Living a minimal waste lifestyle is undoubtedly environmentally friendly, and is becoming a trend as we learn more about the impact of our lifestyles on the planet – but why is waste such a problem? Everyone needs facts and figures to throw at the naysayers, and I’ve compiled a few here for your enjoyment.
Are we really producing that much?
The average person in the EU produces 31kg of plastic waste per year, which works out at 2.5kg per month. As of April 2018, the population of the EU was 743,025,267 people – which means 1,857,563,167.5kg plastic waste per month.
As of April 2019, the population of the EU was 743,025,267 people, and the average person produces 2.5kg of plastic waste per month – that adds up to 1,857,563,167.5kg per month
And that’s just the EU – globally, we produce over 1.25 billion tons of plastic a year.
Given how light each individual piece feels, how much must it take to make up even 2.5kg? Think of the tonne of feathers vs a tonne of bricks scenario – it might not take many bricks, but it takes a whole lot of feathers to make up a tonne.
This is where you have to start thinking and realising just how ubiquitous plastic is – it’s not just carrier bags. Off the top of my head…
- Pasta and food packets
- Cling film
- Toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, the wrapper from your soap)
- Disposable razors
- Electrical packaging
- Pens
- Sanitary products
- Clothes tags
Alright, we’re producing a lot. Why does it matter?
The long and the short of it is that, whether dealt with properly or left in nature, a huge amount of man-made waste is toxic to the environment and can take centuries to biodegrade.
Traditional disposal methods such as landfill produce toxic by-products. Organic waste is forced to decompose anaerobically, releasing greenhouse gases CO2 and methane – 25 times more potent than CO2 – into the atmosphere. Other waste, such as electronics, leak dangerous substances including mercury and lead into the surrounding soil and groundwater.
Waste that ends up stranded in the natural environment poses a physical hazard to wildlife, harming animals, polluting habitats and releasing toxins into the water. In spots like the Pacific garbage patch where rafts of waste have collected, even light is prevented from reaching underneath the water, disrupting the ecosystem and causing the extinction of some species.
If you’re really losing the argument with a single-use enthusiast, waste polluting the environment is also not very aesthetically pleasing – ask them to think of their Instagram posts, ruined by errant plastic bags flailing in the wind.
Has the government heard about this?
Despite the world’s major governments’ apparent reluctance to act on environmental issues, there have been attempts to tackle the problem of waste in the form of EU targets and directives.
One of these is to reduce the amount of BMW (Biodegradable Municipal Waste)* ending up in landfill, the target being to produce no greater than 35% of the 1995 baseline (35.2m tonnes) by 2020 – a significant reduction. In 2017 the UK produced 7.4m tonnes, which is 21% of the 1995 baseline – so we’re well within the target there.
We’ve also exceeded the EU target of recycling 22.5% of all plastic packaging, hitting 46.2% recovered or recycled, and overall we recycle just over 64% of our waste against the EU target of 55%.
This sounds pretty good.
However, this target by the EU was set in 2008: not only was the issue much less urgent, but the amount of waste we produced overall was lower.
More plastic is being produced overall, the population has increased 6.8% from 2008, and we’re creating more waste per head. This means that although the percentage recycled has increased, the amount of waste has increased:
If we produce 100 units of waste and recycle 50% of it, 50 remaining units go to landfill.
If we produce 200 units of waste and recycle 60% of it, 80 remaining units go to landfill.
The percentage of recycling has improved, but the amount of waste has actually increased.
In effect, all this means that if we look behind misleading figures apparently showing an improvement in waste management – the problem is really growing.
Every 11 years, the amount of plastic we produce doubles – between now and 2028 we will produce the same amount as we have since 1950.
What can we do?
Waste is already one of the biggest issues facing our environment today, and it’s only set to increase. But how much waste you produce is in your control.
If you reduced your plastic waste by half, there would be 15kg less in the world in one year just because of you
If every person reduced their plastic waste by just half, there would be 0.6 billion fewer tons of waste per year.
Reducing waste is a way we can all throw in our 2 cents to save the planet – hopefully, if enough of us do it, we might even convince the big businesses and governments to help us out a little and change their ways too.
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*BMW: Biodegradable Municipal Waste; Municipal waste is basically just everyday rubbish thrown away by the general population, and biodegradable municipal waste is the fraction of this that will decompose in landfill to produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas. This included food waste, green waste (garden waste), cardboard and paper.
Sources:
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-population/
https://environmentvictoria.org.au/resource/problem-landfill/
https://populationmatters.org/sites/default/files/waste_in_the_uk_and_the_world.pdf
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-02-27/plastic-and-plastic-waste-explained/8301316
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/EDN-20180422-1?inheritRedirect=true
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/zero-waste-families-plastic-culture/
Mostly Harmless 