There is a waste crisis happening in the world right now, and we are the sole cause of them. The strain of keeping up with demand has resulted in depleted resources, environmental harm and overall radical climate change to our earth.
Therefore, as responsible citizens of the world, we need to ensure that we’re doing our part to reduce as much waste as we can in our daily life.
Here are some of the ways we can do it:
- Refrain from buying a lot of things
The most basic way of reducing waste is to simply reduce your spending on things. This includes eating outside or buying takeout. The less you buy, the less demand there is. The less demand, the less production. Another reason why you may want to cut down on your spending is taking into account the material that goes into what you’re potentially purchasing: single-use items (more in our 3rd point!) and items that are made from low-quality (like fast fashion clothing) tend to have a higher turnover in the cycle.
- Thrift
One of the nicer things to happen is that thrifting is somehow in trend. Thrifting or buying second-hand helps to ensure that existing items are utilised to their fullest in their lifecycle. An average lifespan of a good quality pair of jeans for example, can last between 3-10 years. By providing a second chance for these items, you’re directly reducing the cost and labour it takes to produce a new counterpart.
- Avoid single-use items
Plastic cutlery, single-use plastics and plastic bottles are notorious for contributing to the overall waste problem in the world. Almost every food item is wrapped in plastic, for example, and many other items are packaged with too much plastic. This is bad because it takes 20 – 500 years for plastic to start decomposing, and with the amount of plastic waste plaguing landfills, it’s important to make better choices to reduce these numbers.
- BYOB
Stands for Bring Your Own Bag. Nowadays, the request for a plastic bag will incur a charge of 20 cents which is a great step forward to discourage single-use plastic. However, there is still a long way to go before plastic (biodegradable or otherwise) can be completely eradicated from our daily life. What we can do as responsible people is to bring our own bags and carriers to minimise the need for a plastic bag! Pro tip: canvas grocery bags are super space-saving and can easily be travelled with. Opt for those and remember to pack one with you at all times.
- Recycle
Malaysia is far from capable of incorporating recycling into our collective culture, but it’s important that we try to attempt it anyway. Recycling is one of the most important ways we can ensure that material needed to produce something new is redirected back to the pile. This way, we can reduce the cost and environmental strain to produce the material needed for our everyday items.
Did this help put things into perspective? Tell us how you plan to reduce your waste – it’s not too late to make a change!