Trash and waste, whether in the form of pollution or garbage, are leftovers in an open linear system, a system which is unsustainable in the long run and no longer viable.
When we honor and respect our resources and acknowledge that all raw materials ultimately come from the earth and are finite one way or the other, we become more vested in how we use them. Shifting to sustainable and circular systems leaves less waste, preferably little or none at all (here an earlier post on zero waste). This is where recycling with its Reduce-Reuse-Recycle tenet comes in, and the various ways in which we can apply those principles.
One of our most essential resources is water because the total water amount on earth is finite, while our population and water needs have grown exponentially. In a linear system wastewater is considered waste. But in a circular system it is reused after having been cleaned and purified. Israel, a desert country, has put regulatory government mechanisms in place over the past 70 years that have made it water independent with surplus (!), and an agricultural force to contend with. Israel’s agriculture shifted to water conserving drip irrigation, the country desalinates sea water for drinking, cleanse its wastewater for reuse in agriculture, puts a price tag on water by charging for its consumption, and swiftly detects and repairs over 90% of its water leaks to prevent waste, as described in Seth’s Siegel’s Let There Be Water. Israel is a shining example and pioneer on how to value and manage resources responsibly, something all other countries must learn to do swiftly.
On a related note, we are just starting to come around to managing better the trash from the stuff of our material culture (here an earlier related post). This is how the Repair Café and Fixit Revolution, thoroughly researched and entertainingly narrated in Repair Revolution: How Fixers are Transforming Our Throwaway Culture, arose in the past two decades, a counter movement to the post war effort of ramping up production and consumption via built-in obsolescence. Buying it cheap and throwing it away when it no longer works, and products such as single-use plastic bags and containers, have left us with enough trash to drown in. Besides reducing, reusing, and recycling, we now need to add repairing to our Rs in becoming more conscientious and responsible consumers. Repair that lamp, replace that zipper, bring the shoes to the cobbler. Just fix it!
In our shift to a more sustainable culture with more sustainable consumption patterns let’s keep our beautiful planet earth in mind that provides us with everything we need to exist as long as we care for it. Our earth is all we have. We must nurture, not trash it, so it can be beautiful and healthy for us, so we can be beautiful and healthy.