Effects of Waste Dumping
The global waste crisis has become an issue of concern worldwide in an age of climate change. The World Bank warns that global waste will increase up to 70 percent on current levels by 2050 unless urgent actions are undertaken. The international financial institution also mentions that global annual waste is expected to jump to 3.4 billion tons over the next 30 years.
It goes without saying, but simply dumping waste on the planet has severe consequences. The effects of waste dumping and improper waste management include:
Pollution of soil: Waste can leak hazardous chemicals into the soil and from there into our food.
Air pollution: The burning of waste at landfills releases toxic substances into the air, including extremely poisoning dioxin.
Pollution of oceans: 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the world’s oceans each year. If we keep dumping plastic in the oceans, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.
Pollution of groundwater: 280 billion tons of groundwater is being polluted every year – that’s 9000 tons every second.
The following counters illustrate the waste nightmare:
The World Cannot Sustain our Waste
We are already reaching 75% of our capacity of the Earth’s ability to sustain the waste quantities we are dumping. Every year we are dumping over 2 billion tonnes of waste! This is enough waste to go around the world 24 times.
Creative Carbon is working on multiple projects to reduce waste output and to improve current waste management procedures in both the Dominican Republic and Paraguay. The initial project near Punta Cana, DR will result in the avoidance of over 255 thousand metric tonnes of waste being landfilled!
Although we can’t all work on landfill avoidance projects, we can do our part to reduce waste. Remember the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Most importantly, Reduce.
