Importance of Proper Waste Disposal

Everything in this universe needs to go through a cycle. If there is a beginning, there has to be an end and the cycle continues. This is applicable for everything. Human beings are granted with so many gifts, we might not be able to choose a beginning sometimes, but we can try to make it end on a good note. In the cycle of consumption and disposal, the latter part doesn’t end really well at the moment.

Improper waste disposal method leads to overfilled landfills, and all types of trash around your surroundings.

Mumbai produces 11,000 tons of trash per day, Cairo feeds garbage to pigs and China’s waste is growing twice as fast as its population — but it’s the wealthiest cities that throw the most away. According to ‘The Guardian’, New York City produces 33m tons of trash in a year. Can you imagine where all that goes? It is either burnt or dumped in landfills or in different water bodies. When this is done, it causes something known as carbon footprint (total amount of greenhouse gasses that get generated). When the carbon footprints of earth increase in a drastic manner, it causes a collapse in the ecosystem. A few ramifications of these actions are as follows: glaciers melting into green lands, the rising of sea levels, the disturbance of animals’ natural habitats, extreme weather events and unanticipated forest fires. The consequences of these are that the earth lost 568 billion tons of ice from Greenland. Australian biodiversity has lost an estimated of 1 billion animals along with a loss of a gigantic amount of flora, leaving the land nothing but barren.

Sources from the United Nations indicate that marine debris affects at least 800 species globally, with plastic accounting for up to 80% of the waste. Every minute, up to 13 million metric tons of plastic is projected to wind up in the ocean, the equivalent of a trash or garbage truck load.

We do not realize it due to our unawareness about the situation but all this portrays a future where we will be in grave danger.

Where there is light there will be darkness, the opposite is true as well. There are countries which are making revolutionary procedures which not only helps the environment but the people of the country as well.

Germany is one of the countries with not only one of the best recyclable systems, but unique methods of waste reduction as well. They have used the phrase “Prevention is better than Cure” quite literally in their business approach. The Green Dot is a system where merchants must pay for the products. The more packaging material there is, the more they have to pay from their own pockets, hence leading them to optimize their process with less paper, thinner glass and less metal, resulting in very minimum waste generation.

In Malang, Indonesia people below the poverty line are able to trade trash for healthcare. The idea might seem bizarre but the hospitals collect the trash and sell it to recyclers. With the funds they receive, they treat the people who need it the most. Ideas and systems like these are the ones which have the potential to transform not only a city but the whole world.

Moreover, Sweden is not that far behind in such fantastic ideas. They burn their waste and use the heat generated from it to provide heat to people with the help of a well-established funneling network.

Well as all of you know that in terms of efficient waste disposal, we are not doing that great in each and every country. The reason being is nothing else but the massive ignorance we carry when it comes to this topic. This is exactly what we have to target. Once we focus on this aspect where we stop ignoring the problem and start finding solutions, I believe we can do absolute wonders. These countries and cities have been able to achieve such minimum levels of waste production because of their wonderful ideas and their dedication to a proper system. We should learn these lessons and try to apply it in our daily lives as well. Before using polythene bags or one time use disposable packaging material, ask yourself if you really need and if you can find a better alternative. When we start asking questions at such individual levels, it will make a significant difference.

After all, big goals often have small beginnings.