Rethinking our waste

This week, a TV program showed a fisherman in his boat rowing out into the sea but all around him was a sea of garbage. Even oceans are not spared from garbage mindlessly thrown all over the world. Will waste and garbage take over the seas and oceans and even the rest of the world in the near future?

Next shown was the beautiful island of Tahiti. A favorite tourist destination, Tahiti boasts of blue skies, green-covered mountains, and crystal clear water ideal for swimmers and marine creatures.

Not far from the beautiful beaches of Tahiti, however, is a growing mountain of garbage. Despite machines that try to level and compress the garbage, soon the mountain will be lost to trash, and the beautiful seas and natural attractions of Tahiti in danger of being overtaken by polluting, dangerous, odorous waste. Back here in the Philippines, how many beautiful natural beaches have we lost to ugly human-produced waste?

As garbage will continue to increase all throughout the world, what can we do about this serious problem?

The TV program showed how technology may help to manage waste. One small Japanese company of about 10 employees successfully produced a machine that is able to convert plastic containers and plastic caps into oil! The caps are separated from the plastic containers, then separately, these are placed in the machine, then subjected to very high temperature heat, then cooled, then the end product is oil. The company has been able to produce portable versions of this plastic-to-oil machine but the price is very expensive!

Technology may be able to provide some relief to the present waste problem, but technology also has to be appropriate and affordable and eco-friendly as well. With oil and fuels among the main drivers of pollution and global warming, all will need to rethink how best to manage local and global waste and other grave environmental problems.

Just as technology is a human creation, waste is also a product of human beings. From production to consumption to disposal, humans are the producers and disposing agents of waste. Should not the solutions for waste management then involve the humans who cause the problem?

How can people be convinced to effectively manage their waste, how can we all be persuaded to properly take care of our own waste?

Education among the children is an important step. Household collaboration is also a must. Schools, offices, churches, and other organizations and institutions also have to do their share. Businesses and industries will also need to be more eco- conscious and need to resort to sustainable production practices and to produce eco- protective goods. 

The same TV show also presented one community that adopted a "waste" bank where anyone is allowed to bring their waste materials that can be exchanged for points which could be exchanged for equivalent cash or which could be deposited in the community "waste" bank.                  

There has to be a complete rethinking, an alternative paradigm and value system about local and global production systems and goals. Are we producing and consuming essential products and items that we basically need? Are we producing essential products without comprising our earth and our natural resources and precious human lives?

There have been best practice models successfully launched and practiced in Camotes Island, in Naga, and throughout the world. Within each community, several households can take a small step at a time to manage their waste effective within their own homes and neighborhood.

The ice in the Antartic is melting at record rate, according to recent reports.  Global warming is a reality and one that we need to help abate and mitigate, if we want to keep super storms and other calamities from taking place and affecting us personally and directly. The extreme summer heat all are experiencing in Cebu and elsewhere is a result of our failure to stop global warming where and however we can.

We can start with effective waste management where we are. We need to urgently rethink how to manage our waste and how to responsibly and sustainably manage our earth and our lives.

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