Mining recycling circular economies Change at the grassroots level
hello everyone
i want to start this conversation by
saying that
for so many years mining has allowed us
to develop the society as we know it
from the stone age and the first uses of
rocks for the development of tools
to the cars that we ride
and the cell phones that we use every
day mining is present
in every object that’s around us
sometimes when we think about mining we
don’t know what that is
sometimes it can get confused with
cryptocurrency processes
the truth is that mining is an industry
that allow us to develop all the things
that’s around us
and provides all the raw materials for
new technologies
from the lithium used in electric cars
to the rare earth elements required in
the production of solar panels
however in destruction of such needed
materials
mining creates impacts for people
the environment and future generations
but as human beings we’re constantly
affecting the world
with our daily actions generating trash
driving fossil fuel powered engines
or just using technology
let’s do something because i i wanna i
wanna
gauge please raise your hand those of
you who have unrate emails in your inbox
because let’s be honest there’s the kind
of people in this world the one who read
emails and the ones who don’t
well not that much people but that’s
good that’s good
just by receiving emails every day
we’re accounting for more than 200
pounds of carbon footprint
a year per person
we’re affecting the world just by being
here
and mining is not the exception mining
also contributes to environmental
impacts
this right here it’s what we called mind
tailings
the mind healings are the impacts
generated by mining
some of the impacts
but it’s very important this mine tail
is because these minetails are the
by-products
of the physical and chemical processes
required to obtain the different metals
that humans demand every day
different kinds of metals at different
concentrations may be found in these
mind healings creating a huge concern
regarding their disposal and
more than 7 billion tons a year
are produced worldwide and we need to do
something about it
but first let me introduce you to
zoraida
she is a minor a small scale minor and
she wakes up
every day to provide for herself and her
husband
who’s ill she’s 65 years old
and every day she works to the mine she
goes to the mine
to try to get some gold so she can pay
her bills
and get something to eat like her
there are many women and men working in
these exact same conditions
trying to provide something for their
families
and as you can see here this video shows
how people are hand picking gold with
very rudimentary equipment
this is what we call artisanal small
scale gold mining
and i want to talk a little bit about
this because this is very important
artisanal and small scale
gold mining or asgm as it’s well known
in the world
generally it is defined as an economic
activity
that is done with very rudimentary
equipment
or small machinery it’s a very important
economic in developing countries
and it the main income for more than 40
million
people around the world in more than 70
countries
gold prices and informal operations
make of this activity and very um
interesting and interactive
livelihood for the rural poor
and is if we’re talking about impact
mind healings also comes in these are
the mind tailings generated by minors
in asgn communities for many years
communities have
disposed of these mine tailings close to
rivers and streams
creating a huge concern regarding their
disposal
the point is and this is a good question
have they done something to solve the
problem
and the answer is yes they have
through recycling they’ve been helping
out the world
and communities like soraidas have been
trying to develop strategies
to recycle mine tailings into
construction materials
and i want to stop here for a while
because i want to explain this graph
right here this graph was taken from the
world economic forum in 2018
and this big arrow right here represents
the economy
the green side represents the incomes
and the red side represent the outcomes
the incomes to the economy account for
more than 100 billion tons a year
that are produced in crops biomass
mining and then we have the outcomes the
outcomes is that what we what we require
at societies
uh all the societal needs as they call
it
but there’s a huge gap right here and
it’s what
is waste and mining is accounting for
seven
point um four
billion tons just in waste
and there’s this arrow this hour it’s
very important because this arrow is
giving us the recycling
only 8.6
is being recycled worldwide every year
so like that and communities like
herrers are
trying to help in this recycling
but the question is how good are we
recycling a society
and just in 2015 from 2015
to 2017 the resources entering the
economy
increased but the recycling decreased
so we’re supposed to thicken the arrow
of recycling and we’re reducing it and
there’s a problem
but communities like zoraida they’re
trying to
fill that gap and for many years now
asgm have tried to turn those mind
healings into construction materials
they’re recycling them
because that’s very important for them
and they
they they’ve been doing this for several
reasons of course the first one
is formalization and by formalization i
mean legality
they want to get legal they want to be
part of the system they want to be
part of the government and the economy
second
they’ve been increasing their
environmental awareness they’ve been
creating
more workshops they’ve been learning
more thanks to communities to
universities ngos and other entities
and they try to create a different
livelihood different from mining
they’re trying to create more income
from different livelihoods
here all of this
have taken us to the point that
now we’re talking about a social driven
change
and it has triggered several chain
reactions the first one
now they want to understand the buying
process they want to know
how these construction materials can be
sell
but also they’re trying to look for
different technologies and how they can
process and recycle these new
tailings to turn them into construction
materials
and at the same time they’re trying to
reduce hazards
and everything under the scope of the
environmentally friendly
perspective this
quote was made by soraida
and i want to share that with you guys
because for me it’s one of the most
important things
perseverance makes us grow the most
important
escambiar para mejor futuro the most
important thing
is to change for a better future if
soraida is doing something
if communities like zoraida around the
world are doing something to recycle
to improve their way of lives we can do
something too
and the question is what can we do
to close the gap in our lives maybe for
instance
erasing the emails that you don’t read
thank you very much
you