WASTE DISPOSAL
Global Warming: Waste Disposal
For decades, the problem of climate change has gradually changed the outlook of different nations due to the life-threatening effects of allowing it to continue. From basic items people use every day to the return of these items back to the earth to reuse or destroy, climate change can be produced in this endless cycle. Depending on the country’s laws and ordinances pertaining to proper procedure in reducing climate change, the percentage of one’s contribution to it differs. Waste disposal, although not a job many would bother understanding due to the gross nature of the activity, can also contribute to the problem of global warming and climate change altogether. This paper will discuss the effects of improper waste disposal in the issue of global warming and how the university, through its core values, can help in reducing this problem.
According to Maantay (2011), waste disposal is a growing concern at present as waste is continuously generated by homes, restaurants, offices and factories. No matter what waste it is, there are chemicals that can be cause environmental problems due to its components. But, nowadays, people tend to forego sorting these wastes to see if they can be reused or if it can be recycled so some would burn the items or have it dumped into a landfill and let it decompose there with the other wastes from other areas. However, people do not realize the implications of improper waste disposal as incinerating these wastes will produce toxic and corroding chemicals that can destroy not only the environment but also the ecosystem that sustains life, including ours.
There are many proposed solutions in the problem of waste disposal, which varies depending on the government policies that are set in each country. Frumkin (2005) stated that waste management can be accomplished through a multi-layered approach divided into two parts: waste stream reduction and waste handling and disposal. For the first part of the approach, materials must be classified from their capacity to be reused or recycled, and how it can be properly handled. Some items today, such as plastic, are now being replaced by reusable bags that can be used to reduce plastic use and instil the trait of recycling to the public. For the second stage of the multi-layered approach, properly waste handling and disposal can be done in a manner that it will reduce the environment risks that entail this problem. Disposal can be done either by incineration, customized landfills or deep-wells. If it is plausible, the best and ideal waste management strategy to prevent all the environmental effects of waste is producing no waste at all .
If it is left unattended or unchecked, the implications can be two-fold. The first problem will be the reduction of land that can be used to live in as cities or municipalities would most likely have transformed unused thriving lands into landfills, since they would no longer know where place these wastes. These lands can no longer return to their productive state no matter how it is rehabilitated. Landfills will also pollute nearby water sources and even cause pollution in its own as wastes are transported to these landfills each day. Wastes can also be an on-going problem even before it reaches the landfills since these wastes are still transferred in waste transfer stations first. Out of all the areas it will be passing on, there have been reported cases of asthma and respiratory complication deaths, which is why it is necessary to address the situation of waste disposal .
The issue of waste disposal can be related to its own way in the core values of the university. In the value of respect, we students must respect each person especially in our neighborhoods. The simple act of properly disposing our waste each garbage collection and helping out on cleaning the community would inspire others to strive to keep this environment, and respect their capacity to improve their lives through their talents. Proper waste disposal can also enable communities to interact and exchange ideas in working in peace with each other. In a more personal extent, helping in reducing waste shows responsible stewardship of God’s blessings of natural resources. With the problem of global warming, resourcefulness can save resources that are already in the verge of extinction. Technology may be able to recreate these resources, however, they cannot be compared to the real material. Trees, minerals and precious ores are just some of the items that cannot easily be reproduced artificially.
References
Frumkin, H. (2005). Environmental health: from global to local. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.
Maantay, J. (2011). Geospatial Analysis of Environmental Health. New York: Springer.
