Eco-Friendly/ Edible Silverware Our environment has a lot of problems with waste that we create and it is getting more out of hand each year. Waste is harming wildlife, rivers, plants, and humans. I have come up with a solution to this global problem and reasons why we need it. My solution is to develop eco-friendly/edible silverware. Biodegradable means to have the capability of being able to decompose by bacteria and other living organisms. Biodegradable products are made out of natural plant materials like corn or sugarcane. I believe biodegradable products is a good way to reduce waste and keep our environment healthy, unlike plastic, which many products consist of. General everyday plastic is made out of one of Earth’s limited resources, oil. Oil takes up to three hundred million years to form. Also, oil based products that are not reusable, and end up in one of the world’s many landfills, which takes up to one thousand years to decompose. Oil based products also end being washed into seas or oceans, and overtime the plastic products can release poisonous toxins, harming wildlife, or polluting nearby rivers. Comparing biodegradable products to plastic products you can see that biodegradable products use up to seventy percent less carbon dioxide to produce than plastic products. It also only takes twelve weeks for biodegradable products to decompose. Recycling waste is a simple answer to our problem, but instead the shortage of waste treatment systems can resort in
Plastic's end of life cycle involves being discarded, either recycled for reuse or dumped into a landfill or the ocean. Recycling's popularity has significantly grown since the 1970's, as well as the overall number of plastic products being produced. In addition, the amount of plastic products being created as significantly increased over the past 60 years. Due to the endurance of polymers, plastic is filling up landfills faster than it should and invading our natural habitats. Recycling is one of the most critical things we can do for our environment. It can cut down on the amount of plastic in landfills as well. Recycling plastic reduces the need to create more plastic, which also cuts down on oil use and pollutants being released into the air. In the time that recycling has become more popular, technology has advanced to create more job
Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
There are so many different ways our world can recycle ,The goal is to reduce the amount of waste ,
Baur, Richard C., et al. 2009, Investigation 7: How Can The Waste Be Made Useful?, Lab Inquiry in Chemistry. Belmont: Brooks/Cole, 2009.
Sustainability is a broad and increasingly familiar topic in our culture. Sustainable farm-to-fork restaurants have sprung up all over the United States, urban gardening has become a popular habit for those living in the city, and numerous stores have recycling centers and ‘green’ products. What do these things have in common? Each example mentioned above helps resources last for future generations. Farm-to-fork restaurants support local agriculture, which supports dozens of plants growing and purifying the air and our environment. They also minimize fossil fuels released into the air from traveling long distances. Urban gardens help counteract city pollution. Recycling centers cut the amount of waste in landfills, and green products last longer
Almost everyone encounters food every day, and a lot of times, it is taken for granted. According to worldfooddayusa.org in 2009, 2.3 billion tons of food was wasted worldwide, and in the U.S. alone 20 pounds of food is wasted per person each month. The amount of food wasted is ridiculously high and needs to be stopped. If Trine University takes steps towards preventing food waste, it could not only save the university money, but also save the environment in the process. There are simple solutions to help solve the food waste issue at Trine University, like creating a voting system for food choices, lowering the portion size, and recycling unused or extra food. Taking steps to prevent food waste will benefit the university, the economy.
Much of the food in households, restaurants, and even grocery stores all across the United States of America goes uneaten or is not sold to consumers on a daily basis. Instead of wasting that food, researchers have developed a process that turns it into biodiesel fuel or biogas that can be used for creating heat and electricity, while others have discovered that food waste may contain valuable minerals that are used in the creation of glass products.
1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year on the planet, which means that almost half of the food production in the entire world is wasted each year. Food waste appears when food products are being thrown away without having been consumed by anyone. Thus, food wastes can arise directly from the consumer’s house, whenever people forget to eat the food and it starts to rot and they are obliged to throw it, or it may be a result of food losses during the production and transportation processes. In addition, over 30% of the fruits and vegetables in North America are not even displayed in grocery stores because they are not pretty enough. Food waste represents a major issue in today’s world where, inter alia, climate changes are noticeable and
Biodegradable waste means any waste that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food and garden waste, and paper and paperboard. It also includes waste from households, which
By going to a website called, “postconsumer.com,” I found out that, “ Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade- breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways. They then enter the food web when animals accidentally ingest them,”( admin, para.8 ). In case you didn't know, the meaning of biodegrade is to decay and to become absorbed by the environment, while photodegrade is to be decomposed by the action of light, especially sun light. Plastic bags are very common in grocery stores. Sure they help us carry items, but plastic bags can do a lot of harm to the environment and to living animals, such as creating land fills and endangering six of seven species of sea turtles. Where I'm getting at is that
Song JH, (2009) states that “Many different materials are used for packaging including metals, glass, wood, paper or pulp, plastics or combinations of more than one material as composites” (p 364). What this means is that most of the packaging materials we use for packaging contain products that are very hard to de compose and end up in landfills. In order to achieve bio degradable packaging we should consider bioplastic polymers which “are generally still much higher than that of their traditional plastic counterparts” (364). Bioplastic polymers cost much more than regular polymers we use but, if we can help our planet and company become more environmental friendly, we should take that step and use bioplastic polymers for our
There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent
With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the
We, humans, are producing waste every day, polluting and destroying our planet. To save the world, many people believe recycling is the obvious solution. It is the process of converting certain waste into a reusable material. Therefore, the recycle motto is “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”. However, have you ever wondered why the word recycle is placed at the end? Well, it’s because it is not the only way to reduce waste and save the world from global warming. Recycling may have many advantages, but its disadvantages’ list is not a short one either. Recycling may look very simple and easy method, but when there is a need for a new unit of waste recycling, it takes up a lot of space. Not to mention the amount of money the building costs along with paying the staffs, buying new utility vehicles, upgrading the recycling unit and different types of chemical disposals. It is not only expensive but also, unhygienic, unsafe and unsightly with piles of waste materials on every location. These wastes spread infectious diseases putting human health at risk. Aside from recycling
Pollution is a major problem globally and it becomes greater as the human population continues to rise exponentially. One of the major problems with increased population is higher waste production, which creates increased air, soil, and water pollution. To resolve this problem waste reduction must be of primary importance in preventing and reducing pollution. Waste management can be an expensive undertaking if not managed correctly so sustainable practices must be addressed. While pollution prevention and reduction programs can be expensive if not managed correctly, waste reduction is essential for the reduction and prevention of pollution.