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:
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
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