Forum. The market valuations record of the giants of the e-commerce does take little account of the negative impacts generated by the mass of the consumer products that they distribute. Could we consider that their huge ongoing investments in digital technologies are also used to develop a new system of information on the composition of the materials throughout the life cycle of these products ? A track could be to establish an “identity card” of the substances present in consumer products, in order to promote the development of a circular economy more healthy.
This twin digital, which is so lacking, would facilitate the use of the residual materials of the product to make it a source of significant and reliable (new) raw materials in the circular economy.
It is no longer conceivable that, in the era of big data, the distributors may not be able to retrieve a list of a few substances in a material
In effect, the costs of health care, environmental and / or social-caused by the manufacture, the marketing and consumption of products far exceed the 1 000 billion dollars per year, either as a result of global warming, the pollution of the air or of the erosion of biodiversity. These costs are in addition to the staggering amount of plastic used during the manufacturing process. According to the european Parliament, more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year, a figure that will double in twenty years. The oceans could contain more plastic than fish. And a continent of plastic as large as three times the size of France is now developing in the Pacific.
But if the circular economy becomes essential to save resources and minimize waste and pollutants, it presents a vulnerability of size : the loss of data on the composition of chemical substances of the products and their materials…
