Trash and waste, comes in different forms. There is paper, cardboard, plastic, metal, biodegradable waste, and non-biodegradable waste. Waste is created everywhere: at factories, companies, schools, events, hotels, and airlines. Waste is created every minute of every day, by every individual regardless of lifestyle, ethnicity, or geography. Every human on the Earth creates waste!

 

Let’s look at the numbers. The current world population is 7.1 billion and the US current population is 323 million. These figures are increasing every second. The average person produces 4.7 pounds of waste a day. Multiply that by 323 million (USA population), and you get 1.5 billion pounds of trash a day. That is a lot of trash!

 

What happens to the 1.5 billion pounds of trash produced by us Americans? Unfortunately, it ends up in our oceans, rivers, and watersheds. Woods, parks, and roadsides are littered with trash. I find this sad, especially when it is avoidable! People just don’t think about how much waste they create while “living life,” and they don’t think about what happens to their trash once it leaves their sight.

 

Research shows that at least 75% of waste that ends up in a landfill could be recycled or composted. With technology advances that number increases every year. Waste is toxic! Landfills leak and create methane gas. Cities are spending millions of dollars to clean up old landfills in order to build homes and parks on top of them. Our country has a trash problem!

 

Change starts with the individual. One must first change their mindset about waste.

Here are some goals that we should all try to follow:

Reduce our waste

Compost what we can

Repurpose items when we can

 

We should also be contagious about buying products that are made from recyclable materials, and products that are packaged in recycled and recyclable materials.

We must make the three "R"s -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle daily habits! We must “Close the Loop” demanding manufacturers and companies produce “greener” products and practices.