We have too much stuff and it's hurting our environment and our pocket books. Read and think:
1) How is this a world issue?
2) How can you change your way or your parents' way of life to
3) What are the consequences of too much stuff?
4) Where does our garbage and recycling go? Where does Toronto's go?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/garbage-nation-why-two-women-want-to-help-canadians-stop-piling-up-the-trash-1.3243833
The overwhelming amount of garbage that our species produces is a world issue because of the amount of land and space produced, as well as the fact that some items, such as disposable diapers, plastic bags, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans take hundreds, or even close to one thousand years to decompose. This is a serious issue because as our species grows, less space is available to our population, however more and more garbage that takes up land is being produced. It is also known that about 4 million to 12 million metric tons of plastic washed offshore in 2010 alone, or about 1.5% to 4.5% of the world’s total plastic production—enough to cover every foot of coastline on the planet. So, as a result, we see mass amounts of marine life and birds dying due to the ingestion of plastic.
ReplyDeleteMy family tries very hard to stay away from unnecessary garbage. By this I mean that we don’t purchase products that come in separate packaging, like easy throw-in lunch bag snacks or pop cans, Styrofoam containers, etc. We also never take any plastic bags when we go shopping and always carry reusable bags in our car in case we need it. I find that this is a great way to cut down on unnecessary garbage, but also, it cuts down a lot of processed and unhealthy foods. For example, instead of buying pop, we try to stick to water or we can make our own drinks at home without the added chemicals and waste. We really do try hard to be environmentally conscience, and most of the products that we do end up throwing out go into the recycling or compost, but I know that we could always cut down more and try even harder to reuse/refrain from buying certain packaged goods. Having too much stuff is never good. We know this from our discussions in class, and when I really thought about it, my family could live without so much of the stuff in our home. Our society is pretty materialistic. When I saw David Suzuki on Earth Day last week, he told the crowd that we needed to shift from our ‘wants’ to ‘needs’, and that this greed is the cause behind so much of our society’s waste production, and I totally agree because we are at such a crucial point in our time that we need to start changing our way of thought as a whole.
The garbage we produce is either incinerated, thrown into landfill, recycled, or composted. Canadians actually produce the most garbage on average per person than any other country in the world. In a 2009 study, Canada produced 777 kilograms of garbage per citizen. Across all 17 developed countries studied, the average was only 578 kg produced, and the best studied country was Japan, producing 377kg yearly. There are households that STILL don’t recycle or compost their waste, and as a society, we really should be trying our hardest to shift towards zero-waste and to reuse or recycle anything that we can.
http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/kamaral/plasticsarticle.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadians-produce-more-garbage-than-anyone-else-1.1394020
I think that people do not realize how their garbage impacts our environment. Some of the waste that Mahshad mentioned such as plastic bags, diapers, ect. harms our environment severely but people may not realize this. I think that there needs to also be more awareness and alternatives to things such as disposable diapers which are a necessity.
DeleteMashad is right in that people often have their needs and wants confused. If people were to look at the bare necessities they would see that their clutter creating nick nacks and over all junk is just causing problems. The western world has always been materialistic.
DeleteMashad is right in that people often have their needs and wants confused. If people were to look at the bare necessities they would see that their clutter creating nick nacks and over all junk is just causing problems. The western world has always been materialistic.
DeleteI agree with Mahshad that we should be working hard to cut down or waste and move from our "wants" to our "needs". I found it surprising that Canada produced the most garbage per citizen. I thought that Canada was more environmentally conscious than other developed countries, like America, but I guess not.
ReplyDeletei also agree that we really need to think hard about what we want and what we actually need because our wants easily outweigh the needs. I also found it shocking that Canada produced the most garbage because everyone aways preaches about how Canada is such a god role model to other countries and i assumed we would be in this was swell.
DeleteI'm also surprised that Canada produces the most waste but comparing our consumption to other countries it makes sense, this should be a wake up call that we need to focus on our needs over our wants in order to produce less waste.
DeleteI am very alarmed hearing that Canada produces the most world. But this should be a big wake up call for all Canadians that we should start making small changes in order to have a happier future.
DeleteThe amount of trash we have is a large world issue that I believe many don't really think about. Creating all these things that we just end up wasting uses a lot of our natural resources. This increases our pollution. The amount of trees that get cut down, and the amount of oil we need to use to produce these products is too high. And then after we've already put a strain on the environment and our resources to make this product, we throw it out. Over one third of the world's waste ends up in landfills. Ten percent of the world's plastic ends up in the ocean, think about how that affects the great barrier reefs. Lots of animals are dying because they are consuming plastics. On top of the resources wasted, the environment affected, the animals dying, landfills take up a huge amount of space.
ReplyDeleteBasically everyone has room for improvement with how much waste they throw out. My family, being very small, doesn't have a lot of stuff. We live in a small house compared to the others in town, but it's nowhere near the size of a tiny house. I think my family is under the impression we buy less things because we are smaller than the average family, but when we take that into consideration we probably waste just as much. We use reusable bags and we don't buy useless stuff, but we aren't a cloth over paper towel family. I think that's a change we could easily make. I think it would be difficult to be at the same level as the people in the article, because the lady in the article must be a stay at home mom, but one step at a time my family could surely make it there. We could bring our trash to the curb once every 4 weeks instead of the city's once every 2 weeks. We could declutter, buy used, use less plastics, and reuse our stuff more.
Too much stuff has life threatening consequences. We already see how the plastics and trash are killings animals and plants and it's only a matter of time until we can clearly see how it affects us. The quality of air and water has changed. I hope it doesn't take a world war over clean drinking water for people to clue in about our trash problem.
Our trash is maybe going to landfills or recycling but most likely it's spreading across the world, degrading into smaller pieces, dirtying our water and air. For 12 years Toronto shipped all their garbage to a landfill in Michigan. Now, Toronto has hired private contractors to collect and deal with the garbage. Since the 1930s Toronto has had 160 different dumping location in the former metro Toronto area. The city of Barrie even has a landfill on Fernadale which allows its residents to dump for a fee per kg, but I don't believe the charge will stop people from wasting so much.
http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/waste
http://greenlivingideas.com/2015/04/24/how-our-trash-affects-the-whole-planet/
I agree! People definitely need to think differently about owning and buying stuff. We have become massive consumers which is really bad for the environment. For example, we buy new TVs and phones just to be up to date on the latest model, even if our old ones worked perfectly fine.
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ReplyDeleteAccording to BBC news, if every person on the earth lived like a Canadian we would need 3.8 Earths!!!! FIVE earths for Americans!!!!!! That’s CRAZY!!!!!!!! All over the world we are so wasteful. It seems like no one pays attention to how bad the issues of global warming are becoming. This is a world issue because we are killing our earth and we are almost at a point where there is no going back. The issue of global warming is becoming so severe and no one is making a big enough impact to stop it and help the problem. Human life will become non-existent if we do not reduce our waste and start helping the environment.
Currently, my family uses a compost bin, a green bin, we recycle, but we still have so much garbage! I think to help out the earth my family and everyone else needs to stop buying so much pre packaged items. There are so many little things we can do to help like bringing reusable bags instead of plastic, using containers instead of zip lock bags, eating healthier, not processed packaged up stuff. I think also if you buy from locally grown places it is better because you are not buying things where every item is packaged individually into a large package.
Having too much “stuff” takes away from life. When you are too focused on all the things you have you are not taking in everything the earth has to offer. It is better to go on a nature walk than to play on your phone, or hang out with friends instead of playing video games. You are missing out on life when you have an abundance amount of things and also contributing to the waste.
In Barrie our garbage goes to The Barrie Landfill, located at 272 Ferndale Drive North and is only avalible to Barrie residents. In Toronto they used to ship their garbage to Michigan but now goes to Green Lane landfill near London, Ontario. They also plan to build another incinerator.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/03/12/landfill_or_incinerator_whats_the_future_of_torontos_trash.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33133712
I agree with Bronwyn on this situation. The one thing I find interesting is that we all feel guilty for how much garbage we have. Yet, we recycle so much, and we have a compost. I feel a little different about this because of where I come from. In Montreal, there is no specific recycling or compost system. There is no penalty for having too many garbage bags and there is not a huge concern for recycling. Whenever I return to visit my family, I am always so frustrated when I have to put cans or paper in the garbage; I really do not understand why they do not bother. I also find it interesting when they visit me because they are clueless to what they can recycle/compost. Considering how Ontario functions with recycling, compost, and waste, I think that we are pretty well off and we should attempt to encourage others to be more like us.
Deletewe just need to be more conscious with what we are wasting. We should find alternate ways to get rid of waste, or make less of it. A lot of companies say they are "recycling" or trying to be green, but in reality all of that goes in with the garbage and it is dumped, it is pathetic but to enough people care about it. If everyone cared and became more conscious I think we would have a cleaner earth.
DeleteI completely agree with your point about missing out on real life. When you are too focused on what you want, you miss out on the things that you have already been blessed with in life. Our society is in a terrible spot where your value is based on what you own which causes people to keep buying more garbage and in turn producing more garbage.
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ReplyDeleteMark please:
DeleteHaving too much stuff/garbage is a world issue because we all contribute to it and it has gotten out of hand. Like anything, too much of something is bad. There is so much stuff we throw out or contribute to pollution and it is one of the factors that are killing our planet. And most people don't bother to organize their trash so like more than 70% of all trash can actually be recycled.
Some ways you can change your habits/your parent's life is to follow the six R's. Rethink, Reuse. Recycle, Repair, reduce, and refuse. When applying these R's we are more conscious of our actions and promote sustainable living. At my house, we already do a lot of things that keep in mind of the environment. I mean, we buy paper towels every now and then but we use hand cloths to clean up spills and such most often like mentioned in the article. We buy organic foods that need to be eaten before they go bad and buy junk food once in a blue moon. We also use our compost and recycle too. But that's not enough. I really enjoyed this article and felt inspired myself. My house is pretty energy efficient already and it is almost 2000 square feet with 7 people living in it. We decluttered a few weeks ago but I still feel we have way more than we actually need. I like what Mahshad said about analyzing our needs vs. wants. If everyone did that, there would be so many benefits to the world/society. We are way too materialistic. Consequences of too much stuff is a dirty and very cluttered house... But if we completely got rid of all the plastic wouldn't that affect like oil sales for plastic production?
Our landfill located on 272 Ferndale Drive North is open to Barrie residents only. Toronto landfill now goes to Green Lane landfill, near London, Ont. Note: Curbside waste in Barrie varies where you live but I believe a few months ago the city of Barrie implemented a new plan where instead of garbage being picked up every week, it was changed to every other week while food waste and recycling stayed every week.
also, have you guys seen those pictures that surfaced on the internet a few months ago of an orange that was peeled and then packaged in a small plastic container? That was ridiculous.
Sources:
http://en.envirocitiesmag.com/articles/pdf/waste_management_eng_art2.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-garbage-no-longer-shipped-to-michigan-1.913880
http://www.barrie.ca/Living/GarbageAndRecycling/Pages/Landfill.aspx
http://www.barrie.ca/Living/GarbageAndRecycling/Pages/CollectionSchedule.aspx
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ReplyDeleteMark this:
ReplyDeleteHaving too much stuff is definitely a world issue. I personally feel it's probably a much bigger issue in most of the developed nations in the world, where we can AFFORD to have much more than we actually need. Where it becomes a world issue in my eyes is when you think about all the people in this world who can't even get by on their own. And then you turn to places like us here in North America, or the UK and you really see just how much excess we have and how much of it we take for granted. I think we talked in class about how if everyone lived like we do here in North America, we would need nearly 4 Earths. It's been clear for a long time that the way we live is not sustainable at all.
In my own life as well as my parents we definitely have tried to downgrade the way we live and change our perspective on how much stuff we really need. over the years I've moved from a bungalow to a townhouse, and now I live in an apartment. Each time I've moved to a smaller space has truly shown me how much I don't need and how many of the things I THINK I need, I actually don't use. I think moving is great way to put your possessions into perspective. If you have no plans to move anytime soon a great alternative would be a garage sale. If you are the type of family who uses their garage more as storage space than for cars, I'd say every once in a while pick a day and just go through the stuff in there. Really go in and document everything you ACTUALLY need Vs. everything you don't.
The consequences of having too much stuff can be plenty of things. Lots of clutter, the need for more storage space, less resources for others in the world. As I stated before, often when I think of all the things I have that I don't need, I think of all the kids in different countries who couldn't even dream of having a quarter of the things I do. It's really quite sad but also eye opening, and it makes you not take as much for granted and realize how privileged you are to live in a wealthy nation.
P.S. another good alternative to the garage sale would be donate your possessions you don't need! Every month or so my mom and I go through our possessions and clean out what we feel we don't use. Clothes, knicks knacks, etc. Anything really so long as they are in good condition. We pack them up in a tub and take them to Goodwill or Salvation Army. Always remember not everything you don't want needs to be thrown out. There are plenty of people out there who could use them.
http://lifehacker.com/5804927/how-to-de-crapify-your-home
mark this one: I know that everybody including myself has things in their house that never get used. And i mean NEVER. If you take a few minutes to just walk around your house and look at all the stuff that is sitting around and has absolutely no use it will probably blow you away. The reason that all this stuff piles up over time is that as North Americans with disposable income we buy things that we want and justify the purchase as something that we need. This seems like a mind set we have, that we get one use items and never use them. I think that the movie Tiny can teach us a lot about living in a much more environmental and cost effective way. The idea of physically not having enough room in your house to have piles of stuff that you dont need could definitely be very useful for a lot of us. Living in that small of a space forces you to make and find items that will serve you in more than one way as opposed to having several items all to serve you in one way. I think that living with less clutter would also help us with our mentality of poor environmental decisions.
ReplyDeleteMark this one.
ReplyDeleteThis article is another fantastic example of how small changes in your life can end up saving the environment and also your money. After watching Tiny, I think the class saw a glimpse of a big lifestyle change that we can make to improve the ecosystem as well as our own financial situations. Although informative, I think that living Tiny seemed very unrealistic and unappealing to many of my classmates- my self included. This woman is doing an incredible job of downsizing, and this one seems a lot less difficult to do than living in a Tiny house. Small things like using cloths as opposed to paper towels and buying gently used clothing can make huge differences to your family's consumption. I think that her lifestyle choices appear to be much more attainable than that of the Tiny house dwellers.
Countries in the developed world produce an astounding amount of waste per person as opposed to those in the developing countries. New Zealand, the top producer of waster per person was an average of 3.68 kg/person while Ghana produced an average of 0.09 kg/person. The gap between these two countries is atrocious.
My parents are not very big over consumers. In my life we have had only two sets of living room furniture and all of our bed frames have been passed down. One big thing we could focus on is our overconsumption of things like paper towels and clothing. My parents are huge about saving money and so we therefore help the environment without putting our main focus on it.
Too much stuff brings no benefits. It causes us to spend too much money and brings a huge negative impact to the planet. We live in a society where how much you own and the quality of what you own are more important than who you are. This causes many to buy the newest model and spend money they don't have when there current product works completely fine. We need to refocus societal expectations in the developed countries so people realize it isn't all about the stuff you own. When we die, we are surrounded by our family and the friends we made along the way, not by the things we bought. A funeral where you are surrounded by stuff would be a lonely one.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/08/which-countries-produce-the-most-waste/
Mark this one:
ReplyDeleteNo matter where you live there is no escape from the garbage and excess wrapping that clutters our lives and products. Why do we need excess packing materials for anything? For fresh produce we should hardly consider using those small plastic bags considering we will once again wash them at home. The amount of garbage we produce as a species is a large world issue that affects everyone. We are using so much of our planet's valuable space on landfills, and as our population increases space becomes more and more important. We are creating a big mess of our planet for our next generation to clean up. Not only this, we are also polluting our oceans and killing innocent marine life by filling our oceans with plastic and toxins.
For these reasons it is absolutely necessary to cut back on the amount of garbage that we put in our landfills. Some of the changes that you can make are extremely easy and can have a big positive impact towards our planet. The easiest being getting rid of plastic bags completely. First of all, why do we need plastic bags in the first place? We don't. They are absolutely unnecessary when we have cloth bags available that are cheaper and reusable. Other ways to cut back are to be conscious of the products you buy. Products that are highly packaged probably aren't that good for you anyway. Stick to the produce isle. Finally, being aware of your shopping habits is absolutely necessary. We constantly feel a need to clutter our lives with things, things we don't even need. But life without clutter and so many things can be easier often. Just like we have seen in the documentary Tiny, we don't need to clutter our lives with materialistic objects to find value in life.
What is the downfall of to many material objects? Well one is less money. Why do we spend our money on objects that give us a brief moment of happiness when we can spend our money making valuable memories with our friends and family.The one thing in life that is permanent is our memories, so why not spend money on the things that count?
Barrie's garbage goes to our landfills, we know that. But what about Toronto's garbage? Well for the last while it was being shipped to Michigan until recently. 142 trucks a day filled with trash was being shipped internationally, which is also bad for our atmosphere. Now Toronto's trash is being sent to a landfill near London, Ontario.
So is it really worth it to cut back on the amount of garbage we produce? Absolutely. With small changes we can make a big impact. Like stated in the article, is convenience really that convenient?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-garbage-no-longer-shipped-to-michigan-1.913880
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ReplyDeleteMark this one please
ReplyDeleteOur level of consumption is at an all time high, and the amount of trash reflects it. We live is a society that lives in the present, not for the future. We often throw away things that had no to little usage in the first place. This type of consumption is a world issue, as our actions in the developed world are felt globally. By creating products with a short life span or usage, we are wasting natural resources. Wasting natural resources is just the beginning sadly. Production often leads to pollution, therefore damaging our fragile environment and our limited resources. Then after we have exhausted the use, we toss it. National Geographic reported that Americans generated 251 million tons of trash according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However that was data is from 2006 and the 251 million has continued to grow. More recent numbers prove that the United States have not improved. Canada is slightly better than the USA fortunately, but not by much. Recent stats show that Canada produces more than twice as much garbage, per person, than Japan, who is ranked first. Len Coed noted that Canada must encourage “more sustainable consumption”. As seen in the film Tiny, we can reduce our ecological footprint by reducing our consumption. By living Tiny, we force ourselves to consume less and therefore throw out less. If we can eliminate the pointless things, we can live efficiently.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadians-produce-more-garbage-than-anyone-else-1.1394020
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/human-footprint/trash-talk.html
Mark this one. The garbage problem is a huge issue that keeps increasing everyday and getting worse. Wecreate more products for a world with an increasing population, this all leads to things being wasted or going unused, leading to more garbage and more pollution worldwide. The United States houses 4% of the world's population and generates 30% of the world's waste.Thats 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day. This level of pollution is a record that is increasing at an alarming right. It is estimated that by 2050, 3.3 billion people living within an urban area will produce 2.2 metric tons of garbage a year. It is already getting to be too late and if we wait any longer to act then it will be too late. Everyone needs to do their part in trying to decrease waste in the world. There are a ton of ways that we can get people motivated to try and reduce garbage waste. One way that i read about was to start billing municipal residents for their garbage. By charging people for their garbage people will start paying more attention to what they throw out and start throwing out less. Since beginning a pay-as-you-throw program in 1993, Worcester, Massachusetts, has seen a 53 percent drop in waste, from 43,000 tons a year to 20,000. That a significant drop an shows how a simple change in the way people life can affect the way produce garbage. In Canada, most of our garbage is placed in landfills. 62.7% of our waste produced ends up in the 10,000 landfills found across the country. It is quite beneficial for us to recycle as most recycled products take 100-1,000,000 years to break down naturally, whereas recycling a glass container will only take 8-12 weeks for it to be recycled and back on the shelves of a store, it's faster, smarter, more efficient, and in turn, will help the environment.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/future-of-trash/395279/
http://www.rcbc.bc.ca/files/u3/add_ThinkTwiceBeforeThrowingitAway_000.pdf
https://weather.com/science/environment/news/worst-cities-trash-garbage-problems-20130926
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