Reduce Pollution by taking these actions
A brief recap
We have a uniquely beautiful world, thus surely it would make sense to preserve it for future generations to enjoy as we do. Landfill sites that are used for dumping ever increasing amounts of domestic rubbish cannot last forever...and nobody wants such a site on their backdoor. Nobody likes incinerators either, even though they offer a possible solution to the question 'what do we do with all this household rubbish?' Consider how much rubbish your household produces in one week. Then imagine how much rubbish your street produces...then your city...then your region...then your country. Hopefully then you can begin to imagine the extent of this problem. It's nice that this rubbish is collected and taken away but it doesn't disappear. Our wasteful society pollutes the landscape and environment. Yet pollution is not just about landfill rubbish.
Pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels causes global warming and acid rain. Pollution causes unexpected and sometimes serious and devastating changes in our land, river and sea environments. Pollution can kill animals and plants and it probably kills us too. We know that pollution can causes health problems such as respiratory illnesses. Polluting our world should not even be an option, especially where there are alternatives as there are these days. And where we consider that we have no other choice other than to pollute, we should be investigating as best we can alternatives to the technology that pollutes. We should be. Please check out the actions listed below which can help to reduce the amount of pollution in our world.
Help to reduce pollution and waste by:
- Recycling everything that you can recycle! This may mean you have to spend an extra five minutes sorting out what is rubbish and what is recyclable. This may mean a different bag to put your recyclables in. This may even mean the occasional trip to a recycling bank. It may feel inconvenient but with routine it becomes second nature and it is an important part of reducing pollution.
- Recyle your unwanted gadgets. There are websites that allow you to recycle your mobile phone and you can even receive money for doing so! Recycling saves natural resources, reduces land pollution and also air pollution as many products require more energy to produce them than to recycle them. This energy is often provided by carbon-emitting fossil fuels so by using less of those there is an indirect benefit in acting to prevent global warming.
- You can recyle your used and unwanted printer ink cartridges. So many used/unwanted ink cartridges are disposed of by households and business every day and these are unnecessary additions to landfill waste. They can also leak and cause serious environmental consequences through contamination. So recycle them and buy recycled ink cartridges to encourage other businesses to provide better recycling programmes.
- We can recycle almost everything these days: plastics, glass, aluminium, other metals, clothes, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, even your organic peelings from your vegetables can go on a compost heap. Check out the Ecoants recycling guide for more information on what you can recycle and how exactly you can do it.
- Use online auction sites to sell unwanted items or donate useful items to charity shops and collections.
- Buy recycled products. Recycled paper, products that use recycled packaging and plastics. Recycled electrical goods, clothes from charity shops. All of these are just examples but if the demand for recycled products is there business will recycle more and unnecessary waste and pollution will be reduced.
- Buy organic food. This can sometimes be slightly more expensive but it will reduce the amount of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, artifical fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics and who knows what else, being used in the agricultural industries. Thus helping to reduce pollution in our rivers and in ourselves.
- Buy organic cotton products, such as clothes, bags and shoes, produced in an eco friendly way (i.e. sustainably and without the use of pollutants - any ethical shop should be able to tell give you the information you require).
- Buy products with biodegradable packaging (or packaging that you will actively recycle). Look out for this in the shops where you buy from, it should be clearly labelled.
- Re-use your plastic shopping bags until you can use them no more...and then try and recyle them! Many supermarkets have introduced schemes where you can recyle your plastic carrier bags.
- Better still don't use plastic bags, buy a rucksack or other bag to use for your shopping.
- Use refills and products that allow refills. This will reduce packaging and waste.
- Use rechargeable batteries and electronic items. When you are recharging these items do not leave them on indefinitely overnight (especially relevant to mobile phones). Recharge them and then unplug them so as not to waste energy!
- Use public transport, walk or cycle...or car share. The less vehicles that are used the less pollution will be emitted. This means better health for us and our environment.
- Manage your bank, credit card and utility accounts online and use paperless banking. It's a lot easier and it saves paper which saves waste, natural resources and energy.
- Use less harmful detergents in your home. For example the Ecover range of detergents are sensitive to the environment and the more people that use these the more we can reduce pollution of our environments.