The world’s insatiable demand for resources is well on track to balloon by about 50 billion tonnes over the next quarter of a century, an unsustainable situation that equates to an overuse of the planet’s capacity of more than 400%, Stephen Bullock of Anglo American Platinum has said.
According to the Head of Sustainable Impact at the mining multinational, the projected demand will reach 130bn tonnes by 2050, compared to where it was in 2014 – 80bn tonnes.
Speaking during a webinar dedicated to responsible mining and sustainability, Bullock said that economic progress around the world was exceeding the planet’s supply capacity.
Compounding the problem is general prosperity, with more and more people joining the middle class and its attendant technological spoils.
By 2030, for example, it is expected that there will be 2.5bn new middle-class consumers, a sure sign of economic growth but bad news for resource sustainability.
It pushes up the need for resources, Bullock explained, with worrying prospects for a planet already under extreme pressure.
Much of humankind’s impact can be avoided though, he said, with opportunity to be found in the lessening of waste.
In the value chain alone, 31% of food production goes to waste.
The first recycling phase of steel too has a heavy waste footprint, namely 30%.
Thankfully, the reduction of high waste margins and the eradication of unnecessary loss is receiving attention at the highest levels, with institutions such as the UN, no less, having found that upwards of $4.5 trillion could be generated through recycling and loss prevention.
