Waste
Did you Know...
If all junk mail was eliminated in the US, each year we’d save more than 100 million trees, 28 billion gallons of water, and enough energy to run 2.8 million cars (41pounds.org)
Western civilization generates a lot of waste. Trash, household hazardous waste, universal waste, electronic waste – it all needs to be thrown “away”. But where is “away”, anyway? A landfill, where plastics take thousands of years to decompose? A foreign country, where our electronic waste piles up, polluting surface and groundwater?
You might think that over the years, the tenet “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” has resulted in a reduction of the amount of trash Americans throw away. In fact, on a per capita basis, we generated the same amount of municipal solid waste in 2005 as we did in 1990. It’s not that we aren’t recycling: curb side recycling programs have made recycling the most successful environmental movement in history and in 2005, we recycled 32% of our municipal solid waste. As a nation, we could certainly recycle more, but the real problem is that we haven’t embraced the principles of “Reduce” and “Reuse”. While the average American produces 4.5 pounds of municipal solid waste each day, Germans and Swiss produce only 2 pounds/person/day. These numbers are proof that we can dramatically reduce the conversion of natural resources into trash without sacrificing our quality of life.
The three R’s apply not only to municipal solid waste, but to hazardous waste as well. If a product contains toxic compounds and that product ends up in a landfill, the toxic compounds inside can potentially end up leaching into our groundwater through the landfill. This is why it is so important to treat hazardous waste as what it is: hazardous. As much as possible, reduce your use of these products, and when it’s time to say goodbye, donate still-functioning devices, recycle cell phones and toner cartridges, and take the rest to your local hazardous waste collection facility or the next round-up event in your community.
To learn more about the environmental impacts of household solid and hazardous waste and how you can reduce your contribution to the problem, sign up for a TeachingGreen: Waste workshop today.
