Rising living standards have enriched countless lives in many ways. But with our higher standards of living has come greater consumption, which means more waste.

An abundance of food means that we throw it away without a second thought. Once at landfill, this waste rots, releasing planet-heating gases and toxins that contaminate the earth below, all while turning more and more of our environment into waste dumps. As our population grows so will our waste problem.

 

Incinerating waste fails to deal with the problem and creates a number of others, while recycling has been exposed as a misleading solution, with much of our recycling waste shipped to foreign nations to deal with.

 

We all want to do our bit to reduce the strain on the earth but we don’t know how. But there is a way forward, right now. We can reduce our impact on the environment without reducing our standard of living.