Waste and Recycling

Climate change is occurring at an alarming rate. Our time is limited, and we only have a few decades or less to act. The effects of global warming are lethal, and the Earth is already experiencing severe ramifications.

The Global Humanitarian Forum report states that climate change is responsible for 300 million deaths a year. The challenges that we are yet to encounter may seem insurmountable. Yet, as stake-holders, we have to collaborate in this cause.

Waste is being produced and generated at an astonishing rate every day. For example, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, America’s waste industry manages 250 million tons of household and other municipal solid waste annually. At this rate, environmental sustainability would not be able to catch up with our ways of living.

The Zero Waste is an approach that encourages the recycling of all materials, and is one of the quickest, easiest and most effective first steps to immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hence fight against climate change. Significantly minimizing the disposal of waste in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to shutting down 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential in stabilizing the climate.

Biodegradable materials decompose anaerobically hence does not use oxygen, which in turn generates methane in the process. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide, and although it remains in the earth’s atmosphere for a significantly shorter time period than carbon dioxide, it can impose significant effects.

Methane is responsible for 75% as much warming as carbon dioxide measured over any given 20 years, which indicates that methane reduction could have an immediate advantageous effect on our climate. Landfills is one of the most prominent sources of methane, and is also a problem that could be easily tackled if we prevent waste, stop land filling organic materials and start composting them instead.

Waste prevention is a practical and cost-effectiveenvironmental option, and in implementing this, governments have to pass and enforce legislation, and to also impose severe measures in controlling the amount of waste that is produced every day, especially by factories and big companies such as oil, manufacturing and construction ones.

Government, companies and factories should also take part in reusing and recycling, as this would reduce the need for resources, extraction and processing of resources and manufacturing. This would contribute to the waste prevention, which is highly beneficial in minimizing methane production and greenhouse gas emissions. Governments must comprehend the fact that long-term economic prosperity in every nation relies upon the environment, because without it, we are nothing.

For example, recycling in the United Kingdom is already saving around 10 to 15 million tones of CO2 equivalent per year. Biodegradable waste can be diverted by source-separated waste collection, followed by anaerobic digestion or composting. In addition, composting would also serve as a constructive environmental measure as it channels the methane that is produced into a 100% renewable energy source. Governments have to take drastic measures, and regardless of the economic costs, we have to start acting. Individual, commercial and communal recycling should definitely be one of the very first steps.

Residual waste is currently land filled or incinerated, which contain severe problems in terms of these residual waste treatments. In order to phase out residual waste, a number of changes are required, which have to be regulated and enforced by governments, and initiated by companies. Goods should be re-designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. Governments should also ban compostable and recyclable materials such as aluminum cans, in order to maximize recycling, especially in terms of commercial waste.

A long-term development for both resource efficiency and climate change would be to phase out residual waste. New policies also have to be executed, such as packaging regulations in order to maximize recycling and composting, development of effective waste prevention programs, as wells as producer responsibility projects. In order strictly govern the minimization of waste produced by factories and companies, landfill and incineration tax should either be implemented or increased depending on the nation.Regardless of whether the cost will be past onto consumers, drastic measures have to be implemented.

We are all obliged to take action right now, regardless of the inconvenience this may entail, because this is our world.