Special Interest Group

Intro

This four-part series is aimed at using the open source and collaborative nature of blockchain to tackle issues plaguing human consumption and improve society for future generations. We hope that this series can invoke quick movement on use cases with high potential to improve social good.

In Part I we looked at how governments can create markets to solve recycling contamination and reward citizens via blockchain. This engages consumers, reduces confusion and boosts recycling participation. Part II (below) focuses on using blockchain to track hazardous and toxic materials from the point of purchase to ensure proper material handling to prevent fires, death, and pollution. Part III looks at government tax credits to expedite the adoption of recycling and composting programs by communities and businesses, while using blockchain to verify compliance, traceability, and program participation. Lastly, in Part IV we will discuss Zero Waste initiatives that cities, businesses, and facilities can implement to reduce the carbon and pollutant impact of their supply chains.

Part II Tracking Hazardous and Toxic Materials

Pollution, Chemicals, and Fires

Pollution is the presence of some materials in the environment and the state of the natural environment being contaminated with potentially harmful substances as an outcome of human activities. Annually, there are over 4.2 million deaths due to outdoor air pollution. Water pollution caused 1.8 million deaths in 2015. As of September 2021, nearly 300 million tons of hazardous waste has been thrown out globally since the beginning of this year alone! Human consumption can cause substantial harm to our health leading to chronic diseases, environmental harms, and death. In addition, studies show that toxic chemicals are invading our bodies and breast-feeding women are passing these toxic chemicals on to their babies. These chemicals can cause cancer and reproductive issues, damage DNA, and disrupt hormone systems of animals and people, among a myriad of other risks.

Indeed, human consumption directly impacts our air, water, and soil throughout the entire product supply chain. From the extraction of raw materials to the manufacturing processes, transportation, distribution, storage, consumption, and ultimate disposal of materials in landfills and incinerators, each step of the chain releases carbon, chemicals, and other pollutants into groundwater, toxify the earth’s soil, and pollutes our air. However, for this specific blog, we are focusing on the end of the supply chain, looking at how we can keep potentially hazardous and toxic materials in circulation while minimizing impact by  enforcing the proper disposal of these materials.

On the bright side, controlling pollution and human consumption has a great return on investment. According to the Lancet Commission on Health, the global economic costs of pollution are massive, totaling “$4.6 trillion per year—6.2% of global economic output.” In the United States, air pollution control pays off at a rate of 30-1. Every dollar invested in air pollution control generates thirty dollars of benefits. Since 1970, the United States has invested around $65 billion in air pollution control and received around $1.5 trillion in benefits. Indeed, hazardous materials have the potential to desperately impact vulnerable communities, but the efforts to control them also provide an opportunity to create jobs, improve health, and create economic opportunity.

Fires

Do you know where to recycle/properly dispose of your electronics, chemicals, and other hazardous materials? Do you know if your trash or recycling was the cause of a fire? Improper disposal of dangerous material can lead to fires that occur in collection trucks, trash cans and dumpsters, or a recycling, landfill, or incineration facility. For example, lithium ion batteries in electronics can cause fires that ignite nearby materials creating an uncontrollable blaze. These fires often require the fire station to put them out and result in additional chemicals such as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be released into the environment. This further pollutes our air, water, and soil. Even when people know about the dangers, processes to motivate consumers and inspire behavior change are lacking. Further, because of the vast amount of materials in our supply chains, it is complicated to know what to dispose of where, and what can be potentially dangerous to frontline workers and vulnerable communities.

The scenario below provides greater detail using an example from our household electronics.

Scenario #2 Harry’s Hazardous Mishap

Let’s assume Harry just broke his new electronic device that contains a lithium-ion  battery. Instead of taking it to a local electronics retailer, the local hazardous recycling center, or having it collected, he tosses the device into his trash can. On garbage day, the garbage collector (Wanda Worker) arrives, uses the claw to collect Harry’s trash and is off to the next home. It is a hot day. About thirty minutes later, Wanda is almost done with her route and begins to head back to dump her truckload. She looks in her sideview mirrors and begins to see smoke billowing out of her truck. She radios into dispatch that she might have a problem. Quickly the smoke starts to increase, and Wanda is forced to dump her truckload for her own safety, to protect the vehicle, and even prevent an explosion from occurring. Dispatch calls emergency services, and a firetruck and ambulance arrive shortly to put out the fire and check on Wanda.

A scenario like this happened as recently as May of this year in Manassas, Virginia. Find a news link here. Find the tweet here. The article also reports that there was a fire at the Material Recovery Facility as well earlier in the week. Two fires in one week! On July 7, 2021, a Waste Management vehicle caught fire in Oregon. This electronics recycling problem is not siloed to the United States; here is a video from a fire in Australia: 

The statistics are not crystal clear on how many fires occur due to people improperly disposing of materials, but it has been reported that there are over 8,000 landfill fires occur annually. Humans have more and more devices in our home, and we must take special precautions when handling them at the end of life. Fires caused by batteries, devices and related materials are just one example. There are other chemical instances, such as paints, heavy metals and other substances that might not spark a fire, but are toxic when disposed of and can ultimately enter our groundwater supply. For example, when it rains on landfills, the rain can flush these chemicals into our water supply as leachate.

When businesses dump hazardous waste, there are often repercussions. For instance, Home Depot was fined $27.84 million in California for improperly disposing of hazardous waste. However, consumer enforcement is much more difficult, costly, and essentially non-existent as it requires a manual inspection of thousands of trash and recycling containers. In addition, there are privacy concerns surrounding people inspecting trash and recycling. In some cases,  it could be ruled an invasion of privacy, whereas in other areas private receptacles are subject to inspection.

So where does blockchain come into play? Blockchain creates new models for ensuring  that these hazardous items never end up in the wrong place and that those creating dangerous and unsafe workplaces for frontline workers, toxifying our water supply and contributing to air and soil pollution are held accountable. Dangerous and hazardous materials can be tracked from the point of purchase and verified once the person disposes of them in the proper location. This material list could range from electronics to chemicals and any other poisonous or toxic material. A discount or other brand powered incentive could encourage people to properly handle and dispose of these types of materials. Essentially, it would amount to a brand-powered “bottle” bill for hazardous and dangerous materials, which result in fires, groundwater contamination and air pollution, especially in vulnerable communities.

Chem Chain is a company that focuses on tracking the chemicals contained in products to educate consumers on the risks that exist throughout the supply chain and looks at the impact of the products we use on a daily basis. Deloitte also provided some guidance on how blockchain can be used to tackle these issues in the chemical industry supply chain.

The IBM Food Trust certification program could also be a model for tracking hazardous waste. It even provides a roadmap for  monitoring and measuring the overall impact of individual consumers disposing of materials properly and the economic savings from reduced fires, pollution, and safety issues that are created by toxic and hazardous materials.

By requiring certificates on a blockchain chain powered by the state or federal government, municipalities and other entities could issue licenses for these types of household electronics from the point of purchase. The license would mandate that they can’t be disposed of in the trash or recycling. Instead, they must be dropped off at a collection site, to ensure that the materials are properly handled. Indeed, this could create a market for licensed material collectors to handle materials on an ad-hoc personalized basis from consumers homes and create more public awareness around this ever present issue..

Programs like this can encourage individuals to purchase more sustainable and circular products. But, in the case where these metals and lithium-ion batteries cannot be avoided, at least we can ensure Wanda Worker gets home to her family safely as the public becomes motivated to get educated and do the right thing.

The purpose of these blogs is to stir ideas and innovation in the circular economy to better understand the current interactions of material life cycles. The Hyperledger Social Impact Group hopes that these blogs can create interest for:

·        Focusing on clean air, water, soil, by increasing material collection efficiently and eliminating waste.

·        Calculating product lifecycles for consumers and business materials.

·        Analyzing political, economic, social, and practical blockchain applications.

·        Building proof-of-concept applications to demo for stakeholders.

If you want to be part of the discussion or, even better, help build solutions that reduce the impact of hazardous materials disposal, please check out the Hyperledger Social Impact SIG new member center. Or subscribe to the Social Impact SIG mailing list for updates and meeting notifications.

Intro 

This four-part series is aimed at using the open source and collaborative nature of blockchain to tackle issues plaguing human consumption and improving society for future generations. We hope that this series can invoke anyone to move quickly on use cases with high potential to improve social good.  

From the food we eat to the clothing we purchase, we must maximize the value from every product, extend its lifecycle beyond single-use, and properly dispose of materials at its end of life. If not, polluted waters, contaminated soils, and toxic air will pollute the entire social fabric of society. In Part I (this piece), we discuss how the government can create markets for recycling contamination and rewards via blockchain, which will reduce consumer confusion and boost recycling participation. Part II focuses on using blockchain to track hazardous and toxic materials from the point of purchase to ensure proper handling to prevent fires, death, and pollution. Part III looks at government tax credits to expedite the adoption of recycling and composting programs by businesses and using blockchain to verify compliance, traceability, and program participation. Lastly, in Part IV we discuss Zero Waste initiatives that cities, businesses, and facilities can implement to reduce the carbon-footprint of their entire supply chains.  

Part I Recycling Contamination and Tokenized Rewards  

Golden Opportunity 

Transforming waste to wealth represents a staggering $4.5 trillion USD in estimated economic opportunity, also known as the Circular Economy. But the barriers to prevent materials from entering our landfills and incinerators are huge. The amount of recyclables actually collected, processed, and sold back to market is frighteningly low and requires different solutions. Countries, states, and municipalities have implemented bans on single-use materials, and reuse models are becoming more widely adopted, but, for every person who reuses a product, hundreds more toss out valuable material. Our materials don’t always get recycled due to contamination. Indeed, blockchain and emerging technologies have the potential to deliver unmatched reverse supply chain transparency, provide contamination data, and distribute insights that were previously unknown.  

Recycling Contamination 

Do you know whether your local Material Recovery Facility (MRF) has the equipment to process the material you attempt to recycle? Do you know if there is a market for it? Do you know when a truckload of recyclables is rejected due to contamination and sent to disposal? Contamination can take on numerous meanings, but here we are specifically talking about putting materials that are not accepted in your local recycling program into your recycling bin or cart. Contamination is not just bad for the environment because it sends precious natural resources to waste. It also creates dangerous working conditions because workers must climb into heavy-machinery and remove the plastic bags, cords, and other tangled materials that jam and damage expensive sorting equipment. The scenario below provides greater detail. 

Photo credit: Created by Housecodies

Scenario #1 – Carol’s Curbside Confusion 

Let’s assume Carol and several of her well intentioned neighbors place plastic bags, Styrofoam with leftovers inside, and #5 clamshell containers into the recycling cart simply because they have a recycling symbol. On social media she sees people recycling these items in the cities where they live, but she’s not quite sure whether she is recycling correctly at home. Even if she is unsure about an item, she tosses it into the bin trying to minimize waste. Unfortunately, if over 20% of the recycling load is contaminated with unacceptable materials, the entire load will likely be deemed “contaminated” when inspected at the MRF and the entire truckload will end up being rejected by the MRF and sent to a landfill or incinerator. Why? Because  food contaminates the cardboard and paper when it is compacted in the truck, the plastic bag will cause the equipment to jam and put frontline workers in harms’ way, and the clamshells tend to have no buyer or secondary market.  

Technology has the ability to transform the way we handle our materials. Cameras are being mounted on recycling trucks for safety purposes but also to identify contamination culprits. The data gathered from these images can be analyzed with computer vision models and alerts  delivered directly to the resident to confirm whether they are recycling properly. This information can also be stored on a blockchain to not only track contamination but to confirm when Carol’s materials (or at least similar materials in that processing batch) are sold back to market and ultimately converted into new material. Delivering this clarity to Carol will boost the positive reinforcement of her efforts and encourage her to keep taking the appropriate actions. With her new knowledge, Carol can avoid plastic bags and instead head over to her local farmer’s market with her own reusable bags, while still recycling what should be recycled in her local program (aluminum cans, cardboard, paper, etc.).   

1 Token for Proper Recycling, 2 for Sustainable Purchases, and 3 for Refusing to Purchase? 

An example of the activity in a recycling system can be found here: How It Works: Recording Recycling Activity on the Blockchain. Tracking materials (such as cardboard and paper) without a UPC or QR code can be difficult . But, hypothetically, if you are properly recycling and not contaminating your cart, the municipality could deliver one token and then be reimbursed from companies selling recyclables in their jurisdiction. Companies such as Cryptocycle are securing recycling using blockchain. Blockchain can allow a consumer to track whether their product was processed at a MRF or was rejected and sent to disposal. Once it’s confirmed that the load has entered the MRF, then an estimate can be calculated based on the type of material that the consumer recycled and verified  once the material is reprocessed or delivered to a recycling facility, validating the raw material savings. There are numerous companies utilizing blockchain in the recycling context, including KrpyC, Goodr, and RecycleGO, that utilize Hyperledger Fabric and other Hyperledger platforms to provide transparency and accountability throughout the reverse logistics networks.   

Sustainable purchases could be rewarded with two tokens as they tackle the carbon footprint and plastic pollution problems stemming from human consumption at the source. Token rewards can also incent people to try reuse programs such as Loop, which decrease the carbon footprint of our materials by delivering needed products without extracting new resources. Likewise, adding a token reward model can help fuel efforts to get consumers to switch  from plastic to reusable bottles for the good of their wallet, health, and the environment. Americans spent $31 billion on bottled water in one year. However, the Environmental Protection Agency found that $24 billion is needed to fix our water infrastructure, $7 billion less than we’re spending on bottled water. Tokens for making reusable bottle purchases could be exchanged for a free transit ride, park entry, or a discount at a local business.  

Taking this to the next level raises an interesting question:  how to verify when someone refuses to purchase a product because of its environmental impact. I mean, how can one get rewarded for “not” making a purchase? This is a difficult conundrum, and one retailers and brands would deplete their lobbying budgets to fight. However, it has the potential to distinguish the true eco-warriors from those trying to recycle our way out of it. We’ll revisit this topic later in the series. 

But what about the fires, pollution, or death? Don’t worry, we’ll discuss hazardous and toxic materials in Part II of this series.  

Want to be part of the effort to shape blockchain-based solutions and applications that address the greater social good? Then come get involved with the Hyperledger Social Impact Special Interest Group. All are welcome!