One year, ten years, more than a hundred years? Some everyday objects, thrown into nature, can take years to disappear. What is the lifespan of this everyday waste? How can we reduce its impact? A detailed review and ideas for reducing the consumption of all this waste that is a real danger to nature.
"Man must be the guardian of nature and not its owner." This sentence from Philippe Saint-Marc, one of the greatest French environmental specialists, carries within it all the challenges that inhabit us today. Preserving the environment and the planet . One of the areas in which it is easy to act concerns waste, which is a danger to flora and fauna. Indeed, we can all, in conscience, throw away or not, pick up or not, sort or not... Review of details and ways to reduce the consumption of all this waste which is a real danger to nature.
Nature in danger, it’s an emergency!
Fauna and flora suffer from the accumulation of waste that takes a very long time to disappear by biodegrading. The biggest scourge for the ocean concerns plastic waste that pollutes the seabed and threatens certain animal species (for example turtles that swallow floating plastic bags). According to the site un océan de plastique , "that's 1000 tons of plastic waste that reach the ocean every hour, 80% of which comes from dry land." Dramatic! Especially since the plastic then ends up in the food chain...
What is the lifespan of waste?
Another worst enemy of the environment? Humans who throw things away without thinking about the consequences of their actions. The time it takes for an object to biodegrade varies from one year to... a billion years. The self-destruction time of waste is hard to imagine, and yet!
For example, 12 everyday objects:
- Toilet paper: 2 weeks to 1 month.
- Apple core: 1 to 5 months.
- Paper handkerchief: 3 months
- Journal: 3 to 12 months.
- Bus ticket: 1 year.
- Cigarette butts: 1 to 5 years.
- Chewing gum: 5 years.
- Aluminum can: 200 to 500 years.
- Plastic bag: 150 years.
- Plastic bottle: 100 to 1000 years.
- Sanitary napkin or disposable diaper: 400 to 500 years.
- Glass: up to 5000 years.
Source: ConsoGlobe | SIEDMTO
3 principles to reduce waste consumption for a Clean Planet
1 – Basic rule: do not throw anything into nature.
This means, for example, getting rid of all the rubbish and erasing all traces after a picnic in the countryside or an afternoon on the beach. But it also means, for smokers, not crushing cigarette butts anywhere other than in ashtrays. There are also portable ashtray pouches that are quite practical so as not to pollute nature with cigarettes.
2 – Adopt anti-plastic actions
In her book "I'm stopping plastic" (Edition Leduc.s Pratique), Anne Thoumieux, a contributor to the blog, offers several ways to reduce your plastic impact on a daily basis. In her chapter "List of the 10 easiest resolutions to adopt" for example, we find advice on buying in bulk , no longer consuming plastic yogurts (hardly recycled) or switching to solid shampoos and shower gels to avoid the accumulation of plastic containers on the edges of bathtubs.
3- Think about limiting waste
From buying a home composter to manage organic waste to using a filter jug to stop buying bottled water... there are many avenues to explore to reduce your waste. Here too, it is a question of small steps.
There is no point in changing everything overnight by whipping yourself and reciting "Hail Nature" three times. No. The important thing is to inform yourself, to become aware of each of your actions and their consequences and thus limit the damage as much as possible.
In her book, "Three Weeks to Reduce Your Waste" (Éditions Eyrolles), Marie Touffet offers many avenues for reflection (and actions) to achieve the Zero Waste ideal. For example, by adopting the 5 R rule:
- Refusing what you don't need
- Reduce what you need
- Reuse by improving the lifespan of objects
- Recycle everything that can be recycled.
- Return to Earth (compost)
Apart from this philosophy of (new) life, the author offers many turnkey tips to reduce your environmental impact. A simple example: keep an aluminum can in which you slip all the can tabs that generally end up in the trash in bulk. Once full… head for the recycling bin!
