Another article by our founder and CEO, Damian Lambkin that has been featured in the Western Morning News Business press in July 2020

We don’t have to look far to see the global waste crisis. It is washing up on our beaches and floating in our seas. We are drowning in waste.

Growing up in Cornwall and now living in Exeter, the ocean is a huge part of my life. I’ve enjoyed diving since I was a teenager and I’ve seen first hand the amount of waste in the ocean increase rapidly in that time. Seeing the impact first hand was one of the reasons I set out to find a solution.

My view is that we need to move towards a circular economy, which is transparent and open to all. We all have a part to play in making choices that result in less waste, but the waste management system also has to change. And I believe that technology is key to getting us there.

So, what is the scale of the problem? Over two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste is produced globally every year. That is a difficult number to visualise, so consider this: each year we create enough waste to fill over 800,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. And it is a problem that is set to grow by 70% by 2050 unless we do something soon to drastically change the way we manage our waste.

Globally, only 16% of our waste is recycled and 46% is disposed of unsustainably. Solid waste management creates greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. Dumping waste can pollute the soil through hazardous chemicals leaking from the waste. Burning waste at landfill sites releases toxic substances into the air. Ground water is polluted by waste and waste pollutes our oceans. Thirteen million tonnes of plastic ends up in our seas and water ways each year. By 2050 if we keep this up there will be more plastic than fish in our seas.

Waste crime is also a significant issue that needs to be tackled. Waste crime ranges from fly tipping to dumping hazardous material on private land and falsely labelling waste so it can be exported abroad to unsuspecting countries.

Serious and organised waste crime is estimated to cost the UK economy at least £600 million a year. An independent review commissioned by the Home Office in 2018 found that perpetrators are often involved in other serious criminal activity, including large scale fraud and in some cases modern slavery.

I’ve worked in the waste industry for over 20 years and I know that there are many waste operators who are doing a great job, but one of the biggest issues contributing to the environmental impact of waste is that the waste management system is not joined up. After waste is produced there are many links in the chain: waste brokers, waste handlers, materials recovery facilities and recyclers, so there is lots of scope for waste to quite literally fall through the gaps.

I believe that technology can help fix the system and create a circular economy, that cuts down on the amount of waste and continual use of resources. We need a system where waste is viewed as a resource – not the end of something, but the beginning of something else.

I looked around to see what could help to resolve the issues in our waste systems and nothing existed, so last year I created AnyWaste.Com – a tech start up that I plan to roll out globally. We are currently running a free pilot with UK waste businesses and seeking seed funding.

AnyWaste.Com is the first online platform of its kind which will let waste companies manage their business online. Waste crime will be reduced as all of the regulatory paperwork will be completed online and will be fully auditable.

The system will link up all parts of the waste system, and give an overview of how waste is handled in an area, identifying seasonal trends. So, for example if we identify a peak in the requirement for plastic recycling in a certain area, we can ensure the brokers and handlers are in place to ensure the waste is recycled and does not end up in landfill. Another benefit is that customers will be able to find out exactly what happens to their waste.

It is easy to feel hopeless when confronted by the scale of the global waste problem, but I believe that by using technology to join up the system, we will cut down on waste crime, increase recycling rates and drastically reduce the amount of waste having to go to landfill.

Damian Lambkin is the founder and CEO of Exeter-based technology start up AnyWaste.Com