What is that??
That's the first thing people ask when we talk about Zero Waste. In fact, the idea of Zero Waste is more popular in Europe or America than in Indonesia.
Well, what is Zero Waste all about??
Zero Waste is a philosophy and a design principle for the 21st Century. It includes 'recycling' but goes beyond recycling by taking a 'whole system' approach to the vast flow of resources and waste through human society.
Zero Waste System (ZWS) began in the middle 1970s as a company name in Oakland, California, which was founded by Paul Palmer, a chemist. The first mission of ZWS was to find new homes for most of the excess chemicals being produced by the nascent electronics industry.
Then, why we should care about ZWS??
As we know, tons of trash is thrown out every hour worldwide. If we don't reduce it, our lovely world will be covered with trash. Can you imagine that??
A lot of trash can also bring a lot of disadvantages:
1. Increasing green house effect
31% of waste going to landfill is organic material, either food or garden waste. Another 25% is paper, timber and other wood products. Once in landfill this material breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. (we know, what that means, don't we?)
2. Burying money and resources
Material discarded in a landfill is a waste of money and a waste of resources. When waste materials are buried, all of the energy, water and minerals that went into creating them are buried too. In turn, that drives the demand for more energy, water and minerals to be extracted from the planet with steep costs to the environment
Material discarded in a landfill is a waste of money and a waste of resources. When waste materials are buried, all of the energy, water and minerals that went into creating them are buried too. In turn, that drives the demand for more energy, water and minerals to be extracted from the planet with steep costs to the environment
3. Carrying toxins
Many materials that end up as landfill contain toxic substances. Over time, these substances leach into soils and groundwater, forming a hazard to the environment for years
Many materials that end up as landfill contain toxic substances. Over time, these substances leach into soils and groundwater, forming a hazard to the environment for years
We can do our bit to make ZWS successful. We can just follow the simply hierarchy of ZWS that most of us are already familiar with:
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Yes, we have already put this well-known symbol on Kelt bags
We can start with ourselves by reducing our use of plastic bags, by trying to separate non-degradable trash and degradable trash.
KELT wants to start this with a simple thing so at the beginning of this term, we gave our students the fabulous reuseable KELT Zero Waste Bag. Use this bag instead of plastic bags whenever possible.
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