Waste and not, and what’s rot?

In my last blog we looked at the 5Rs and as promised I am going to go into more depth on what we can do with our discards. What disposal options are available to us? Where does it all end up? And how we can improve our disposal practices?

Often, we can kid ourselves into thinking and talking a lot about being more sustainable and eco-friendly but in reality, it can just ends up being a ‘nice idea’ not a practice. When I first realised that my consumer habits had serious consequences, I started to look at what I had in my house. For a month I just observed what I bought, what it was made of, and what options there were for where it would end up. It became very clear very fast that my ‘investments’ were incredibly problematic because sadly most of them would end up in a landfill!

The first thing that shocked me, was the amount of stuff I bought that ended up in the bin (the trash, the waste, the rubbish bin) and was destined for landfill. Secondly, I was disappointed by how much of what I thought should be recyclable wasn’t, and thirdly, how ridiculous the sheer amount of packaging, packaging, packaging was! Packaging madness. Something needed to change.

Often what helps us break free from destructive cycles is calling things what they are. Naming them. When faced with the truth of our situation, in our own words, it makes the options available to us much clearer. So let me start by outlining some definitions and categories to help us call trash what it is.

Waste

I recently watched a documentary based in New Zealand entitled ‘Living the change (2018): Inspiring stories for a sustainable future’. On top of the beauty of the green rolling landscapes, sunshine and sea, it was full of wonderful individuals who were trying something different. One lady said something that really stuck out to me - she said the Earth does not waste.

Everything the Earth (along with its plants and animals) produces, consumes, and expels gets used and goes back into feeding or nourishing something. Waste is something that is no longer useful and usually lies around polluting the environment. It is only us humans that produce waste.

The other ironic thing is that it is the Earth’s own natural resources that we have manipulated and manufactured into materials that cannot be returned to their original natural form. Hence our creation of waste.

So, how do we dispose of this waste? And by waste, I mean man made products and materials that are no longer of use to us.

Landfill

On a worldwide scale, landfill is still the number one disposal method for most of our waste.

Globally, about 37 percent of waste is disposed of in some type of landfill, 33 percent is openly dumped, 19 percent undergoes materials recovery through recycling and composting, and 11 percent is treated through modern incineration.

(Kaza, Yao, Bhada-Tata and Van Woerden, 2018)

When our waste is disposed of in landfill it breaks down in a variety of ways depending on the type of material the waste is made of and conditions in which it is being kept e.g. temperature, humidity, access to oxygen etc. This decomposing process releases liquids and gases; which along with whatever is left that does not decompose, is the output of landfill waste.

As you can see from the above quote at least 70% of our waste globally is left to rot somewhere, fill a landfill, or pollute a landscape. This system of waste disposal is neither a sustainable nor responsible way to be disposing of the waste we produce.

I love this snapshot of the type of things that make up our waste globally, but according to the research above (Kaza, Yao, Bhada-Tata and Van Woerden, 2018) 70% of it ends up in, or on, the land and it doesn’t have to!

Not waste

Food and green materials can be endlessly composted! They are returned to earth to replenish and nourish future life.

Metals such as Aluminium and Steel are endlessly recyclable, meaning they do not lose their quality and can be melted down and reformed again and again. So is glass!

Paper and Cardboard is not endlessly recyclable but can be recycled 5-7 times. It can also be added to a fresh source of fibre, reducing the amount of virgin wood needed to produce items from scratch. And when it can no longer make paper products it can be composted.

Plastic is a problematic material which I would class as waste, but I am putting it here because it can be recycled 2-3 times, which delays it from becoming waste immediately.

However the plastic recycling process is more like downcycling than recycling and sometimes virgin plastic needs to be added to make a new product from previously used plastic. The end life of plastic is, at best, landfill or incineration as it does not breakdown quickly or safely. (This is why it is my least favourite material and why I am always flabbergasted at how widely it is used!)

Name your discards

Now that we have unpacked what is waste and what is not - why not call things what they are by setting up clear disposal systems in your home and label them accordingly; landfill, recycling and compost.

Try to reduce, or even eliminate, landfill waste.

Make sure you are recycling as efficiently as you can.

And celebrate compost!