Way Beyond Good - Going Resource Positive with SIG India to push back Earth Overshoot Day

The urgent need for sustainability and recycling could not be any more blaringly evident today, all over the world. From climate change and species loss to wide scale pollution and environmental degradation, the window of opportunity that we have to preserve and repair our only readily habitable planet so far is quickly running out.

Without a joint global effort with a singular focus on enforcing changes, the Earth might be irreparably damaged beyond recovery, dooming ourselves as well as the next generations forever. As such, going resource-positive globally is the only way to reduce and mitigate our exploitation of the natural resources, and destruction of the environment.

Linear vs Circular Economy

The way that the world as a whole uses the available resources of the Earth is neither good for the people, nor the planet. Most industries today take materials from the Earth, make products using them, which are eventually, at least in large parts, thrown away as waste, after serving their purpose. This is known as a Linear Economy, where the resources end up being depleted heavily as part of a linear cycle of use. What we need to implement globally instead, is a Circular Economy, where the materials being used circulate continuously in loops – either by being recycled or safely returned to nature in the state that they were first taken in, thereby returning to the natural cycle. This helps make sure materials stay in use for longer, so that we don’t have to keep taking new ones, while also stopping them from becoming non-biodegradable waste.

Earth Overshoot Day

Calculated by international research organisation Global Footprint Network, Earth Overshoot Day marks the specific date on which the world has used up all the natural resources that the Earth can regenerate in that year. Hence, for the rest of the year, we essentially drain the remaining resources of the planet, which plays a key role in issues like species loss and climate change. Earth Overshoot Day is calculated globally, but every country has a different date depending on their own use of ecological resources and their manner of use. While many countries today are using up the Earth’s resources at a much faster rate than others, the Earth Overshoot Day for the world as a whole has been occurring earlier and earlier, every year. In 2021, it was on July 29^th – which points to how we are using up nature’s resources faster than ever, today.

Sustainability and going Resource Positive

Plastic products like straws, packets, and more, contribute heavily to marine and terrestrial environmental pollution, destruction, and species loss. As such, the Ban on single-use plastic in India is an excellent example of steps urgently necessary to, at the very least, minimise the amount of non-recyclable waste shot out into the environment by a country. Going resource positive is a need of the hour, and it essentially means the ability to absorb or remove more waste content than what one creates. Also, it is not enough to simply bring down our carbon footprint and remove the amount of waste that we produce, we must actually be able to remove more than we produce.

The Way Beyond Good

SIG India, one of the leading manufacturers of aseptic cartons and filling technology, has been committed to becoming more and more circular and resource positive, in order to help push back the Earth Overshoot Day. 70–80% of each SIG carton is made using renewable resources, like paper board certified by FSC^TM - Forest Stewardship Council (FSC^TM trademark licence code: FSC^TM C020428), and aluminium from sources certified by ASI (Aluminium Stewardship Initiative). SIGNATURE 100 by SIG is also the world’s first aseptic carton linked to 100% renewable material. What’s more, the company also offers aseptic cartons completely free of an aluminium-layer under its SIGNATURE EVO and combibloc ECOPLUS offerings, with 100% of the polymers linked to post-consumer recycled materials under its SIGNATURE CIRCULAR lines.

Simultaneously designing packs to minimise production waste and optimise use of materials, SIG has minimised food loss from filling to 0.5% or less, with its new next generation machine designed to cut this down even further. It is also producing all its cartons with 100% renewable energy. In addition, SIG has been partnering with several certified recyclers and PROs like Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) to carry out waste collection and recycling in multiple states in India, namely Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. It also works to improve recycling rates all over the country by supporting and investing in new recycling technologies and infrastructure, as well as offering renewable alternatives to plastic straws, such as its range of innovative and high-quality paper straws.

Collaboration for Sustainability – The way forward

In order to bring about effective change and mitigate the destruction of our environment, it is imperative that widescale policy changes and processes are implemented to encourage a shift to conservation, recycling, and a circular system of resource usage. For this, corporations, NGOs, and governments must work together with a singular focus, while we as individuals must also implement changes in our lives to move towards a more sustainable future.