200kg of garbage in the ocean every second ... do you think it's sad? Me too ! Maybe you will tell me "I make selective sorting" and it's a good step of course but honestly, the truth is that only few waste are actually recycled :(
Of course, the ennemy number one is PLASTIC! 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year. It takes 450 years to "decompose" but it's not really a complete decomposition. In fact it becomes nanoparticles and even if we can't see them there are some in the sea, the oceans and the fish of course. And you know what? We eat fish:( The food chain is completely contaminated.
Did you know? it takes 7 liters of water to produce ONE plastic water bottle !!! Mouhahaha, is this a joke? No ... Do you see the irony? And these plastic bottles: 72% will go to the landfill, 14% will be burned, 14% will be sorted. From the 14% sorted, 10% is actually recycled and 2% is recycled more than once. So recycling, recycling hmmmmm, is it THE solution? I don't think so… In addition, the actual time spent on using plastic is often quite short, a few minutes for disposable cutlery or plastic supermarket bag.
Non-recyclable products :
-Plastic freezer bags
-Yoghurt pots
-Wipes and diapers
-Aluminum packaging
-Polystyrene trays for meat or fresh products
-Aluminum / plastic composite bag like the one that contains compote that your child drinks is impossible to recycle because it's a mixture of two materials
-Disposable dishes (and like a good Frenchwoman I prefer to drink my wine in a real wine glass!)
DANGEROUS materials for health :
-Plastic cooking bag: each hot plastic (and aluminum too) gives off dangerous substances
-Stretch film
-Aluminum foil
What about our waste, how do we get rid of it? ==> incineration: which generate dioxin and heavy metals in the atmosphere ==> landfill: pollutes soil and groundwater
Conslusion: We spend a lot of money on waste management but it is far from being a non-polluting solution! And in the world, other countries have neither the possibilities or the money to do it, so a lot of waste goes directly into our oceans due to poor management.
On the other hand, many wealthy countries send their recyclable waste overseas because it's cheap and reduces domestic landfill. The most recycled materials are glass (endlessly), stainless steel and paper.
Did you know that there is a 7th continent of waste in the oceans made up of 80 thousand tonnes of plastic? :(
Few solutions :
Have you thought about compost? 1/3 of our waste can go to compost and you can use it for your plantations! Do you live in an apartment? No problem, I'm composting while living in an apartment, it is possible and fairly easy. It produce a liquid that you can use this liquid for the plants, unclog the pipes ... and when it's full you can throw it in the municipal compost for example or give it to a friend or neighbor who has compost in his garden ;)
Be smart, be inventive ^^
Wait, won’t it smell bad?
Not at all. A healthy compost pile will have an earthy, even pleasant smell.
Link for compost appartement: https://www.greenweez.com/ecovi-composteur-de-cuisine-et-balcon-20l-vert-p22322?esl-k=sem-google|ng|c295599599708|mb|k|p|t|dc|a63030247087|g1568687993&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjPaCBhDkARIsAISZN7S2SWBiyR_u_igVzNddlJ1MZtEdZC0BVEENsIxwZvAYLcYXKFixUR4aAp4YEALw_wcB
Buy unpackaged :
Almost anything can be bought unwrapped, even at the supermarket in the cheese / meat or fish department. You can bring your container and ask to put your things inside, the law does'nt prohibit it. For vegetables you can have your reusable vegetable bags
Links:
-https://cartovrac.fr/ to find the store closest to you
-https://90jours.org/ : an application with challenges to achieve
Buy in all conscience: strawberries in December no! Keep in mind that every seasons are there for a reason and consuming seasonal and local vegetables (or any other product) is important for the planet and for you too!
Seasonal food is fresher, tastier and more nutritious than food consumed out of season.
Nobody wants pesticide strawberries that takes 1 boat, 1 plane and 2 trucks to get to your plate and for the taste you gate it's not comparable believe me!
Big conlusion : « The best waste is the one that we don't produce !!! »
Sources : https://www.camille-se-lance.com/
I thanks for your article it's very important to talk about subject like this and i wanted to open about fast fashion. The clothing industry is the second most polluting in the world, after the oil industry. It's hard to realize that this can have so much of an impact on our planet and yet it does ! The fast fashion multinationals, which release new models every week at low prices, exploit workers in the most disadvantaged countries and manufacture their products using extremely polluting processes.
We need too change our way of living now for the planet.
I join myself in your followers comments to congratulate your work. What a pleasure ( and relief) to read people that are sensitised by the same concerns than me! I’m not alone....
As Blandine Klein, I’m a compost lover. I have one also in my flat. I try to convince my friends and family but unfortunately everyone is not open to do it. For me, it’s a really easy way to reduce our basic waste. Even we don’t have a garden, we have so many ways today’s to accomplish this little project ( small to big boxes, warms, ...).
And I think the industry got it well because we have a large variety of choices to have a home/flat compost…
First of all, thanks a lot for having chosen this very relevant topic and congratulations for this wonderful and user-friendly blog. Despite being myself quite involved in the zero-waste process, I found useful links to websites I will add to my favorites! 😊
I feel myself very concerned by our impact on environment. We try to do our best at home by buying unpackaged products, using reusable paper bags, drinking tap water and composting. Buying ready cooked food is also highly impacting CO2 and water consumption and should be avoided as much as possible. As we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, composting especially resulted in a drastic reduction of our waste volume: I think we switched from two…
Hello Florence,
First of all, congratulations for the realization of the blog. It has a light design, it is quite intuitive, the visual rendering is in line with the spirit of the blog.
Although the problem of waste and mainly plastic is a subject that we hear several times a year, it is always very interesting to have a reminder on it. The angle chosen is sometimes different and the advice is sometimes new.
I imagine that the ecological problem is not new for you but do you think that for you and some of your close friends, the first lockdown was an additional trigger to change a little more your life habits and totally erase some harmful habits for…
Hi Florence,
Thank you!. This work had to ask you a lot of time and while demands us a lot of effort to read all numbers informations. I try to do what I can to participate in this effort to save planet. So, I made several decisions. First: I cut my hairs very short. Results: less shampoing, and no more after -shampoing and all others sorts of cremes for disentangling. It was incredible the quantity of plastic I had just with that. Then I sold my car. I live in a city served well by the rail and road network. So a day I told me: I can do without it. It will be good for planet and for …