We know about the waste management pyramid by now from my last Wlog.
To quickly introduce, here again, the Waste Management Pyramid tells us how to deal with our waste to solve waste-related crises.
Yes, ignoring our waste we are creating a crisis situation. Imagine the landfills we have and how much more we need if we continue not understanding the crisis situation.
I fear that we are heading towards covering all our planet with trash if left unattained. So, to have enough “Space” on our planet, let's find the right “Place” for our waste in the waste management pyramid.
Have you ever carefully thought about where your waste goes once it is out of your doorstep? Or, have you ever carefully thought where the packets you littered the day before yesterday, though the car onto the road would end? I urge you to ask this question yourself daily.
The 80% of daily waste in India remains untreated, exposed, not segregated, which is being dumped into landfills. Littering has increased mercilessly to larger extend chalking up drainage lines, polluting natural resources, and causing natural calamities. Landfills are becoming a serious problem for our environment. Increasing waste generation on a daily basis, over-utilized landfill sites, transportation of waste to landfill sites, ill effects on the health of local people near landfills, burning effects of waste are becoming mass pollution contributors and climate change agents. They are becoming one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. And thus issues due to waste and landfills are becoming a threat to our planet.
“We can’t have landfills forever and we can’t ask others to accept our trash.”
- Jaime Lerner
That is very true. We can’t have landfills forever. We can’t ask others to accept our trash. That is totally unfair that we do so at present. We need to change this.
And this is why we should look at how we can manage our waste for our planet and the waste management pyramid helps to do so. The shape and layers of the pyramid also are so ideal that it makes us taking responsibility for own waste in a responsible manner.
Most of us are currently standing higher in the hierarchy on the pyramid and we can take a step ahead towards sustainable living by just stepping down closer to the bottom of the waste management pyramid. That means we should aim for making the “Dispose” layer disappear from our pyramids. We can start with the simplest possible thing which is becoming more conscious about what our daily waste is and how we can reduce it towards zero by practice.
A zero waste journey can lead to zero landfills journey. And this will create opportunities for our country and the world to spend money on more important things like education, health, science, and technology.
We can take inspiration from countries like Germany, Singapur, Sweden, and many more. In Sweden, in the year 2017, only 1 percent of household waste was landfilled and the rest was recycled / treated / energy-converted. That only shows that zero waste => zero landfills journey is possible. By changing personal habits we can start traveling in that direction.
I personally think dealing responsibly with own waste is an act of being more “Humane”.
And, Mahatma Gandhi said,
“No one needs to wait for anyone else to adopt a humane and enlightened course of actions.”
So, start with one, be an example, many will join and we are closer towards zero landfills.
Let's start individually and build a huge change for our Nation and the Planet.
Hello readers, I am Bharati Koot aka #BBK. I am Software Crafter at "Nelkinda Software Craft" and Environmentalist, who always strives for better Software and a better World. I dream of clean India and the clean world so that our future generations can live happily. I believe in being the change that we want to see in the world.