Recycle And Reduce

The best way to help the earth is to finds ways in which you can reduce, recycle & reuse.

One of the great threat to the environment comes from the amount of things we throw away. The things that we throw away also causes environmental pollution by the leakage that occurs which can leak into our ground water. Many of the chemicals that makes it into our water supply isn’t easily removed, and will eventually find their way into our tap water. Crops and farm land in contaminated areas produces food that are unfit for human consumption, due to pollution in the soil, or use of polluted water.

Things such as household batteries and electronics often contain dangerous chemicals, and these chemicals can be released over time when the item is dumped into a landfill.  The pollution don’t just occur to our ground water and soil, landfills also gives off dangerous and harmful gases that causes air pollution.

The more we throw away, the more space we take up in our landfills. When a landfill is full, our tax dollars are spent to build a new one. As taxpayers, we are spending money to build a space to keep our rubbish! So the less we throw away, the longer our landfills will last.

Manufacturers have to step up and find ways to recycle the goods they produce, either the physical goods itself, or reduce the packaging used to house the goods.

Recycle & Re-use
Throwing things away is a waste of the resources used to produce the item. In today’s world, millions of cellphones and their batteries are thrown away. This is the modern lifestyle where we focus more on form rather than function. I am sure that most cellphones that are not in use are in perfect working condition. Why are we so fixated on the cool stuff or the latest gadget?

Of course, this isn’t just about cellphones. What about the clothes in your closet? I know people who can go for a month without the need to do their laundry, because of the amount of clothes they have. But the clothes are never worn. It may be that the style is out of fashion, or the color, or the brand.

For years, I have kept almost every magazine I have ever bought. Especially the magazines about photography using SLR cameras. I have not touched my SLR camera in years, and have since made the switch to digital cameras. In the end, I had to take all my magazines to a recycle center, and those magazines costs upwards of RM 30 per copy. My problem with my digital camera is this; it’s obsolete. But it is in perfect working condition, and I can still take nice photos with it. It costed me RM 1,200, and giving it away seems so …. hard to do. Besides, that would mean I have to buy a new one, and by the time I buy it, a newer and improved model will arrive in less than a year. What do I do then?

Everyone should try and re-use the things they have for as long as possible. When the time comes to throw it away, do it responsibly.

Reduce
The packaging on the things we buy, sometimes makes no sense. Buying a digital camera? The box it comes in is 5 times the size of the camera, plus the manuals that comes with it, all in different languages. My camera came with 2 tripods, and a camera bag. That means more boxes, plastic bags and paper. It was funny in a way, I went in to buy a small digital camera and came out with 2 handfuls of boxes and stuff.

Manufacturers have to reduce the amount of packaging on their goods, and use more environmentally friendly packaging. As a consumer, it is a pain to have to carry so much stuff. I appreciate the protection for the product, but it is just so much of it.

The production of the packaging uses additional energy and materials.

• The extra volume and weight adds to the transportation and shipping cost.
• The packaging will be thrown out anyway, and needs to be collected by large disposal trucks.
• The packaging takes up more space at the landfill.

Did you know:

• For every ton of paper that is recycled, 7,000 gallons of water is saved; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
• The amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can, can run a TV for six hours.
• You save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours by recycling just one glass bottle.
• Throwing away things diminishes energy, water and natural resources that has to be used to produce some more the same items.

If you have watched, An Inconvenient Truth, then you will know that the exploding world population is a one of the factors that is putting such a strain on the earth. As the population grows, there will be fewer resources available, if we do nothing to change the way we consume things.

It used to be that when we first started talking about recycling materials, the cost to recycle, break down and clean up the materials, was higher than it is to produce the item from raw materials. Advancement in technologies and techniques have reduced this cost, and it is time we employed this knowledge in a wholesale and coordinated manner to recycle large portions of our waste.

Paper, plastic and metal can be recycled. Let’s make the effort today!