Introduction
Centuries ago it was the norm to throw all waste (including human waste) out of the window. This provided rats with a feast and their population grew to a disproportionate size and they existed in very close proximity to humans. The fleas on the back of rats spread the ‘Black Death,’ which killed millions.
When the order came to clean up the streets and the rubbish was managed a lot more hygienically, the Black Death was consigned to the history books.
Environmental Issues with Waste
Waste in Production
For every one tonne of product that ends up in our life, between five and ten tonnes (on average) of waste ends up in a landfill. This waste contains many materials including Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) e.g. paper, cardboard, wood, plants, food, etc. In a landfill BMW breaks down anaerobically, releasing methane into the atmosphere, which has a global warming potential of 23 times more than carbon dioxide. BMW becomes a putrid mess which rainwater flows through, becoming what is known as leachate. Leachate escapes into ground water sources contaminating streams, rivers and lochs/lakes.
Embodied Energy
All that waste took a lot of fossil-fuel energy to create, through extraction, transportation and production. To understand the environmental impact of wasted energy you should head over to the Energy Efficiency section Main Page.
Resources
The ‘raping’ of natural resources can cause environmental damage of huge proportions. You only have to look at the devastation of the Rainforests around the world.
Simple and well known actions can make a huge difference, and not cost the earth. Consider the example of the last Harry Potter book, which was printed on recycled paper in Canada. This was thought to have saved over 3,000 trees.
