We all love Earth, right? We all do our part to properly put waste in the garbage and recycle when we can. However, if there’s one big threat to our Earth it’s just that – garbage and waste.
With our voracious consumer habits and appetites, we are literally drowning ourselves in a sea of waste. However, we can make a difference, and Earth Day is a great opportunity to evaluate how companies and individuals alike can chip in.
Here are a couple of easy-to-apply, eco-friendly waste disposal methods to consider.
1. Stop Throwing Things Out
If you want to cut the amount of waste you generate and throw out, then throw out less! Some US states (and other areas in Europe and Asia) have already adopted strategies for discouraging their citizen’s dependence on landfills. For example, California has passed a law that establishes a baseline for the amount of solid waste that its towns and cities send to the landfill. The rest of the trash is either composted or recycled.
2. Turn Waste Material into Usable Material; Recycle
The most common recycling programs today include curbside recycling containers, where the city or town provides containers – where individuals and families deposit paper, plastic, and glass. Some municipalities also provide for recycling of motor oil and cooking oils. After collecting the waste, the curbside materials are picked up and delivered to the nearest recycling facility.
Recycling is even becoming more advanced. Some recycling facilities divert organic waste from all other waste. This organic waste can be composted and converted to mulch, fertilizer, and other products that not only save Mother Nature from waste but help it heal.
3. Use Less Packaging
One of the major sources of waste paper and plastics is packaging. Businesses use a lot of packaging to ship their products, and customers throw out a lot of packaging after opening their products.
Packaging accounts for as much as one-third of all the trash that we send to the landfill each day. To reduce the volume of trash, manufacturers should use minimal packaging. Ideally, all packaging materials should also be made from materials that can be reused or recycled.
Complaining about local entities not providing enough options to help protect the environment is not enough. We can all do something at this point to help, even if it is small. We can all start with the basics. Reduce, reuse, recycle.