Podcast Answer #4: Why Nature Doesn’t Produce Garbage? 7 Ways to Limit our Own Garbage with New Reality.

Podcast Answer #4: Why Nature Doesn’t Produce Garbage? 7 Ways to Limit our Own Garbage with New Reality.

Environmental pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented. 

Barry Commoner: The Closing Circle, Making Peace with the Planet

First, Nature does not produce waste … it is a unique faulty human flaw.

Think about this … you can draw a straight line to infinity, but you can draw a circle only once.

Nature uses a brilliant cyclical system with a few elements, nutrients and metabolisms that are used and reused in continuous cycles. Every organism contributes to the health of the whole ecosystem. One organism’s waste is food for another where nutrients and energy flow work together in closed-loop cycles of growth, decay and rebirth. 

Simply put, any waste is converted into food.

Simply put, a bag of garbage will be handled differently if it is put on a straight line conveyor belt or into a circular band to manage. 

Humans are take-make-waste consumers who produce waste on a linear system:

 1. Extract materials  2. Process 3. Use ( often briefly) 4. Throw out

Natures works with a circular Ecosystem where materials are used and recycled constantly. There are diverse players, cooperative relationships and feedback loops.

The last stage in an ecosystem is natural decay or decomposition of the soil’s top layer or humus into simple organic compounds that the plants can use again to perpetuate their growth.

So, the big question is how humans can follow more circular systems especially within a new reality of new products. Here are 7 ways to consider:

ONE: Begin some kind of an organic garbage disposal. Use a mini-decomposer in a small space or a compost pile or bin to recycle decaying organic material, such as food and garden scraps, that will be turned into soil.
          Good things to compost include vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, plant                      prunings,leaves and grass cuttings. Also cardboard egg boxes and even scrunched              up newspaper.
          Do NOT include meat, fish, egg or poultry scraps (odor problems and pests) dairy                  products, grease, lard or oils.
          An interesting note is to add specific kinds of worms to your compost pile. They are              called ‘red wrigglers’  that can digest old vegetation from the surface as different from            common ‘night crawlers’ that tunnel through dirt to eat and can’t live on vegetable                  waste. Who knew nature can be so specific?

TWO: Research products that are manufactured to be more environmentally friendly. More companies are turning trash into products from recycled materials. For example, furniture can be made from post-consumer trash, packaging material can be made from agricultural waste and mushroom roots, bottles can be made of recycled plastic from the ocean, even yarn for clothing like shirts, shorts and socks can consists of recycled plastic ...Nike makes each uniform by using 16 plastic bottles. 

However, will consumers pay more for something that’s environmentally friendly?

THREE:  Learn about using different building components for homes' construction. New developments have produced building components that are 100% biodegradable or 100% recyclable. More natural materials are used to minimize the use of timber; for example, plant materials can be bonded with resin or mesh like sisal carpets or soy boards. Even compressed straw bales can built walls.

FOUR:  Lessen personal plastic use as much as possible. Plastic was first invented in 1907 made from synthetic petrochemicals which means it has no molecules found in nature and unable to decompose. Plastic pollution is now a global problem found in our oceans, our landfills, food webs and even in the stomachs of fish, animals and people.

FIVE: Support research on how to manufacture biodegradable plastics from natural proteins. Biodegradable plastics are plastics that can be decomposed by the action of living organisms, usually microbes, into water, carbon dioxide, and biomass. They are commonly produced with renewable raw materials, micro-organisms, petrochemicals, or combinations of all three that can decompose or metabolize naturally in the environment. The end result is one which is less harmful to the environment than traditional plastics.

In fact, one US company has a mission to eliminate plastic single servings like cutlery or trays from the supermarkets or restaurants They are made from fibers that can compose back into natural elements without leaving a toxic residue.

SIX:  Continue to follow your community’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle programs. Sort and separate products as outlined for clean bottles, cans, paper and cardboard.

SEVEN: On a personal basis:  experience and build community with clothing swaps, repair stations, toy swaps and food-sharing clubs!  Shop in thrift and consignment stores. Check online vintage shops. Waste less food. Make your own home cleaners and personal care products (vinegar is all-purpose). Use reusable water bottles, not disposable. Reduce auto emissions with essential travel only. 

Certainly, I wish I knew more about Nature’s basic laws when I was younger. Simple respect would have prevented such popular trendy accumulation over the years, now tagged as "junk" suitable for the landfill.

Maybe it is one reason why I am so passionate now to tell the story of Mother Nature as if she was a real living, feeling person.  

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Einstein

One story is a first person narrative of a water sprite with roots in his mission to discover Cyclical Truths.

Another story is about a birch tree who shares his biology, joys, sorrows and his love for his family, community and environment. 

Both are available on my website and as Kindle editions.

Questions and comments are always welcome...

Note for more answers to podcast questions, please check blog. 

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please not a time to return a call)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

"As you know, our Nature doesn’t produce garbage. We know that any litter is decomposed and transformed into healthy humus to help new growth. But their food webs have processed such specialized consumers that I have seen mountains upon mountains of garbage of bottles and cans and plastic bags. I have seen our oceans polluted with islands of debris and white sand beaches suffocated under garbage that cannot decompose for hundreds of years. Why don’t people, smart as they are, pass some sensible laws to educate and enforce the kinds of decomposition of garbage that follows a natural matter?"

...excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch