stuff into the landfill and they’ll spray it with the correct bacteria, which will be genetically engineered to melt and recycle the metals, plastics and newspapers,” Findeis said. “If we don’t do that, we’re screwed.”
In 2014, only about 6 percent of the world’s waste was renewable, which illuminated the passive attitude that plagued society during those years. In order to keep alive hopes of a cleaner world in 2050, nations had to rely not only on pioneering technologies, but also on a revitalized determination by the public to become more sustainable. First-world countries implemented incredible new designs to manage waste, such as improved landfill protection, which allowed other nations to follow and continue the progress they made.
Our world in 2050 no longer uses incineration as a means to rid ourselves of waste, which greatly decreased greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, the use of energy from gas landfills is ever-so prevalent since it has been proven to generate mostly “green” energy and has the effect of eliminating emissions of carbon dioxide equal to the consumption of 11.6 billion gallons of gasoline.
Fuel cells also became a blossoming hope for the future due to the widespread research from chemists around the world in the last 40 years as scientists looked for cheaper ways to separate the oxygen and hydrogen molecules in water.
By the year 2050, the world population has grown by 50 percent from its 2014 levels, global economic activity grew 500 percent, and global energy and materials use grew 300 percent. If the world had continued on those paths without revolutionizing systems of waste management and recycling tendencies, there would have been absolutely disastrous impacts. Luckily, our ability to clean up after ourselves was not abandoned in favor of money and expansion.
Naomi Ruchugo, who was a senior at Reynolds in 2014, recalls being worried about the path of humanity in those fateful times but also hopeful that advances in waste management would be able to limit the spread of serious problems.
“By 2050, the population will have increased, which means an increase in Gross Domestic Product, which means that more advanced and efficient ways of handling waste will be in place,” Ruchugo said. “Humans are meant to adapt and that is exactly what is going to happen.”