dare to CHALLENGE Terminology
Terminology within sustainability is one that is heavily discussed (1). Can a product be called green and what is a conscious choice?
All the different terms can cause confusion (2) when communicating about sustainability internally and externally. When it comes to different material streams for recycling, there is also a big variety of terms used to describe them.
Post-consumer and pre-consumer waste, secondary raw material and residual waste streams are a few examples of names we have given these material streams. And when it comes to raw materials that have not been another product before, we also use different terms like primary raw material or more commonly, virgin material. But why virgin? According to TrenchlessPedia a virgin material can be defined as unused raw material that has never been subjected to any processing other than for its production. In other words, a virgin material is one that has not been touched before, like a virgin. We would sing-along to this when Madonna would sing it, but is it not a bit outdated to use the word virgin for material streams in 2023?
What wording should we use instead? The European Commission gives us an answer to this. In a description about Green Growth and Circular Economy, they use the terms primary and secondary raw materials as their language to distinguish the different material streams. Primary raw materials are defined as materials that have not been processed before. Secondary raw materials, on the other hand, are defined by the EU as waste that can be recycled and injected back into the economy.
That leaves us with the question, why is current innovation being held back by outdated terminology? We propose that we get rid of the outdated word virgin when describing material streams and replace it with primary raw material. It is time for a change, do you not think?
// ROOS MULDER - DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER
sources
THE CUT - Greenwashing Fashion (1)
SCIENCE DIRECT - A methodology and terminology of sustainability assessment and its perspectives for rural planning (2)
TRENCHLESS PEDIA - Virgin material
EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Raw material
