By: Karen Plascencia

The world is going to ruins, and humans are to blame. In 2016, the United States alone produced 254 million tons of trash! That’s the equivalent of the largest whale in existence, the blue whale. With all the trash produced by the U.S., one can go from earth to the moon, and back 25 times. According to PlanetThought, the average American throws around 4.4 pounds of trash every day. That may not seem like a lot, however, as a country, that number quickly escalates to 695.9 thousand tons a day. Unfortunately, 80 percent of all products that are produced in the United States are used only once and then discarded, while most recyclable items are never recycled. It is obvious that if this problem isn’t addressed, it will only get bigger. 

Landfills across the U.S. are rapidly being filled, then closed. After that, the trash goes nowhere. According to the National Waste and Recycling Association, “Landfills are not designed to break down waste, only to store it.” Garbage in a landfill does decompose, although slowly and in special conditions. Since the waste decomposes at such a slow pace the amount of trash seems to just grow bigger and bigger each day.

One simple thing anybody can do to reduce waste is to not buy plastic water bottles. Not only does the production of water bottles cause massive CO2 pollution, but plastic bottles also take hundreds of years to break down. According to Treehugger.com, around 50 billion water bottles were used last year in America– most of them ended up in a landfill, not at a recycling centers. Instead of buying a water from the vending machine at school every day, opt for a simple reusable water bottle you can use every day. Not only does this help the planet, but also save you money.  

Another well-known way to reduce waste is by not using plastic bags. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, according to the Waste Management Company. The WMC also states, “It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately, the bags don’t break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.”

Another common problem is the large amounts of plastic that end up in the ocean. The World Watch Organization estimates that at least 267 different species have been affected by plastic pollution in the ocean. The plastic bag use problem can gradually be reduced if people simply started using canvas bags or any other reusable bag that isn’t plastic. This would both reduce waste and save production energy.

Going green shouldn’t be that hard. The changes you make today, in the long run, do have a great impact on the planet.