The Crimea is gradually getting covered with all sorts of waste. It is both produced in the Crimea and brought to us. It includes old and unused pesticides as well as accumulated chemical waste products of plants "Titan" and the Crimean Soda in the north of the Crimea. It also includes solid domestic waste - anything that is thrown away in trash bins today (including such toxic waste as batteries and mercury lamps). There is more and more packaging in our stores, and there are more and more burning dumps. New waste is added to the old one. If we fail to cope with this increasing waste, our children will be in much more difficult situation. Let’s try to understand how we should act.
What is waste? Anything that “goes to waste”, i.e. is not used by us any more (for example, we have brought a milk box from a store; then we drank the milk, but the package (box) is the "waste"). However, if this package is then recycled and turned into a new package filled with milk, we will use it again. Hence, the "waste" will turn into new "resources", and then the "resources" will turn back into "waste", which will become "resources" again etc. This is the “recycling” – multiple reuses of waste/resources “in a circle”.
If we buy milk or other drink not in a package but in a glass bottle (probably many of us remember dairy products sold in glass bottles until the 90's in the shops of the Soviet Union), then there is no need to recycle this bottle. After the milk is drunk, the bottle is washed, disinfected and filled with milk again. It is the recovery of waste without recycling.
Though, if we buy milk from a farmer who has come to our yard and is pouring milk in our own milk can, we do not produce any waste at all.
There are three ways described: life without waste, recovery, and reuse after recycling; and they form the basis of environmentally sound waste management. Its most important feature is that the waste should not be mixed. Once we mix the waste, it is turned into garbage (i.e., what we need to throw away in a landfill or burn down), and then we are not able to achieve the environmentally sound management. But if the waste is collected separately, it's resources. In fact, we have only two types of waste - organic and inorganic. The organic waste should be simply returned to nature - this process is called ‘composting’. The easiest way to compost is to bury the organic in the ground. The inorganic waste must be recycled or recovered (see above).
The second distinguishing feature of the environmentally sound waste management is the responsibility borne by a manufacturer for the "life" of what is produced by him. The manufacturer should not produce items, which cannot be re-used or used in the production process. This is a closed cycle where there is no production of waste proper.
The third feature of the environmentally sound waste management is to stop using toxic (hazardous to the environment and human) agents. Actually, it is connected with the production: if no toxic substances are used in the production process, then no toxic waste is formed.
And the fourth distinctive feature of the environmentally sound waste management is openness. We can succeed only if everyone is included in the management process. Only if all the inhabitants collect waste separately, we will be able to organize the separate collection and recycling. And for that, everyone should know, understand and be able to ask questions and express his/her opinion.
So, what should we do? REDUCE the amount of waste, REUSE things, REPAIR them, COLLECT waste SEPARATELY, COMPOST the organic and PROCESS the inorganic waste! And INFORM each other; TEACH our children the environmentally sound waste management!
2008,
Andrey Artov,
Ekomir06@list.ru
