Blog Action Day: The Environment

Yesterday was Blog Action Day, where bloggers from around the world post about one issue, in this case the environment. As usual, I am behind the times so am publishing my post on this issue today!

Us, Waste and the Environment

Waste is a massive issue in all workplaces, schools and other organisations. This graph shows the main sources of waste produced by large organisations.

Obviously all of this waste can have hige environmental impacts. Some types of waste are particularly harmful if sent to landfill sites. For example, plastics are oil based and break down to smaller fragments, however there is always a residue and the plastics do not break down into carbon and water alone. This residue builds up in the groundwater and soil and can be harmful.

Did you know?

It can take 500 years for a plastic carrier bag to decompose!

As well as plastics, there are a whole host of other materials which, when they end up in landfill sites can be harmful to the local environment. Particular culprits include old mobile phones and other electricals which contain a high level of metals and minerals which leach into to soil and local water supplies; babies' nappies which are made using large amounts of man-made materials; food waste which attracts vermin such as rats and seaguls to landfill sites; and metal items such as drinks cans.

Did you know? On average, every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks!

What should we do?

The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year. This rate of rubbish generation would fill the Albert Hall in London in less than 2 hours. But, most of the stuff we use can be recycled and it is really easy to do so.

All schools create lots of paper and card waste which can easily be recycled. There are some simple steps you can follow to reduce your impact:

~ use both sides of the paper;

~ throw unwanted paper in the recycling bins;

~ try to buy recycled paper products where possible.

You may have heard the phrase REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE when people are talking about minimising waste. These are the three things we ought to be doing, in the order we ought to be doing them in.

Reduce: There are lots of campaigns at the moment to encourage large supermarkets to produce products which have less pacakaging. For example, read this article from the Guardian about excessive packaging. (click on the link, even just to see the ludicrous packaging one supermarket chose for cauliflowers!)

Reuse: Lots of the waste we create could actaully be reused. Think about ice-cream tubs, jam jars, carrier bags and many more.

Recycle: This is almost a last resort; ask yourself can I reduce my waste, reuse my waste and then think about recycling. Find out what and how you can recycle at this website.

What can I recycle?

• cans
• tins
• paper
• card
• plastic bottles
• aluminium foil
• garden waste like grass cuttings and prunings
• kitchen scraps can be composted (uncooked food only)
• clothes and shoes
• books

The list goes on!

Tell us about how you recycle by commenting on this post.