Our role in Achieving Zero Waste
Recently, the General Assembly held a High-Level Meeting on Zero Waste. I believe it is high time time that the world discusses this issue on an international platform and assess humanity’s approaches to waste.
Did you know that the waste we produce doesn’t disappear? It disappears from your home and from your office or wherever you place your waste but, (yes there is a but) it doesn’t disappear from the face of the earth. We have become so accustomed to this “out of sight, out of mind” mentality when it comes to waste. So much so that we forget the waste we create is accumulating somewhere or floating in some part of the ocean.
At the moment, we are generating 2.24 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually – a number expected to grow to 3.40 billion by 2050. This has been likened to be taller than Mt. Everest and that is a huge amount.
The impact that this has on our environment and humankind is vast. We are seeing more plastics in the ocean, the air we breathe is polluted with toxic gases and our landfills are overflowing.
It really is easy to ignore because when we throw away leftovers, trash or things we don’t need into the rubbish, we never see the impact of that waste in our daily lives. This really needs to change, we need to be accountable for our actions, we need to know and understand that our trash doesn’t merely disappear and that more needs to be done to alleviate waste.
We need to be investing in the circular economy and promote the 5 R’s: Reuse, Refuse, Reduce, Recycle, and Repurpose! When buying food, buy only what is needed and not for what we want to reduce food waste. When we go to buy food from restaurants, take our own plate or container as a way of reusing what we have. Refusing single-used plastics and the use of it. Repurpose what we don’t need anymore for other purposes like using used tyres for gardening and much more.
At the high-level meeting one of the panelists challenged people that were there to audit our waste to really see what we are throwing away and see if we can learn from it. To be able to take account of what we need and be able to see what we never would have needed so that we can be accountable.
This is something we as individuals can do. It starts at a micro-level with you and me before we can take it forward with bigger industries and governments to be accountable for their actions!
Remember before you throw something away – 5 R’s!
