OPINION: Sorting your garbage isn’t just a waste of time 

Canadians produce more garbage per capita than any other country on earth. Canadians produce about 31 million tonnes of garbage a year, but only 30 per cent of it is recycled. Each Canadian generates approximately 2.7 kg of garbage each day, a Community Research Connection waste report says.

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Global warming is the most concerning environmental issue worldwide and climate change is continuously worsening because of human activity. The global temperature is highly confidence and will continue to rise for decades, mostly because of greenhouse gases produced by human activity, an article from NASA says.

 

Improper use of plastic, toxic chemical elements and harmful gases formed in the process of industrial manufacturing and deforestation are some factors contributing to global warming. One of the most prominent and noteworthy environmental issues is solid waste management, including household and industrial trash. Without proper garbage disposal management, recyclable material and hazardous substances will mix together which will cause serious pollution. A case study said huge amount of leachate was collected from the landfill which can pollute the soil.

 

Garbage sorting can reduce greenhouse gases by achieving zero-waste, Many articles and reports said. Achieving zero-waste is one of the method to reduce methane which is one of the elements in the formation of greenhouse gas. “Zero-Waste is one of the quickest, easiest and most effective first steps for a community to immediately reduce its greenhouse emissions.” a video from eco cycle said.

 

“I deal with garbage sorting every day when I am at home. I need to spend some time to sort them out so that I can throw the garbage in the right place,” says Jiamin Wang, a Surrey resident. She adds that every time she cooks, drinks, eats, a large amount of waste is produced.

 

A study of China’s solid waste shows that without appropriate trash management, between 2008 and 2012 municipal solid waste increased from 154 million tonnes to 171 million tonnes.

In China, sanitary and simple landfills are the main methods of garbage burying. Some recyclable materials may be thrown in the trash because of improper waste separation. China’s waste classification policies are imperfect as many urban places haven’t started doing it yet.

 

“When I talked to my friends about solid waste management, Japan was the first country we thought of that did a good job,” says Wang. “I think the world needs to learn from Japan's waste management methods.”

 

Wang also mentioned a city in Japan called Kamikatsu, which is a zero-waste city.

Kamikatsu is a small town that uses a zero waste campaign. It allows 45 different types of items to be sorted, from pillows to toothbrushes. Based on a strict recycling policy, about 80 per cent of 286 tonnes of waste produced in 2017 was recycled. Japan’s solid waste management is appreciated around the world because the Japanese strictly follow a garbage classification policy.

 

Mia Ni, an international student living in Metro Vancouver, says there was no management of garbage classification in the New Westminster apartment where she used to live, likely because the building was too old.

 

“Where I used to live, there was a special garbage room on each floor, but there was no garbage can in the garbage room. The garbage was connected to the large garbage can on the bottom of the building by a transmission pipe,” Ni says.

 

Although there are new apartments with garbage classification management, some of them still do not have any. As you can imagine, waste management in Vancouver can be chaotic. If residents can't even sort garbage, it cannot be recycled.

 

The disposal of garbage is nothing more than burning, burying and recycling. Effective waste management can separate out harmful substances, because it can reduce the production of greenhouse gases through landfill and incineration. Without proper management and policy, everything is talk on paper.

 

On July 1, 2019, Shanghai, China started mandatory garbage classification. People and local government all over the world should pay more attention to solid waste sorting because hazardous waste can be screened out through the process of classifying.

 

There are 1,588 residential communities, 406 units and companies, 1,853 business outlets and 21 hotels are under the Shanghai sorting policy, the Chinese news said.

 

Garbage classification has been implemented in countries from Japan to Canada and to China, Japan still leads the way. Solid waste classification should receive the attention of the whole world, and everyone should join in the solid waste classification.