Responsible Waste Management

 

While you may not stop to think about it, Americans actually generate a lot of waste. In fact, per year, America generates roughly 250 million tons of waste. However, on a positive note, decades of research and investments have helped us redirect nearly 35 percent of this waste away from landfills around the world and towards more responsible destinations such as recycling centers where this waste can find new life as compost, or even reused. While America is becoming more responsible with its waste, it is up to Americans as individual households to also take on a little bit more responsible waste management in order to protect the environment.  This article will explain how to be better and more responsible with waste management.

 

A Refocused Recycling Agenda 

When it comes to recycling, we need to take a better look at how we recycle in order to make sure we are doing it the best possible way we can. One of the very first things we need to consider when it comes to recycling is to make sure we are only recycling clean, free-of-food materials. Not only does this help at the sorting centers, but it will also help you prevent pests and infestations of insects from taking over your home or shed. This can be a lot easier if your community has a recycling program, however, not all do.  

 

If your community does not have a recycling program already set up, you can help out by creating your own dedicated bins and collecting your own recycling in order to deliver it to the local facility for recycling. At some of these centers, you can even sell your glass and aluminum waste. 

 

Compost: Getting Rid Of Your Organic Waste

One of the best ways you can be more responsible with your waste management at home is by investing in some composting at home. Organic waste is made up of things like food scraps, yard debris, coffee grounds, eggshells, and even tea bags and can be disposed of through composting, which can actually be very convenient and even beneficial for you by limiting the amount of waste we as Americans send to landfills every year. 

 

Setting up an at-home compost is great because it can help you create very nutrient-rich compost in order to enrich your soil allowing for much better root growth for all plant life you grow in it. So, you will not only be helping the environment by limiting the amount of waste sent to landfills, but you will also be allowing your plants to thrive! 

 

You can get everything you need to set up your own at-home compost from a local hardware store, however, there are a few things that you should avoid filling your compost with in order to improve your results: Bones, fatty food waste, animal liter, diseased plants, weeds, meat byproducts. These can actually have adverse reactions to your compost, ruining your otherwise positive outcomes. 

 

Being Responsible For Electronics

With the ever-changing technology, it is no surprise that we have a lot more electronic waste now than ever before. Because of that, we must be a lot more responsible with how we deal with this type of waste. There are specific centers where these electronics must be taken to be disposed of in order to avoid ending up in a landfill.