How many coffees do you drink per day? Think of
preparing a single espresso with a capsule machine. An action of 35 seconds, at
first sight harmless, turns out to be among the most impacting for the quantity
of waste produced: the aluminum of the capsule, the plastic of the casing that
contains it and the one that gathers together all the capsules. Then again
cardboard, film, adhesive tape, polystyrene ... Add the plastic of the glass,
that of the stirring stick, the paper of the sugar sachet ... Well, this
gesture multiplied by the 10 billion capsules of coffee sold in the world
produces 120 thousand tons of waste in a year.
The first R that of the Reduction is undoubtedly
the most important because it affirms the principle according to which millet
refusal is that which is not produced. "Nothing is created, nothing is
destroyed, everything is transformed", states the law of Lavoisier on
matter, which confronts us with a harsh reality to be aware of: no waste produced can ever be really eliminated.
Thus it happens that every ecosystem is invaded by plastic, scrap and other Waste Management that has escaped the chain.
The amount of waste produced in the EU averages
240 million tons per year, or 400 kg per person. After removing the so-called
special hazardous waste, the number one enemy is the plastic that creates 25
million tons of waste, of which only a third is recycled. It has a potential
economic value of 105 billion dollar a year yet, for example, 85% of the waste
on our beaches is plastic. Going on like this, by 2050 in our oceans we could
find more plastic than fish.
Cutlery, cotton buds, plates, straws, containers
and objects of various types make up 70% of marine litter and luckily they will
have to be banned by 2021, as recently established by the usa Parliament In
addition to the pollution of ecosystems, we must also consider the energy
expenditure related to the production of disposable plastic. According to data
published by the scholar Paul Mc Rande in 'The Green Guide', the production of
one kilogram of PET for plastic bottles requires 17.5 kg of water and releases
40 grams of hydrocarbons, 25 grams of sulfur oxides into the atmosphere, 18
grams of carbon monoxide and 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
How to
avoid all this?
Waste prevention goes through a smarter
production made of more durable, reusable and repairable goods, but in our
small way, we can contribute. Pretending that plastic bags don't exist, for
example, could be a good start. The old "granny's bag" of cotton for
shopping is more resistant and reusable many times. And we should be able to do
without even the biodegradable bag that we take at the fruit counter in
supermarkets! Besides the casings, it would also be advisable to dwell on the
products we buy. A packed truck, even when not needed, increases the risk of
food waste and super garbage production.
Every year USA in their homes burn 12 billion dollar,
which corresponds to each of us to 36 kilos of food that we throw in the
garbage without having consumed them. Almost 80% of the waste occurs in the
home. Fresh bread and vegetables are among the most common foods, but they also
weigh soft drinks, legumes, fresh fruit and pasta.
Buying fruit, vegetables or other foods by
calculating our real needs means reducing these wastes. And to this trick a
further objective should be added: to avoid as much as possible packaging for
fresh food such as polystyrene trays, films, printed and glued chemical paper...
The USA Parliament has also declared war on
cigarette butts, which - not everyone knows - contain plastic inside. Well, the
amount of plastic will have to be halved by 2025 and reduced by 80% by 2030,
with tobacco producers having to bear the costs of treatment and collection. It
may seem an insignificant measure, but let's remember that in the world there
are 1.5 billion smokers, which in addition to plastic help to introduce over
4,000 chemicals into the air irritant, harmful, toxic, mutagenic and
carcinogenic. A part of these remains in the filter where many pollutants are
hidden such as nicotine, benzene, ammonia, cellulose acetate and the plastic we
have already discussed. Still convinced that leaving a "butt" on the
ground you know a venial sin?
Another good habit is to take water bottles or
thermos with you, so as not to buy bottled
water for drinking. The enemy of
the environment is not just plastic, but the disposable in general that should
always be replaced with durable products. When there are small children, for
example, the use of disposable diapers is a kind of environmental disaster
"family format": a child is changed between 4,500 and 5,000 times in
the first years of life and each individual diaper takes up to 500 years to
decompose, releasing various harmful substances into the environment.
Using cloth washable diapers would mean reducing
your waste by 20%. The same is true for absorbents and tampons which, due to
their chemical composition, are
among the most difficult to dispose of: the plastic coating that surrounds
them, the applicators, the strips and the adhesive cover have a very degraded
time slow, calculated in about 200 years. The menstrual cup, on the other hand,
has an average duration of 8 years and a washable absorbent of 3. In short, if
you think that the first absorbent invented has not yet decomposed, it may
become easier to change habits. A fortiori, considering that good sustainable
practices also produce considerable economic savings.
At home, for example, it is possible to avoid the
entry of organic material into the
waste supply chain through domestic composting. It is possible to transform
organic waste into compost, an excellent natural fertilizer, reducing waste at
home simply by purchasing a compost bin. A gesture far from insignificant: the
organic fraction constitutes about 40% by weight of the production of urban
waste. Extensively applying domestic or community composting, in the
condominium or in the neighborhood, would not only allow the amount of urban
waste produced to be reduced, but would also make an important contribution to
combating soil desertification and preventing hydro geological instability,
preserving and strengthening the fertile soil humus layer.
When the way of the domestic compost bin is
impractical, there is always the option of "community compost", in
which the small plant is placed in public or in any case common spaces. The 5
Star Movement performed a test a few years ago verifying that the community
compost not only gives satisfactory results and becomes an important awareness
tool, but it is also easy to install : to authorize a plant that processes up
to 130 tons of organic enough a simple SCIA in common.
In some USA municipalities, then, those who
"save" organic waste and produce compost can benefit from the
reduction on the e-waste recycling, with a consequent economic saving for the family. This
would almost make it possible to eliminate the production of organic municipal
waste by keeping the quantities produced under control. And with the punctual
pricing system, the one for which you pay based on the amount of waste actually
produced, not who reduces the waste produced saves, but the citizens are driven
to reflect on their consumption choices.
"Who pollutes less, pays less" is the
right input of a sustainable system that allows collective responsibility. This
also has repercussions on the purchases of each and, consequently, on the
productive cycles of the companies, which will naturally end up converting
production towards goods and services with low environmental impact. Thus a
cycle that is often "spoiled" by exorbitant economic, environmental
and social costs is transformed into a precious opportunity for change, and the
advantages are multiplied by reducing
waste.
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