What if you could no longer throw anything away?
What if enough of the world’s population and leadership said, “Enough is enough,” and they took action to appreciate the enormity of the reality that we are transforming huge swaths of our planet into enormous methane-producing mounds of garbage?
What could we do? Think about what you are doing right now, is it enough? I think the answer to that collectively is we are not doing as much as we may think we are. What more could and should you, me, and we do?
Individually
Presumably, everyone is doing at least a little of the 3 R’s (reducing, reusing, and recycling). We could do much more. Look at your weekly garbage. What if YOU had no option to put it out on the curb each week?
After the initial shock, people might seriously reduce what they consume as a first step. It would be useful to ask if you really need this year’s newest iPhone, if could you get one more year from your vehicle, and/or will actually use all of the food you are purchasing this week. You might also seek out purchases that have less packaging or that could be reused or potentially donated for other people to use. (By the way, when donating items, please make sure they are useful, clean, and have all of their components).
What about recycling? Do you recycle all that you can? Does your municipality actually recycle everything they say they do? Recycling is more than just cans and bottles; organic waste can be composted and recycled into new nutrient-rich soil. What if every single product we used was able to be recycled?
Would people follow the rules if they were not able to use landfills? Some would and some would not; however, we need as a society to appreciate some people will simply “dump” their waste in the first convenient and out-of-site location; so we will need to impose much stiffer fines for people who ignore the rules, and litter, or dump their crap on the roads. Maybe our leaders could consider 50% of the fines going to people who report litterers without allowing our world to develop into a 1984 society.
For more than a generation, our schools have been educating students on the importance of the three 3 R’s as well as about eliminating waste. It’s not enough if we are going to save our planet, we need to do more today, tomorrow, and each day moving forward.
Your parents were right, if you are not in a room, turn off the lights. It’s a small thing, but it is something you can do today.
We all need to pressure our levels of government to make waste a priority election issue.
We need everyone to convince our right-leaning politicians who deny climate change or the need to reduce our carbon footprints to get their heads out of their ass’s and realize the road we are on. We can do this by asking questions, by sending emails and texts, and by getting involved in the election process.
We need more people to pressure our governments to eliminate landfill sites for real and put in place programs that involve 100% recycling of everything we use. Look at the picture at the top of this post which is just a small landfill; according to Google, Canadians produce the most waste per person of any country in the world, and less than 30% of that waste is recycled.
We need to eliminate lawn watering for residential and organizational use, including cemeteries and golf courses. With global warming, the ice caps and glaciers are melting and our current water use is unsustainable. According to the Bank of America, Global Water Use study, only 0.5% of the world’s water supply is drinkable, and currently, more than 2 billion people do not have access to fresh water.
Pressure your local politicians for more Hazardous Goods disposal days. Too many people are disposing of hazardous household goods like batteries, paint, gases, and oils improperly.
Organizations
Manufacturers should make all packaging 100% recyclable and take ownership of the disposition of the packaging they create.
Food and beverage suppliers should charge a deposit on cans of all kinds to $1.00 per can. Will this shock inflation temporarily, yes, however, it is actually revenue neutral for consumers because now they have an incentive to get their deposit back.
All organizations involved in the production and recycling of products should expect to recycle 100% of the recycling collected, not the current amount being recycled at the moment. In addition, shipping our garbage to other countries should not be an “out” for developed countries.
Part of reducing is lowering our energy consumption: all organizations should be mandated to turn off all lights except emergency lights at night or when the offices are closed, to do energy audits and take action to reduce energy and resource consumption.
With the elimination of single-use plastic bags, industry and retailers must create biodegradable bags, and even reusable bags should eventually compost.
Grocery stores, restaurants, and fast-food outlets must stop selling single-use food and beverage containers and/or make them recyclable.
In 2020, according to Second Harvest Canada, 58% of all of the food in Canada was wasted throughout the food cycle, and globally food waste was the 3rd largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. All of the organizations need to participate in “food rescue” to find ways to distribute and use this food. In addition, we can all learn about using food better, for example, educating people about the difference between “best before” and “unsafe to eat.”
As a nation, as a society, we should be recycling all cardboard, Styrofoam, paper, plastic, and other manufacturing or shipping by-products through a combination of incentives, better sorting and/or production processes, new technology, and, if necessary by fees and fines.
In our trade agreements, we should take the position that non-compliant imports would be subject to environmental tariffs to offset the costs incurred by our country.
Government
We need to hold our leaders accountable for not actually recycling what we were supposed to be recycling. According to the Canadian Government, less than 30% of all collected recycling is actually recycled. (source CBC Radio · Posted: Apr 18, 2019, 5:26 PM EDT).
Priority needs to focus on assuming responsibility for making public transit available and accessible to all communities using renewable energy sources.
Work towards not requiring new super-highways by planning and putting into place more rail transportation systems that are powered by renewable energy.
We need to reestablish stringent pollution controls on all non-electric vehicles with bi-annual checks combined with strong incentives to resolve non-compliance issues within 30 days or the vehicle is impounded.
Insist that all vehicle manufacturers, both conventional and electric have plans in place to 100% recycle every component of their vehicles, including batteries.
Collaborate with industry to replace the use of salt or brine on our roads to stop the corrosion of our infrastructure, and vehicles, and the poisoning of our ecosystems by runoff.
Mandate mixed-density housing construction and have the protection of the environment paramount over demands from developers. Environmental protection isn’t red tape it is necessary for the survival of our species.
Immediately stop the outflow of ANY raw sewage into our waterways, particularly during and after a severe weather event.
Take leadership roles to mandate incentives and/or regulations to make recycling cost-effective for businesses and organizations.
Put into place regulations that help to eliminate “planned obsolescence” so that vehicles and consumer goods can be repaired, upgraded, or 100% recycled at the end of their life cycle.
Insist buildings being demolished be completely recycled rather than deposited into landfills.
Work with existing landfill sites, abandoned mines, and former industrial properties to undo and remediate the damage these sites are causing to our current environment.
Put in place lasting and binding protection for current and future greenspaces, productive farmland, and wetlands from development by opportunistic politicians.
Incentify the development of brownfield sites before expanding approving more urban sprawl.
Legislate nuclear operators to have a viable and safe program to deal with nuclear waste before expanding any current nuclear facility. Viable also means in a realistic timetable that is measured in decades, not Millennia.
As a former businessperson and an economist by training, I know that landfills are not going to be closed tomorrow.
I also appreciate how expensive these ideas would be and the devastating impact these changes would have on world economies; however, had we appreciated the future costs of what we have done collectively in the past to our planet, we might not be in this position today. We are, however, and now we have to pay these costs or suffer the consequences of not taking action.
We cannot wait for our politicians, many of whom are only focused on their next election, to lead us; we have to demand more, demand better, and accept that we can all can influence what happens next.
Good luck,
Paul.