Overspending spells the ending

I was on my way home from my trip around the world and guess what I saw?

In one backyard there was this walk–in bin. It was massive. The family that lived in this house were loading it up with heaps of stuff: old toys, a pram, bottles, boxes of books and paper, paint cans and plastic flowers. There were two trampolines, a TV, a tool shed, five bikes, a computer, two scooters and more – all in the walk–in bin! They were cleaning up and taking everything to the dump!

If they are just going to throw away all this stuff did they ever really need it?

In prehistoric times, people didn’t use anywhere near this amount of stuff. They hunted animals for food and built fires for cooking and keeping themselves warm. They cut down trees for fuel and even though their fires released pollution into the air, there were so few people, that any damage done, the Earth could repair in it’s own time. 

But this is where the problem started, for centuries people believed that the Earth was so huge that it would be impossible for us to use all of its natural resources and that somehow our rubbish would just disappear or would never take up too much space. But now there are more people in the world than ever before and we are all using more and more of the Earth’s resources.

We use tonnes and tonnes of our resources to make what we want. Once things are old or out of fashion we throw it out and get something new. If we keep doing this, our one Earth will be all used up. At the rate we are consuming we will need six or seven Earth’s to keep living as we do now.

We have a problem!

We only know of one Earth. We are using up more than it has to give. Our lifestyle is damaging it so badly that it can’t repair itself. How are we going to save the Earth and save our lifestyle?

The 3R’s could help us out:

1. Reduce – if we use less stuff, we will make less rubbish and we will waste less of the Earth’s precious resources;
2. Reuse – if we use what we already have, again and again, we won’t need to keep buying new things;
3. Recycle – if we melt old things down and make new things from these materials, we will take less of the Earth’s resources.

Here are some ideas on how the 3R’s can be effective:

1. Refill your printer cartridge 6 times before you send it to the recyclers;
2. Walk to the corner shop or catch the bus to school instead of driving the car;
3. Save water, turn the tap off while brushing your teeth;
4. Take shopping bags to the supermarket rather than using new plastic bags;
5. Buy mum a reusable travel mug so she can save on foam coffee cups;
6. Repair your TV rather than throwing it away;
7. On rubbish day, put out the recyclables separately for collection;
8. Buy things made from recycled materials.

If we change the way we live it will help to save the environment. We can still sustain an easy, comfortable life and use much less. Try one of my catch phrases, “Let’s refill - not landfill.”

Did you know?

One of the key organisations that looks after the Earth is the World Wildlife Fund. The World Wildlife Fund has tested the health of forests, oceans, freshwater, and other natural systems, and thirty years ago, the Earth was 35% healthier than it is today.

In a world of over consumption we end up with a whole lot of waste and this is our biggest concern. But what exactly is waste? Let’s read how Earth is surfing on a tidal wave of waste.