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Recycling as a solution to environmental problems
Recycling as a solution to environmental problems
Introduction (Recycling
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Imagine a world full of trash, as far as the eye can see, trash, everywhere. That will be future if we keep on throwing trash away. A solution is a trash free snack and lunch. I do believe that students should be required to have a trash free lunch at school. Firstly, believe it or not, a non-trash lunch saves families money. When you pack lunch without trash, you are creating no trash, that helps the environment and the future of our world. Most of the trash can be recycled. This is a big problem.
So,firstly a trash free lunch can save money for your family. In the passage, “Can Your Lunch Help Save the Planet?” it states, “by packing your snacks in reusable containers, you could save up to about 250 dollars per year in food costs. Another saving fact is, “ Those single-serve packages of your favorite snack foods are convenient but expensive. Of course there is always another side to every argument, it takes more time to pack trash free lunches so, if mornings are rushed it is harder to pack a trash free lunch. So, if I knew that every time I pack a trash free lunch I was helping to save a planet, I would feel good about myself.
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If you packed a trash free lunch, and so did every other elementary student, it would stop 1.2 billion pounds of waste each year. Another detail is,in the passage it states, “Plastic containers and packaging create a staggering amount of trash every year---about 14 million tons.” that is a lot of trash. This problem does have a solution. The solution to this problem is a trash free lunch. This is a very important issue going on right
The majority of people waste food on a daily basis. In fact, in the U.S. alone there is an estimate that over half of the food produced goes uneaten; meanwhile there are people who are in need of food, and it ultimately goes to waste (Dockterman). For example, in his essay, “On Dumpster Diving,” author Lars Eighner writes about his experiences of dumpster diving with his pet dog, during his years of homelessness. According to Eighner, much of the food and materials he came across in the dumpsters were in usable shape, and many items were new. Clearly there needs to be a change in American food waste, in current and, hopefully not so much in, future generations.
She suggests that Americans should reduce their overconsumption of such commodities since they are overburdening the non-biodegradable waste load in the garbage collection facilities. It is surprising to note that every Americans disposes more than four pounds of trash on a daily basis (Royte, 2005).
Much of the food is thrown into landfills, where it rots, which has very negative effects on the environment. According to John Oliver, the food left to rot in the landfills releases methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas (Oliver, 2015). Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it destroys the ozone layer and contributes to the warming of the earth. By refraining from throwing out so much food, or at least redirecting it to people who need it, food waste would be reduced, and so would its harm on the environment. Not only does the rotting food release greenhouse gases, the resources wasted to deal with the unwanted food are huge. According to Kevin Hall, Juen Guo, Michael Dore, and Carson Chow, “Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change” (Hall, Guo, Dore, & Chow, 2009, p. 1). America is essentially using resources like water and fossil fuels, that we could be directing towards a better cause, to dispose of perfectly good food that will then release harmful gases of methane and carbon dioxide. Food waste matters because it is a complete waste of valuable resources and food that is needed by many, while also contributing to the growing problem of climate
Imagine yourself in the middle of a rainforest, listen to the sounds around you, smell the fresh air, hear the wildlife; take that image and get rid of the trees around you, the sounds of wildlife, and the smell of fresh air. Instead of a rainforest you are now in the middle of a seemingly endless sea of trash and waste. The fresh scent in the air gone, the sprawling land of greenery and trees gone, and the sounds of the forest is reduced to the sound of heavy machinery trying vainly to reduce trash into smaller more compact waste.
How many times have you tossed a small gum wrapper out the window while driving down the road? Almost all of us can admit to having thrown some type of trash on the ground at least once before. While throwing out a gum wrapper may not be as drastic as throwing out a bag filled with trash, these minor items we think are no big deal are part of the reason littering has become such an out of control problem. So many of us think that throwing one small thing out may not be such a big deal. However, if everyone in the world threw out one small thing, that would already be seven billion pieces of trash in our environment. Due to the bad habits humans have unfortunately formed, littering has become a widespread problem; however,
Pay per throw is an interesting concept and is widely implemented in Japan and other countries around the world. The pros to a system like this would be that recycling would be free and waste would be charged, thus incentivizing recycling which reduces the amount of waste found in landfills. It could also increase jobs in America since there will be a greater need for employees at recycling centers and for garbage pick-up. Some of the cons are that the price of garbage bags would increase and could make illegal dumping and burning very attractive to citizens. A pay as you go system could be implemented in Platteville.
The scary reality is that, according to the book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), “landfilling of food is on the rise – the rate doubled from 1980 to 2007” (Bloom 15). This reality leads to a number of negative consequences such as an increase in methane production and pollution. “Most food waste, approximately 33 million tons, is disposed in landfills, costing $750 million and accounting for 25% of U.S methane emissions” (Uga.edu).
When most people hear the word recycling they think of plastic water bottles, milk jugs, or even old paper that they can reuse, but this is not necessarily the case anymore. Scientists and researchers have discovered a new form of recycling that is going to help better the environment and it can even help make people money! Smokers around the world do not think about recycling their used cigarette butts, but this new form of recycling has changed some of their minds on this subject. Recycling has been a major environmental issue, but most people have forgotten about it or they just do not care for it anymore. Paper recycling dates back to as far as 400 B.C. Some people even say that the early Romans recycled their bronze coins so that they
About 2.6 trillion pounds will be thrown away this year. Of the trash thrown away on Earth, 46% is organic waste, 27% is recyclable, and the other 27% is glass, metals, and other materials. This trash sits in dumps, on streets, and in the water. If all trash were to all just
An article by Food and Agriculture of the United Nations stated that “roughly one-third of the food produced in the world (1.3 billion tons) for human consumption every year gets wasted.” In the articles “America is saving tons of food, thanks to a student volunteer's great idea” by The Washington Post, “Opinion: Ending world hunger by stopping food waste in the fields” by Bjorn Lomborg, Project Syndicate, and “Would you eat food made with ‘trash?’” by Emily Matchar, the authors introduce different ways society can annul food waste worldwide. Although others may disagree, it is clear that there are many ways to excise food waste worldwide such as using a food tracker app, increasing the efficiency of food production, and practicing food conversion.
Ways I wish to decrease this contribution includes buying fewer products with excess packaging, recycling as often as possible, and using recyclable containers or my own glass containers when buying and storing food. The ultimate goal is to buy most of my foods locally to further reduce the chance of the foods being pre-packaged. Buying less packaged products will greatly decrease the amount of waste you throw into your trashcan everyday.
Our world is getting to the point to where we will be surrounded by trash. There are hazards happening because of the excess trash, which could have been recycled. Although the government is not doing their best to make these hazards stop, surprisingly it is the non-governed organizations that are trying to make the difference. Proven studies and facts have been made about these issues, so people should take this into consideration and start recycling more. Recycling is a beneficial process that is not required globally like it should be because citizens are uneducated on the process and what it can do. People who are not recycling do not know the hazards they are causing everywhere.
Some people say recycling is a waste of time. If one is a very busy person, then maybe. But taking that extra two seconds to recycle, saving energy, money, resources, and the world isn’t a bad plan either. If everyone would take the extra two seconds to recycle, the extra effort would help to make the world would be a much cleaner and more efficient place. Recycling could also help to lower taxes in the long run. Recycled materials have value, and trash costs money. A city recycling program could sell it and make money. Then, with the extra money, the city wouldn’t have to charge as much money on taxes. Now how does those two extra seconds sound now? One can better the place they live in and save some money by taking two extra seconds to recycle.
People should know the negative impact throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on. The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid waste each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and the environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet.
Efficient waste managing approaches help with reducing and avoiding unpleasant impact on the environment and human health, while allowing financial development and progress in the quality of people’s life. People do not even imagine what is the size and capacity of their activities and the impact they produce on the environment. Garbage is an important ecological problem. It is seems amazing that approximately all of the citizens of the world identify rubbish as a major environmental problem and yet these people still litter. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different family. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on ...