|
3-2-1-0: Overview and Introduction
A strategic approach is being taken to the long term management of the Timaru District’s waste. The overall vision is to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2015.
Zero Waste is a breakthrough strategy that aims to redesign the way that resources and materials flow through our communities. The ultimate goal of zero waste to landfill is to create a closed loop materials economy, where products are made to be reused, repaired and recycled, - an economy that minimises and ultimately eliminates waste.
| One Planet |
 |
| Let's not waste it. |
The Problem
The developed world forms only 20% of the global population, yet we use 80% of the world’s resources. (United Nations Development Programme, 1998). Most of these resources are dumped in landfills or burnt after minimal use. Zero Waste is about not wasting the resources that everyone on earth needs.
We have life on this planet simply because it is surrounded by a very, very thin layer of gas, - as thin as the skin on an apple. The lowest layers of the atmosphere and the upper layers of earth and sea together form a living biosphere that is only 13-18 km’s deep. This layer supports all life giving systems on earth. Our oxygen, food and water all exist in this band. The ozone layer, which protects our planet from being shrivelled up by the power of the sun, begins a mere 50 kilometres above our heads. (The Pocket Planet Earth, 1991.)
The global economy is dependent on the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels of oil, coal and gas for energy. For every 1 hour a petrol engine operates, it will emit 27 kg’s of carbon dioxide, 1.2 kg’s of carbon monoxide and 0.3 kg’s of hydrocarbon gases. (Ministry for the Environment, 2005). Earth’s gravity holds the larger particulate matter close to the earth’s surface, while some may float up to where the ozone layer begins. Once there, many of these gases change their chemical structures and start ‘munching’ away at the ozone layer, creating dangerously thin areas of protective ozone, allowing more ultraviolet rays to penetrate to the earth’s surface.
“(On Discovery 5) The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one Earth.”
Sutan bin Salman al-Suand
Environmental Effects of Waste
| Waste |
 |
There's more to it than meets the eye... |
| Waste materials dumped in landfills results in natural resource depletion that has direct impacts on: |
GLOBAL EFFECTS |
LOCAL EFFECTS |
The hole in the ozone layer |
Air pollution from landfill emissions |
Global warming |
Land disturbance and contamination |
Climate Change |
Water pollution from leachate |
Deforestation |
Escalating landfill costs |
Increasing numbers of rare and
endangered plant and animal species |
Resource loss |
Contaminated air, food and water |
Lost Employment Opportunities |
| |
|
Each person in the developed world will create at least two kilogrammes of waste materials every day.
Most of these materials consist of valuable resources that have already used lots of energy in their production. These resources can be re-used, recycled, and composted almost indefinitely, as nature intended.
Resource Flows
In nature, there is no waste at all, ever. The leftovers, or by-products, of one process are always the inputs for growth and rejuvenation in another process. For example: a leaf falls from a tree and lies on the surface of the earth. There, it provides food and shelter for a range of creatures. Over time, the leaf disintegrates, releasing minerals, nutrients and trace elements in to the soil, which are then picked up by the roots of plants to generate new growth. If that leaf is landfilled, then not only have we lost all the value inherent in that leaf, but we are also costing ourselves time, money and energy by wasting it.
Current waste management is linear – from us to the landfill. If we want to improve the life sustaining health of our planet, we need to show considerably more respect for the resources made available to us. There is no need to dig up the planet for more of a resource we have just thrown away. Circular resource use follows the flow set by nature – use the old to make the new.
"A clever person solves a problem, a wise person avoids it."
Albert Einstein
“Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”
John 6:12
|
