Recycling Waste is The Best Way to Improve Our Environment

It is undeniable that recycling waste is the best way to improve our environment. For this essay I want to reflect on what can we do to better our environment?

Some of the basic environmental issues we face today are climate change, waste disposal, deforestation, and pollution. Waste disposal is one of the biggest threats to our environment as of today. It includes health and safety issues as well. Companies have increased their production and we the environment are only helping them do so by not doing our part; such as recycling and reducing the amount of waste that adds up. This leads up to pollution; flooding is usually caused when any kind of waste clogs up the drains. Which can bring up toxic to the atmosphere; the air we breathe in. Some ways we can help out when it comes to excessive waste is recycling. The United states has many recycling support programs to help assist with this issue. It comes back to us to help out and make sure we do our part in recycling and reducing the use of excess waste. 

Environmental Challenges Which We Can Handle

Forests are a huge resource to our environment. In the article Facts about deforestation Sarah Derouin stated that in the past 25 years forest shrank by 502,000 square miles. Frequently, deforestation is created when lands are cut down and cleared out to make room for agriculture. The growing population is the reason why large amounts of resources and products are getting taken away. The forests are getting cut down because of products we eat and use on a daily basis. Such as, bananas, sugar cane, and palm oil. Palms oil especially has taken over areas where forests once flourished. Rainforest in Central and South America typically get burnt down for the use of cattle ranching; which is used to supply beef for the rest of us. Some ways we can avoid deforestation is changing out eating habits. Try to avoid beef until you stop completely. Try going paperless or at least try to decrease the amount of paper we use at work, school, etc. Give more support to companies and programs who are willing to help instead of those who aren’t worried about what could happen to us 10 years from now. Try and educate yourself on ways we could help so you are able to provide extra knowledge to those who don’t know.

Climate change is another challenge we seem to face as an environment. Our over use of fossil fuels is killing the environment very much.  We should try eliminating the use of burning coal, oil, and gas.  This may be hard for us to do because oil is one of the many necessities for the global economy. Realistically, one person cannot make this big change on their own. Try consuming less gas and cut back as much as you can. For instance, when making purchases think about what would benefit the community think years ahead, instead of that exact minute.

Going green can make a huge impact if done right. This means respecting the environment by using few recourses. Focusing on mainly what we need to survive such as the food we eat and the energy we need. We can save energy by putting more use into reducing your air conditioner and heat use with the thermostat. I personally used to have a bad habit of keeping lights on around the house when we weren’t using them. However, after I searched how it was tremendously affecting our environment, I began to cut out these bad habits. Make sure you unplug things when you aren’t using them such as your laptop charger, phone charger, and Tv’s. Even try switching out your light bulbs to a more energy efficient ones; this can also help us save around roughly $600 million in annual energy costs. I was in Israel for about 6 months recently and we didn’t use dryers there. Everyone in the community during the summer time or at times when it wouldn’t rain, would have a clothing line outside to air dry their clothes. They worked as a community to save on energy instead of overuse it.

I wanted to touch base more on recycling waste. We as consumers should be able to recycle waste instead of getting rid of it; only for it to pile up in a landfill. Any item that no longer fits in your household or office, donate it instead of just throwing it away. Not only does it benefit us to reduce piled up waste but also donating an item that is still usable could be a nice gesture to help someone. “The Environmental Protection Agency gave an estimate that 75 percent of American waste is recyclable.” Donating is one of the major ways to help reduce waste. Whether it’s a microwave, clothes, utensils, etc.; these can all be donated to the nearest Goodwill or someone you might know. Recycling is pretty straightforward at this point. Houston has four recycling drop-off centers. They also have six neighborhood depository/recycling centers, which is where you could also take larger items that you can’t put in a recycling bin outside your home. 

Conclusion

You might be the one who does not recycle, try to consume more energy or even use as few fossil fuels as you can; but that does not mean you aren’t able to start now. When helping out the environment you would not only do the world a favor, but for yourself as well. Some of the examples I have listed are a great way to start looking after our environment. These are all issues that the government cannot fix on their own. By altering the way, we use power, eat, and travel together we can slowly begin to fix our home.

Works Cited

• Danesh, Jennifer. “Tips for Living Green.” UCLA Sustainability, 2010, www.sustain.ucla.edu/housing/tips-for-living-green/.
• Alonzo, Ben. “List of Ways to Reduce the Use of Fossil Fuels.” Education, Ben Alonzo, 21 Nov. 2017, www.education.seattlepi.com/list-ways-reduce-use-fossil-fuels-3725.html.
• Derouin, Sarah. “Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects.” LiveScience, Purch, 6 Nov. 2019, www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html.