Why should we care about our waste?
Waste management is a global issue
affecting every single person in the world. Inadequate or nonexistent waste
management is contaminating the oceans, causing flooding, transmitting
diseases, harming animals that consume waste unknowingly, and affecting
economic development.
Every day we are generating a lot of waste:
at home, at work, at school, as well when we buy any product or service. All
living being generates waste during its life cycle on this planet, it is
unavoidable and it is part of the natural process.
However, human life has created a lot of
mechanisms to ensure more life quality and resources availability and all this
chain is producing more and more waste. According to the World Bank Group, the world generates 740 grams of waste per capita per day, yet national waste
generation rates fluctuate widely from 110 to 4540 grams per capita per day.
And this represents an estimated 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste
was generated in 2016, and this number is expected to grow to 3.40 billion
tonnes by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario.
Have you ever think about how much waste
are you producing? Well, during one week I've been monitoring my waste and I'm
a little surprise. Although my waste is basically paper, plastic (some of them
biodegradable), food remains, and toilet paper. I know I can do better and see
that number motivated me.
And for where is my waste going to? I'm
living in a studio in Paris and my building there is three kinds of bins:
non-recycled, recycled, and glass. According to Syctom, the metropolitan agency
of solid waste management, in my neighborhood was collect more than 25,000
tonnes of household waste and selective collection in 2018. The average in my
neighborhood is 1,7 kg per capita per day.
Of course, this number doesn't
express the real amount of waste that people generated in their own house, once
there are a commercial area and a lot of
tourists circulated here every day. Another important indicator is just 9% of the waste is the selective collection in
my neighborhood. The good news, besides the selective collection, is not
efficient, 63% of the waste is recovered for energy (steam and electricity).
Usually, we have this "it is not in my
backyard" feeling. When we flush the toilet, when we put the trash out, we
are not really worried about what happens after. As citizens and people how to
understand that we have just one planet, we must start to be worried about
these issues. Even individually we can start to do something now! Every day
let's be aware of our consumption: Do I really need this product? Let's rethink
the use of disposable utensils and food waste. Let's be more thoughtful about
the selective collection. And let's include this topic as a relevant issue for
all politicians. I believe that even small and simples actions can make a
difference.
Challenge:
research where your waste ends, what your municipality is doing about it, and
comment here. We are all responsible!
References:
Kaza, Silpa, Lisa Yao, Perinaz Bhada-Tata,
and Frank Van Woerden. 2018. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste
Management to 2050. Urban Development Series. Washington, DC: World Bank.
doi:10.1596/978-1-4648 -1329-0. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0
IGO
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