There are not many people who think about the amount, or even type, of rubbish they produce.
If they did, they could be in for a bit of a surprise because, on average, ...
Landfill sites are an unpleasant necessity and not many people would chose to live next to one. Even though legislation and technologies have improved and aim to minimise their impact, ultimately the land used for landfill sites cannot be used for anything else. Once the site is filled, another suitable site has to be found to deposit our rubbish.
Some of the problems associated with landfill:
· Loss of arable land
· Loss of amenity value of the land
· Potential methane emission, a very potent greenhouse gas
· Potential leachate problems (liquids containing materials from landfill)
In the past, households created far less rubbish as most food products were bought fresh and home cooked. Ash-residue from fires contributed substantially to waste, whereas plastics did not exist. In the 1930's, each person would discard 15.8 kg of materials each week. This has risen to 25.8 kg in the 1990's. But it is not only the amount of waste that has changed but also the waste composition (see Table 1).
With the arrival of supermarkets and pre-packaged foods, life might have become easier for us as individuals, but the environmental implications have increased considerably. Today we buy many goods in one-way or throwaway containers, which serve the purpose of transporting the good from the supplier to the supermarket and then to our homes, after which we discard the packaging. Often this packaging is made from non-renewable resource, namely oil.
As individuals we can chose to take a number of actions to reduce the amount of waste we create, without changing our lifestyles completely. By choosing goods that have only the minimum amount of packaging we can all make a positive choice to help our environment. Maybe the product is also available without packaging or with recyclable packing? If you look into you dustbin, quite a lot of it will be packaging, and many discarded items can be recycled or even composted.
