Garbage Around The World

Every year, approximately eight metric tons of garbage and waste spill into our oceans. Paper and plastic litter the roadways, makeshift nests of debris and straws fill up trees throughout the neighborhood. We are consuming natural resources faster than ever and as the world population grows, there is less and less room to house our trash. We need to take action today to help thwart the ever-growing threat of an uninhabitable planet. With the recycling crisis that has recently surfaced, now, more than ever, our planet is choking on our waste. We have to do something!


I'm learning more and more every day about what is going on with our environment, so I decided to pull together a few devastating examples of how our garbage affects planet Earth:

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is a collection of waste and debris that has accumulated in the Pacific Ocean. Currently, the GPGP is conservatively estimated to contain 1.8 trillion pieces of floating debris (this doesn't include trash that sits below the surface!), including 87,000 tons of plastic, and spans nearly 618,000 square miles. Put more simply, it means that it is twice the size of Texas and is still growing. Yikes! Whenever trash is discarded into the ocean, the circular patterns of the ocean's currents cause the debris to collect and form large areas of contamination, further expanding the GPGP.

 

Waves Of Trash

Every year, tourists flock to the Dominican Republic to personally experience the beautiful beaches, flavorful island cuisine, and the sound of vibrant instruments that fill the air. However, in 2018, global news outlets revealed shocking and disheartening images of the surrounding massively polluted ocean with waves of trash and toxic sludge that were flowing along the shores. While this was news to many, locals explained that this phenomenon occurs regularly during periods of heavy rainfall as a result of businesses and residents dumping trash into waterways. Unfortunately, these images don’t fully illustrate the magnitude of the issue because only a "small percentage" of the trash makes it back to shore, while most washes out to the open ocean, ultimately contributing to one of many churning garbage patches.

Mountains Of Waste

Quite honestly, Mount Everest was the furthest thought on my mind on where I'd expect there to be serious trash issues. I learned that each year, approximately 40,000 people spend up to $100,000 each to attempt climbing Mount Everest and many of them leave behind mounds of trash. In fact, so much waste has been left behind over the years by climbers, that the Indian Army was recently mobilized to help clean it up. Sadly, the combination of human waste and trash has been so bad that it has begun contaminating the local water supply. Consequently, to help slow the degradation of this natural wonder, China has closed its Mount Everest base camp to tourists. Who would have thought?!

 

Impacts To Animals

In March 2019, a 1,100 pound, 15-foot long curvier beaked whale washed ashore in the Philippines. The cause of death: starvation and dehydration due to the inability to digest the 88 pounds of trash it had swallowed. There is so much vibrant life in the ocean and we rely on it heavily for the rich and abundant resources it has. However, the impacts of the large amount of waste that we leave behind are crippling. The whale consumed plastic bags, fishing nets, containers, among other things and ultimately perished. This creature is just one of many, between land and sea, that have suffered this fate.

Waste Around The World

Every year, the world produces 1.3 billion tons of solid waste and of that figure, the United States is responsible for 228 million tons. We have less than 5% of the planet's population, yet we produce nearly 18% of the trash; not too far behind are China, Brazil, Japan, and Germany. We live in a consumer-driven society fueled by our constant demands and purchases, all of which help make the world go round economically, but on the flip side, the planet is suffering from the impacts. The more we buy, the more we throw away, adding to the landfills, litter problems, and marine contamination. Because we have the first world luxury of having our trash hauled away to oblivion, we oftentimes overlook this global impact. And let's not forget that food waste is a key contributor to our trash problem as well. I have to admit, of the many things that the USA is #1 in, I'm sad to see that we won in this category too.

 

…But There's Hope

While these examples are jolting, it is NOT too late to take action.

After learning about these staggering numbers and horrible environmental challenges, Mr. GGD and I started making strides to reduce the amount of trash that the GoGreenDollar household produces and we continue to look for ways to get involved to help combat these issues. 

Here are some of the things that we do that you can do too!

  1. Plogging (jogging and trash picking) - These "jogs" are more like relaxing strolls for us, nonetheless, bring along a trash bag and pick up the litter that you find.
  2. Join the Litterati app and start logging the trash that you find. This app catalogs the waste its users find, which in turn helps illustrate and elevate the trash issues to the related companies so that they feel the pressure to take action! If you live in Brevard County, Florida join us in the Brevard Against Litter group.
  3. Support local beach (town) cleanup events
  4. Reject straws and unwanted food refills
  5. Bring your own bags while shopping
  6. Bring your own containers for your leftovers when you eat out (Skip the restaurant-provided container)
  7. Document food waste to be more conscientious! (We have been tracking our food waste for the past year. Post coming soon!)
  8. Give eco-friendly gifts (Another post coming on this soon too!)
  9. As tempting as it seems, don't release balloons in the air
  10. Bring your own mugs and tumblers to Starbucks, Wawa, and Dunkin' Donuts for coffee. Go Green by reducing waste and Save Green by getting a discount!
  11. Educate your friends and families about how to be more earth-friendly
  12. Get involved with your local environmental organizations - Check out Recycle Brevard!

Tools To Get You Started

Get a head start on your journey toward achieving financial independence by analyzing and tracking your income, expenses, investment performance, and overall net worth with the free online wealth management tool Personal Capital.

We use Personal Capital regularly to analyze our investment fees, track our investments, and project our net worth. We also periodically review our progress toward retirement with their retirement planning calculator.

If you’d rather do things on your own, become a subscriber today and you’ll receive our Free Financial Planning Dashboard. This tool allows you to enter your income and expenses to create a detailed budget. You can use it to track your spending habits over time or just to get an idea of where your money is going each month.  Take a look at the automatically generated charts and you may discover you have a little more cash to invest than you thought.

If you’re interested in detailed instructions on how to budget, save, pay off debt, and invest, check out The 6 Phases of Building Wealth. This book provides step-by-step instructions for working through each “Phase” in the process of achieving Financial Freedom. If you're just starting out, the information in this book will provide you with an invaluable resource. You can pick up the digital version for only $2.99 on Amazon.

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Rizza

I am a student of the PUP Open University System and have been researching for an assignment when I came across this article. I love the content because aside from pointing out facts about this devastating world problem, it also provided ways to help mitigate the issue. Hoping to be part of this world-changing goal in my own country. God bless you GGD!