Courier Online - November 2018, COVER STORY, with Shannon Johnson.
Earth is a place that needs to preserved. It is our only home, and lots of people have found ways to take action to help keep the earth in its most natural form possible.
Zero Waste is a philosophy that encourages a new resource “life cycle”. The goal of Zero Waste is for no trash to be sent to landfills, incinerators, or the oceans, according to goingzerowaste.com
Zero Waste has grown in popularity in recent years. This is both because of rising global warming concerns, and heavy pollution on earth. Zero Waste is all about finding alternative ways to recycle waste, and finding a way to reuse and find a new purpose for all waste.
The Zero Waste movement has also featured some criticism. It is commonly referred to as “radical” in a way. This is because the philosophy is all about how everything should be recycled and reused.
“The whole idea of absolutely nothing being wasted and everything being reused is a little extreme. I think recycling and reusing items is a great thing to do, but it would be very hard to recycle everything”, says Orange High School Parent Kerry Renner.
There are a lot of americans who do recycle, as about 34% of all waste in america is recycled, according to planetaid.org
If Zero Waste were to become a full reality, it would have a lot of benefits. Earth’s resources would be much cleaner, and more pure, Which would certainly improve the overall quality of human life.
“Zero waste requires us as consumers to demand that companies redesign their materials so that they do not become obsolete and can be reused, therefore avoiding a landfill.” Says Orange High School Science Teacher Jessica Timmons.
Zero Waste Is good for the local community too. Unwanted food can go to homeless shelters and food pantries, instead of getting thrown out and wasted. This ensures that all food is being eaten, which keeps less people hungry, and more garbage out of landfills.
“Having a zero waste community reduces the cost of having to haul garbage to a landfill, will reduce the need to construct or create new landfills and therefore improve water quality of the community because less runoff from the landfills would make it to our water supply.” Says Orange High School Science Teacher Jessica Timmons.
Another positive of Zero Waste is it reduces our climate Impact. The U.S. EPA has estimated that about 42 Percent of greenhouse gas emissions are in fact caused by the use and production of foods, products, and goods. Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling will significantly reduce our carbon emissions.
One of the most obvious benefits of recycling and Zero Waste is the dramatic reduction in pollution, and increased conservation of natural resources.
Time has shown that our current culture of consumption is unsustainable. This is because of the harmful things humans do to get raw materials to produce goods, such as logging a forest, or drilling for oil, only for these goods to end up in a landfill when they are used, According to torontoenvironment.org
A Zero Waste Approach to this problem would of course conserve natural resources, and reduce pollution from extraction.
Although Zero Waste can be considered extreme and radical by some, It can certainly do a lot of good for our planet. Afterall, it is our only home, and we need to preserve it and take good care of it. With everyone's help, that goal is in reach.
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