Waste disposal is a very important environmental issue.
Waste disposal is a growing problem in the modern world. Whether it's the hazards of toxic waste or the sheer volume of regular household waste, the castoffs of industrial society are becoming increasingly intrusive. Solutions do exist, and range from responsible disposal to recycling to avoiding buying unneeded items in the first place.
Reducing
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a large percentage of the waste stream in the United States is made up of materials that could be recycled or reused. Public education programs aimed at getting people used to the idea of recycling have been quite successful, but the idea of reducing consumption has still not taken hold in the public imagination. Many people begin thinking about the problem of waste when they are confronted with something they identify as "trash," rather when they are first confronted with the decision of whether to buy something or not. In order to reduce the waste stream at its source, society needs to avoid producing things, rather than continuing to produce them and then wondering what to do with them.
Reusing
Prior to the disposable age which began following World War II with the widespread introduction of plastics, reuse was a common and unquestioned event. Many items were more durably made than they are today, and it only made sense to get maximum use out of them by, for example, handing down clothes from sibling to sibling, reusing food containers for storage, or saving lumber from old construction and using it for something else. Every time something is diverted from the waste stream by being used for something else, it not only decreases the waste stream, it also decreases the pressure that is placed on natural resources through the manufacture of new items.
Recycling
Municipal recycling programs have been put into place in many places throughout North America, Europe and elsewhere. Recycling differs from reuse because individual objects are not reused. Rather, their constituent material, usually plastic, metal or glass, is repurposed into new objects. Therefore, although recycling is certainly preferable to sending trash to a landfill and buying new things, it is still energy intensive in the same way as new production, and conserves fewer resources than reuse does.
Electronic Waste
The problem of electronic waste is a relatively new waste problem and as such has fewer developed solutions in place. Many electronic commodities are thrown out, not because they are broken but because their owners consider them obsolete and want the newest thing. Referring to the arrival of digital television, Theresa Stiner of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources suggests avoiding the unnecessary disposal of old televisions through the purchase of a converter box that allows the old television to be compatible with new systems. This is one example of how waste can be reduced through a shift in consciousness, and an acceptance of a different way of doing things that leads to the same result.
