Why Do Human Beings produce So Much Waste – here’s the Answer!

 As human beings, let’s face it, we create immense amounts of waste! It’s sort of become our nature. Every year, human beings generate more than 1.3 billion tons of trash and most of this is being put out into the environment untreated. Western nations struggle with places to put their waste, developing nations struggle to remove theirs, and in the meantime, the accumulation of it in regions all over the world is difficult to ignore. If you’ve ever wondered why human beings product so much waste, here’s some answers.

Poor waste management infrastructure.

Waste management systems across Canadian and international cities are failing us. The reason why so much plastic ends up in our oceans is because waste management infrastructure allows it to happen. More than half of the world’s plastic litter comes from ineffective waste management infrastructures from countries like China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Though Canada’s infrastructure is much more advanced in terms of waste management and recycling, we need to examine opportunities to limit our waste by improving on its efficiencies.

It’s more convenient to be wasteful.

In our lives, we produce waste. Though we can limit our waste production, a lot of the time convenience is more important to us than not being wasteful. For example, we go to the grocery store and use plastic bags, we use single-use materials every day, we’re surrounded by disposable plastics, and even the packaging our electronics come in is very wasteful. Today, the world produces more than 20 times more plastic than it did fifty years ago. Needless to say, the #1 reason human beings produce the amount of waste they do has to do with not wanting to go without convenience.

Recycling technology has not advanced as much as we think.

Recycling is a very positive, healthy thing however we are nowhere near recycling as many materials as some of us may think. As materials are recycled, such as plastic, they degrade and become lesser quality. It’s estimated that only 2 percent of plastics recycled are able to be re-used in a product of similar quality. Most end up downgraded to lesser quality products. Though recycling tech is advancing, it’s not clear if it’s going to advance to the point that allows us to get to a zero waste society by 2030.

Government regulation is not keeping up with consumer needs.

Though the City of Toronto and the GTA have been on the ball most of the time with environmental regulation, in other cities and in some cases here, wasteful behaviour is incentivized. If the government is not actively encouraging less waste production and/or pursuing an infrastructure that further reduces waste, it permits negative behaviour to continue.

We focus on ‘growth’ rather than ‘sustainability’.

Waste management and recycling in the GTA is very guilty of pursuing growth over sustainability. With all the development ongoing in Toronto, many have argued that there’s not enough being done to focus on how to sustain the City’s many systems, from transportation to waste management. In result, growth continues and the size of the sustainability problem serves to grow accordingly. The future of cities like Toronto are going to have to rely on stronger sustainability initiatives in order to survive.

As a premiere Toronto waste management company, Core Mini Bins hopes to continue promote more effective and efficient waste practices throughout the GTA. For waste management, recycling, junk removal, demolition, excavation, and more, contact a representative today.