Landfill pollution and poor waste management are problems that we as a nation need to tackle on priority. Multiple reasons are responsible for poor waste management, like lack of infrastructural support, financial constraints, poor education, rapidly rising population, and urbanization. Though it is not possible to initiate improvement in all these areas, there is one thing we all can do – Take proactive steps in the direction of minimizing waste.
At the Tribhuvan College of Environment and Development Sciences, one of the leading environmental science colleges in Delhi, we believe that every individual can take it upon himself/herself to minimize waste. So, today, in this blog post below, we will be sharing with you all a few practical tips in this regard that you can put to use to minimize everyday waste.
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Say No to Single-Use Items:
If you sit down and take a quick check of the number of single-use items you use daily, you will surprise yourself. The problem with single-use items is that you need to jump to the same item in a new body the very next day.
It is quite possible that most of these items are not decomposable. To avoid adding waste to landfills, one must consciously reduce the usage of single-use items.
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Bring in the 3Rs:
As an educational institute that rests its curriculum on being pro-environment, we at the Tribhuvan College of Environment and Development Sciences never hesitate to keep our students and staff members reminded about the 3Rs. These 3Rs stand for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
The idea here is to rethink if you really need a new item. Focus on REDUCTION.
If one of your items is broken, work on its repairs. Focus on REUSING.
Try your best to recycle items you no longer need. Focus on RECYCLING.
By acting in this direction, you will be successfully able to contribute a lot towards helping to reduce manmade waste on the planet.
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Remember, there’s a market for Second Hand:
If you are desirous of acting for the welfare of the environment, you must keep your ego aside and be open to using second-hand items.
Similarly, if you have a set of items which are in good condition, but you no longer need them, all you have to do is pass it on in the second-hand market so that someone else can benefit from using those items. This way, you become better equipped to help reduce waste on the planet.
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Digital Do Good:
We at the Tribhuvan College of Environment and Development Sciences firmly believe that digital alternatives are actually a great solution to reducing paper usage and thereby minimizing loads of everyday waste.
If you look around, you will realize that we use a lot of paper-based items in our everyday life. Right from the time you wake up and pull out a newspaper/magazine to read, to any receipts/bills you receive as you go through the day – all of this is paper.
Paper, which ultimately finds its way to landfills, makes it even more difficult to smartly manage waste. The best way of tackling this scenario is by moving to digital communication. Not to forget, this would help with managing deforestation too.
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Get Rid of Packing/Packaging Woes:
One problem most product brands are facing these days is that with product differentiation. Name a product, and you will easily be able to find n number of brands dealing in the exact same product. Hence, what most product brands do is invest heavily in their packing and packaging. The sole purpose is to make the product appear attractive and appealing from the exterior.
In the process of doing so, brands end up going over the board with the packing and packaging items. The catch here is that this may give a push to the customer buying intent but create a lot of waste, managing which becomes a challenge. Hence, improvement in this area is urgent and a must.
It all comes down to Education and Awareness:
What we at the Tribhuvan College of Environment and Development Sciences, a well-known environmental science college in Delhi, are attempting to highlight through this write-up today is the fact there are different steps that you can take in order to make this world a place worth living.
However, what we see as equally important is to create education and awareness among the masses. It is, in fact, a matter of pride for us that many of our students come back to us and tell us how they passed on this vital piece of information to elders and youngsters around them.
In most cases, the problem wasn’t that people did not want to be mindful of their actions. The problem was that people did not know of the harm their actions were doing to the environment.
We would end this blog post by simply saying that if you wish to stand for any environmental concern at this point of time, do not hesitate to take active steps in the direction of minimizing waste by taking baby steps that start right at your home.