Written by: Shahirah Shahriar
Did you know that we produce 2.01 billion tonnes of garbage each year? I can’t even imagine how much that is and I bet you can‘t either. This is why we should reduce our waste and save our planet Earth.
Here are some ways you can reduce your waste at home/school:
1. Recycle
Recycling is the process of using materials and turning them into new materials. For example, blue bins and green bins are both used to recycle different materials. The blue bin is used to recycle plastic such as cans and bottles. The green bin is used to recycle paper. This also depends on which city you are from. Different municipalities have different coloured bins. For example, in the Waterloo region the green bin is used for food scraps, the two other blue bins are used for containers only and the other for paper and plastic, etc. When you have these materials to recycle, put them in the appropriate bins. Then, when they get collected/distributed they will get categorized, washed, shredded, separated, extruded and compounded into new materials.
2. Ditch the disposable plates
Disposable plates are very bad for the environment. What’s the point of using them when you can reuse plastic containers, ceramic, or glass dishes? Not only that but when you buy disposable plates you are wasting so much money. When you could be buying ceramic, glass, or reusable plastic containers once and use them continuously. This goes for any disposable items such as popsicle sticks, paper towels, plastic bags, plastic wrap, plastic straws, etc.
3. Hand dryers > paper towels
Automatic hand dryers are better for the environment than paper towels. When you use paper towels you throw them out in the trash which creates more waste. Paper towels create an average of 56 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per use. Whereas, hand dryers create only 9 to 40 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per use.
4. Dry your hair without a blow dryer
Blow drying your hair is bad for the environment. Each year, blow-drying emits an average of 57 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) per use into the atmosphere. Whereas, air-drying produces 0 amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere.
Works Cited
“Trends in Solid Waste Management.” Datatopics.worldbank.org, https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html#:~:text=The%20world%20generates%202.01%20billion,from%200.11%20to%204.54%20kilograms.
“Hand Dryers vs. Paper Towels: Which Has a Larger Environmental Impact? – Viewing Blog Post.” Green Schools Alliance, www.greenschoolsalliance.org/blogs/16/394#:~:text=The%20Slate%20tells%20us%20that.
mosaic. “The Complete Plastics Recycling Process.” Recycle Track Systems, www.rts.com/blog/the-complete-plastics-recycling-process-rts/.
“How to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Your Hair Dryer.” Air dryer, https://aerdryer.com/blogs/news/how-to-reduce-the-environmental-impact-of-your-hair-dryer#:~:text=National%20Geographic%20estimates%20that%20hair,environmental%20impact%20on%20our%20planet.
Landfills
“World AirMax DXM-972A Stainless Steel Polished Automatic Hand Dryer.” Hand Dryer Supply, www.handdryersupply.com/products/world-airmax-dxm-972-stainless-steel-polished-automatic-hand-dryer.html.
How to Sort Your Waste.