Natural Resources
Everything humans wear, use, and eat consumes the world’s natural resources. From the clothes on your back to the iPhone in your hand, to the hamburger and fries you had for dinner, the environment has felt the impact.
Modern culture largely revolves around consumerism – it tells us that the more successful you are, the more stuff you have. The media continues to promote materialism rather than advancing ourselves through intangible goods like education and positive relationships. Because of this, people continue to buy more and more stuff!
According to the World Wildlife Fund, since 1966, demand for natural resources has doubled, and we are currently using the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support our activities. If we continue with the current trends of population growth and consumption, we will need the resources of 2 planet Earths to meet our annual needs by 2030. [9] But, obviously - we only have one!
So where do you all our natural resources end up?
Americans generated 251 million tons of trash in 2012, according to the EPA. Only 35% of it was recycled or composted. The rest of it was discarded in landfills or burned in incinerators. Of the waste that reached the landfill, more than 38% of it could've been recycled, and 21% of it was food waste. [11]
Unfortunately, our trash problem is not confined to land - it's in the water too. There is a giant area of trash-riddled ocean between Hawaii and California known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists believe it to be twice the size of Texas!
[1] https://www.postconsumers.com/education/how-long-does-it-take-a-plastic-bottle-to-biodegrade/
[2] http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/eco360/what-is-eco360s-causes/plastic-garbage
[4] http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-ip.pdf
[5] http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/tools/localgov/benefits/
[6] http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/buy_a_bin/
[7] http://environmentalpaper.org/our-resources/top-ten-indicators/
[8] http://earth911.com/news/2012/05/15/how-to-use-one-paper-towel-and-save-paper/
[9] http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lpr_2012_summary_booklet_final.pdf
[10] http://www.unpri.org/viewer/?file=files/6728_ES_report_environmental_externalities.pdf
[11] http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/2012_msw_fs.pdf
[12] http://www.loveinfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/info-pacific-garbage-patch_l.png
Actions to Save Resources
1. I will not use single-use plastic products: to-go containers, water bottles, or plastic bags. Instead I will use ozzi boxes and reusable waterbottles!
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The average time for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at least 450 years [1].
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An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic, is dumped into the world's oceans every year [2].
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Americans use and dispose of 100 billion plastic shopping bags each year [3]
2. I will clean my plate or save it for later!
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40% of food in the U.S. goes uneaten, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council . [4]
3. I will correctly recycle and compost all week long and pick up trash if I see it!
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Why recycle? By substituting recycled materials for the use of trees, metal ores, minerals, oil, and other virgin materials, we reduce the pressure to expand forestry and mining production. For example, recycling one ton of paper saves the equivalent of 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water. [5]
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Why compost? When waste is sent to a landfill, it creates a harmful greenhouse gas called methane, which is 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. However, when waste is composted it produces hardly any methane - good news for the planet. [6]
4. I will avoid using printing paper this week, and when I must, I will print double sided!
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If United States offices reduced virgin fiber copy paper use by 10% from 2009 levels, it would save 22.8 million trees, reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 481,000 cars off the road, and keep over 60,000 trucks full of solid waste out of landfills and incinerators. [7]
5. I will not use single-use paper products this week: napkins, tissues, and paper towels. Instead I will carry a handkerchief!
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13 billion pounds of paper towels are used in the U.S. every year. If all Americans used one less paper towel a day, 571,230,000 pounds of paper would be spared over the course of the year. [8]
6. I will watch one of the following documentaries:
The Story of Stuff, originally released in December 2007, is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something and most likely make you laugh...
Pyramids of Waste tells the untold story of Planned Obsolescence, the deliberate shortening of product life spans by manufacturers to guarantee consumer demand.
Resources Week: March 26th - April 1st
Our overuse of Earth's finite resources is catching up to us
Future Action
Both our resource use and waste production are at unsustainable rates. But, with a joint effort from consumers, producers, and politicians, we can change global resource exploitation into sustainable pattern of use. Consumers must change their behavior by buying less stuff, and creating less waste. Producers must take the negative consequences of their actions, such as pollution and resource depletion, into account in their business model. And politicians must facilitate this transition to sustainable living by incentivizing, subsidizing, and taxing the right things. Together we can make it happen.
