Landfill
What is household waste?
Materials that can be accounted for as household waste include non-hazardous materials such as food, packaging, furniture, and hazardous ones such as paints, batteries, cleaning liquids/oils, and electronics. According to numerous environmental studies, this type of waste contributes greatly to the staggering level of pollutions, in a manner that involves the environment, and the people living in it. In a working household that comprises of an individual, a family, or a group of people, one could almost be convinced that there will be at least food and packaging waste. The bigger the home, the number of people living in it, and the different lifestyles, the more waste the environment could expect.
It was easy to conclude that achieving a unity of opinion would not be an easy task, let alone having a complete understanding on how the whole idea of ‘clean environment- healthy living’ work. To be fair, it really is not easy to go about all this correctly and appropriately. Yes, we do want to live in a clean, healthy environment, we do want to know what is good and what is bad for us, and most importantly, we do want to take part in making the world a better and safer place for our children. Surely, this was the exact same thinking our great grandparents had, and that we have successfully made most parts of it a reality. But is it enough? There is this continuity and dedications required from each individual. Nowadays, you can be as young as three to get excited about putting empty cartons of milk to a dedicated colourful container, and empty plastic bottles into another.
However, according to early surveys, there had been an increase of 16% of household waste generated by each person in England during 15 years since 1991. These figures may not seem significant, however when considered parallel to what was available during this time to accommodate the matter, we should be concerned. Household waste could be as seemingly innocent as a carton of milk or as potentially harmful as chemicals containing pesticides.
It was pointed out that throwing unused pesticides down the toilet would pollute the water, pouring it into the sink would clog and affect the sewage system, and when disposing it in the bin would eventually result in landfills. Disposals of unused batteries should be done correctly. This means all types of batteries, even those from the children’s toys. One may not think as further and detailed for many reasons: inadequate resources for guidance, other priorities to keep up with, ignorance to the level of importance the matter is. Which ever the reasons, the poor understanding and attitude towards this issue are seemingly unintentional.