Waste-Where does it go anyway?

Globally, our current patterns of waste generation and disposal contribute significantly to environmental, economic and public health problems.

Societies are running out of landfill space, particulary in densely populated areas.

When it comes to our garbage, waste prevention rather than waste management is the best way to reduce environmental stress. Recycling plastics uses just 10% of the energy it takes to make a pound of plastic from virgin materials.

There is six times more plastic floating in our oceans than plankton. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that globally, people go through 16,000 plastic bags per second.

Despite the rise of recycling, the average person generates twice as much trash today as in 1960, and most of this trash could be recycled or composted (34%) and food scraps and garden trimmings (25%). In other words, at least 60% of the waste being thrown away could be used as valuable resources.

Some shocking statistics:

100 million cell phones were tossed out in 2006 in the US. Recycling them would have saved enough energy to power 194,000 homes for a year.

Americans buy nearly 30 billion single-use plastic water bottles per year and despite the fact that they can be recycled, the majority end up in the trash, or more precisely 845 per second.

Junk Mail: Picture one hundred million trees, now picture it being shredded and coming through your mail slot. Thats how much junk mail we receive in the US each year in our post box.

40% of the municipal solid waste generated in the US is paper - 81.3 million tons.

The average office worker in the US throws out 350 pounds of paper per year.

For every 100 pounds of products the US manufactures, we create at least 3,200 pounds of waste.

Californias create 46 million tons of trash per year.

Americans zip through more than 100 billion plastic bags each year. It takes more than a thousand years before a plastic bag decomposes in the earth.

Styrofoam is believed to have the the worst environmental impact behind aluminium,

200,000 cigarette butts hit the streets every week in LA, that means that about 800,000 butts end up in the bay and on our local beaches. It takes ten years for one cigarette butt to biodegrade.

One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually as the result of eating or being strangled by plastic.

Solutions:

1. Reduce how much you consume and reuse items whenever possible. Buy products with as little packaging as possible, or buy larger quanitites using less packaging.
Reuse paper and envelopes, whenever possible.
Take a handkerchief with you instead of using disposable napkins and paper towels.
Take your own utensils instead of using plastic forks and knives at work etc, or when ordering take out food.

2) Recycle everything that you can and make sure to take your Hazardous Household Waste to the proper collection site (i.e. batteries, E-Waste, aerosols, paints, car oil, light bulbs etc.), don't dump them in the trash. This only adds more toxins to our landfills.

3) Compost vegetable and fruit peel, egg shells, tea and coffee grinds, garden cuttings and even wet paper. These will all break down and produce great fertilizer for your garden. Composting protects the soil from erosion, assists pollution remediation, suppresses plant diseases, increases beneficial soil organisms, provides nutrients to the soil, and keeps organic wastes out of the landfills (reducing methane production).

4) Change your behaviour:

Repair instead of discard. Share resources with neighbors ie. tools, toys, appliances etc.
Pick up cigarette butts, plastic bags and other pieces of trash. They will end up going down the storm drains otherwise and end up in the sea.
Buy "used" products whenever possible. Buy recycled products whenever possible. Consider setting up a clothes swap with your neighbors.

Eliminate junk mail. (100 million trees each year!)

Eliminate juice boxes, disposable plastic or foil drink containers, styrofoam containers and cups. Eliminate plastic baggies, aluminum foil, individual serving size containers (e.g. yoghut, pudding, chips), napkins, plastic forks and spoons, paper and plastic plates.

Get Active Folks! Its National Beach Clean Up Day next week! We can beat this.

A great 7 minute movie to watch on U-Tube is "The Story of Stuff"....I highly recommend it...

Look forward to hearing from you.

Nicola