Amidst efforts to bring the circular economy into our everyday lives, food offers many options; with so many people hungry, there’s more reason than ever to make sure nothing goes to waste.

What can individuals do to lessen their environmental impact, and when should efforts be directed toward the larger forces at play? This question is challenging, as individual action can sometimes feel futile. But as the case of food waste shows, it can have an outsized impact—for better and worse.

Healthcare settings generate a significant amount of waste. A 2019 report on 110 Canadian hospitals found they generated nearly 87,000 tonnes of waste annually.

Globally, incineration has been debated recently after a group of UK-based advocates called for an end and eventual ban on incineration in their country. With nearly half of all waste incinerated there, they claim it’s harming air quality far beyond what industry states.

Millions of Canadians are now familiar with how to separate organic waste at home, and recent data show that composting organics is becoming more streamlined, efficient, and successful in Canada.

From advertising slogans to labels on garbage bins, its impacts are everywhere. This area of social science deals – as you might expect – with human behaviour: how it works, why, and what interventions can influence it.

Integrating sustainable, circular practices takes time, and can require major shifts away from entrenched practices. This is where environmental partnerships can be helpful, as businesses can share expertise and resources to meet sustainability goals.  

Consumers can’t be taken out of the equation when it comes to waste management. Even when industry and government partners take on more responsibility by providing resources, information, and management, waste generated at home will always be a factor.

Plastic use is often a target for change, since it’s so prevalent in our everyday lives. More recently, the conversation has included an even more problematic component to this pervasive material: microplastics.   

5REDO is participating in the virtual exhibition of 2022 Conference on Canadian Stewardship, September 20-21, 2022.

While the investment around electric vehicles seems like a natural step, could there be consequences to the demand? What resources will we need, and how can we ensure circularity as electric vehicle production ramps up? 

Visit us at Booth #555 on September 27 & 28, 2022 in the International Centre, Mississauga, ON.

At first, the two concepts may seem unrelated; we often think of the digital world as making our lives more interconnected and convenient, but not necessarily more sustainable. In truth, even the simple ability to access quality information – and quickly share it – can push sustainable innovation further than we think. 

From cellophane-wrapped vegetables, fruit in clamshell plastics, and styrofoam meat packaging, an average grocery order can feel like a never-ending strain of waste – and in fact, it comprises about one third of all household waste in Canada.  

When it comes to managing waste, keeping track for just one household can be challenging. What about when the waste consists of giant blocks of concrete, or endless square feet of wood flooring? This is the case in the construction industry.

Although you can – and should – repurpose clothing, the sheer volume of production means some of it will inevitably become waste.  

We are very excited to announce that 5REDO and Dr. Myriam Ertz, Professor at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, have been awarded a Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

Many of us are used to seeing labels when we pick up a product, whether it’s nutrition facts, directions, or general information. Would your buying choices be influenced if you knew how much carbon was generated to make a product? Would it – or should it – influence our everyday shopping? 

This paper reports the results of a research on the development of a diazirine-grafted polyamine that can be used as a primer for ultra-high-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers.

Discussion about the circular economy tends to focus on recycling metals, minerals and petroleum-based plastics, as well as innovations that boost sustainability for companies and consumers. While that part is no doubt important, there’s a lesser discussed – but still vital – aspect of the circular economy that deserves just as much attention: the bioeconomy. 

Lately, there's been more debate about a tough reality: many plastics are hard to recycle, and most end up in landfills or are incinerated. This awareness may force a shift in how we’ve thought about recycling for decades, by raising the question: do the words ‘plastic’ and ‘recycle’ belong together at all? 

In our first article on net-zero, we took a closer look at its meaning, and the planned timeline to get there. As a circular economy innovation firm, the team at 5REDO keeps a close eye on the climate change and sustainability realms, including the concept of net-zero. So how does it fit into the movement towards a circular economy, particularly here in Canada? Here, we break down some of the key components. 

Much like the terms carbon-neutral, renewable energy, or sustainability, ‘net-zero’ has become a key word in current discourse about climate change and our environment. But is it just another popular phrase?

Back in 2019, the Canadian government announced its intention to ban some single-use plastics, part of its ambitious efforts to have ‘zero plastic waste’ by 2030. The plan targeted some of the most wasteful or hard to recycle plastics, such as single-use cutlery, grocery bags, and takeout containers.

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow officially came to an end this weekend. For the past couple of weeks, nations from across the globe have negotiated on some of the most pressing climate change issues of our time, from coal production to methane emissions.

A new research paper that includes the contribution of 5REDO's CEO got published in American Chemical Society's Applied Polymer Materials journal.

We are pleased to announce that effective September 11, 2021, 5R Enabler Designs and Operations Inc. has been issued a Permit to Practice and is now a Registrant Firm with Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia (EGBC).

From Linear to Circular (FLTC) is one of the flagship learning programmes offered by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading organization in promoting the circular economy. Mahdi was selected into the programme out of 1300 applicants from 46 countries.

With increasing awareness on dire environmental repercussions of traditional production and consumption practices, there have been an upsurge in governmental regulations across the globe to reduce carbon emissions and change business as usual.

This summer, we are excited to have Daniel Tan as a co-op student at 5REDO. Daniel is going into his third year of the Bachelor of Commerce program at the UBC Sauder School of Business.

We are welcoming Mychael Ittah to our team this summer. Mychael is completing his third year of undergraduate studies in Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.

It is a great honour for 5REDO and its co-founder, Mahdi, to be accepted to participate in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's From Linear to Circular (FLTC) learning programme.

Mahdi's contribution to a collaborative research between University of British Columbia and University of Victoria led to a publication in the Journal of Chemical Science.

We are excited to have Ophela Zhang in our team as a co-op student with expertise in process engineering and life cycle assessment.

We are pleased to welcome Dylan Jubinville to 5REDO as a co-op student with expertise in polymer chemistry and processing.

In 2019-2020, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum held an exhibition called Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial to showcase prototypes and consumer products that engage with nature in innovative ways, driven by concerns around climate change and ecological crises.

The electric vehicle market has grown rapidly in the past 10 years; sales were negligible before 2010 and have increased to over 2 million vehicles in 2019, bringing the total stock of electric cars to 7.2 million globally.

We are very excited and pleased to have a new member in our family. Blazey is a cute and lovely toy poodle from Calgary.

In October 2020,the British Standards Institute introduced PAS 9017, a new standard which specifies the requirements for the biodegradability of plastics in open-air land environments.

The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted e-commerce and online shopping to a great extent—a trend that will most likely continue in the future. This has led to a significant increase in the amount of carboard boxes that rest in the hands of consumers.

Mahdi and collaborators at the University of Waterloo published the results of their industry-based research project on thermoforming of polycarbonate in the Journal of Manufacturing Processes.

"Cat Reman restores parts at the end their lives to like-new condition, providing you with a cost-effective alternative solution to new Cat parts." This is how Caterpillar is attempting to convince its customers about the quality of the parts and components that get a second chance of life.

Canada will host the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) in September of 2021 in Toronto. The gathering was originally scheduled for 2020, but due to the pandemic, this year event moved online.

Despite the significant negative socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown of cities and enforcement of social distancing across the world have brought some relief to the environment, evidenced in better air and water quality as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2019 Wood Solutions Conference featured a presentation by the Norwegian company Voll Arkitekter about the design and construction of Mjøstårnet, the world's tallest timber building. This exemplifies the considerable efforts across the world to push the limit on utilizing wood.

During the 2018 G7 summit, the Canadian Government championed the Ocean Plastic Charter, which articulates a number of goals to alleviate the environmental impact of plastic use. Among those include a minimum of 50% recycled content in plastic products, where applicable, by 2030.

In February of 2020, another Globe Forum event, by Globe Series, took place in Vancouver. It brought together the stakeholders in the sustainable and clean economy from Canada and around the world to share knowledge and identify collaborative opportunities.

Let me start this article with a question. If you look around in your house, how many cell phones can you find that are not being used anymore? I myself traced four mobile phones, two of them sitting in a box from 10 years ago.