Makenna Sheppard
March 29, 2020
In the United States people throw out items all the time as if it’s no big deal. Garbage has become a huge problem in not only the U.S., but in many other countries all over the world as well. Garbage is incredibly harmful to our planet and ecosystems, causing wildlife to deteriorate and polluting our foods and water.
There are many ways to decrease the amount of unwanted garbage in the world. One way is to reduce food waste in a household because it is one of the top contributors in garbage overflowing the streets. It starts with what you buy and use at home. People need to learn to not throw everything out after a meal when there is plenty left to eat in the future. People can also use food waste reduction apps to help guide them step by step with what to make with leftovers. Getting creative with leftovers will help save people money and help reduce waste.
Another way is to shop only for what you need. Quite often, people will buy in bulk and grab products they don’t need. This is how a lot of products go to waste. Most of the time people will end up throwing these items out due to never using or needing them. Carelessly buying things that you think you might need but in reality will never use only hurts you and the earth we live in. shopping only for what you need will save you lots of money that is wasted, just like the product after you throw it away.
One extremely important way to improve throwing out less and using more is to buy local. Experts say buying local reduces the ecological footprint because buying it from a store requires items to travel all over the world, which increases air pollution and plastic use from the packaging. Compared to just buying locally, less gas is used, plastic packaging isn’t required, and helps out local businesses.
The most obvious way is to simply recycle. This is stressed so much, but is not done enough. Recycling reuses products to make other products so that there is less garbage harming ecosystems, along with our world in general. People don’t realize how bad plastic is for the earth. Once it is thrown out it gets into oceans, roads, air, foods, and water. And that’s just a few of the things it ruins. Animals die all the time from plastic because they don’t know better and eat it or get stuck in it. Plastic also gets into our bodies from being in the air, food, water, and even packaging. Recycling could help our world so much if the simple act was done more.
These are just a few ways to reduce the garbage in our world. If garbage takes over, there will be less food, water, animals, plants, and space to live. If we don’t do anything about the problem now we may not have a world much longer to live in like we do now.
In this picture a man is trying to swim, but is unfortunately surrounded by garbage. This is what the entire environment could look like if this issue isn’t taken seriously.
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I like how your post is very instructive. First, you address the issue of food waste and how we can reduce waste by simply being more efficient with what we eat. Shopping is also a big issue (especially now with COVID-19), as many people, myself included, often buy more than they actually need. Simple steps to move towards only purchasing an eating what is necessary can help us reduce waste.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent topic. It is easy for people (including myself) to forget how much waste we produce because we hardly ever have to see it. This is why it is important to raise awareness about this problem. I like how you pointed out that the reason there is an abundance of waste is because people consume too much. If consumption was reduced, then there would be less waste. I also like how you mentioned the importance of recycling. At the Judy Enck talk she talked about how very little plastic is recycled. I also think that compositing would help reduce the size of landfills.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an important topic! Over buying is a huge issue and most of the time people end up wasting the overbought food because they cannot physically eat it in time before it perishes. I like how you address ways we can be more efficient with this.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool topic. I liked how you addressed how to reduce the waste instead of just the harm the waste has. Household food waste is such a prevalent thing in our country. I thought it was really interesting how you brought up the apps in being an aid in seeing how to use your leftovers for a new recipe. I also didn't realize how much buying local reduced the ecological footprint.
ReplyDeleteI like this topic as it brings light to ways we can prevent or decrease the amount of waste that is being produced by humans. It destroys the planet and the animals. I found it interesting in buying local foods was a way to help the planet
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great topic. We all know that we need to make changes to help the environment, however, we often don't know how to besides the obvious "to recycle". Shopping more sustainably is a great way to make a change that most people don't think about, so I think bringing it to attention is a great thing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post. I feel like it's super important to educate people on this topic because overbuying and food waste is such a problem in the world especially right now with people hoarding food.
ReplyDeleteI really like this topic. Nowadays, people have more knowledge about this topic and they know how it is affecting in our lives and to the environment but still some people are not doing anything about it. I like how you gave some ways to decrease the amount of unwanted garbage and I think it is very useful.
ReplyDeleteI loved what you were mentioning until you mentioned recycling. People act like recycling is the holy grail to fix everything and it is not as we learned from the Beyond Plastic Seminar; most recycling just ends up in the trash anyway. However, if we recycled our own stuff such as composting and reusing bottles instead of throwing them away then that would be a good solution.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is one we have heard and know well, but it is always good to hear more about it. It is so important that people understand the gravity of pollution. Thank you for the post! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing us with ways to reduce our ecological footprints. This is an important topic and it is always worth reading more about.
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