Is the hazard sign up ????

Is your house dusted , mopped , and swept regularly ? Is your house spotlessly clean ? Do you think your house is free of dust and germs ? Even if your answer is "yes" ,you should know that you have 'hazardous' , or dangerous , products sitting in your kitchen cupboards and bathroom cabinets - some of which you use almost daily !

Know your waste 

If it's hazardous , or toxic , waste it must be an oil spill in ocean waters right ? Wrong ! The truth is that much of this waste comes from things we use in our homes ! Many household products contains chemicals that make them corrosive , flammable , and / or toxic . Petrol and paints are flammable . They can catch fire easily . A corrosive item , such as acid , can eat through metal and human skin . Chlorine and ammonia are reactive materials that can explode easily or turn into  poisonous gas when mixed with other chemicals . Weed killers are toxic because they can cause illness , and even death , in humans and animals . When these products are no longer needed , they make hazardous waste . Factories that make pesticides , leather , paper , textiles and building materials also produce hazardous waste . 



Where does it go ????

Hazardous waste can be reused and recycled at special facilities . It is also stored in specially built ponds , burned , and sent to hazardous waste landfills . This waste can be managed only when people do not mix it with their household garbage or trash or pour leftovers down the drains .
Toxic waste also becomes a problem when it leaks from landfills into the ground , catch fire while being transported , or is sneakily dumped at a place not suitable for it when chemicals from this waste leak into the groundwater or air , they can poison the food we eat and the air we breathe .

What filling does this have ?????

Where on the earth , even after fifty years , would you find a shower cap that you can use ; a glass bottle that is still intact ; and a newspaper that is almost entirely readable ? A landfill , of course ! 

Not quite pits ! 

Landfills are large open grounds , far away from cities , where waste is dumped . Landfills used to be mountains of trash , but today , they are well - designed pits that keep the garbage dry . A basic landfill is an enormous pit that is dug up and lined with thick plastic and clay , which stops water or trash from leaking into the ground . Garbage is not just simply tossed into a landfill . It is offloaded in old and new sections of the landfills . It is then covered with dirt everyday . Garbage rots very very slowly here . 

Airy and non - airy landfills 

Most countries around the world use ' sanitary landfills ' . Garbage is squeezed and packed together , and when tonnes of it piles up , no air or oxygen can pass through it . TH e garbage then start to produce greenhouse gasses , methane and carbon dioxide . When rain falls and mixes with the garbage , the liquid turns into leach ate , a poisonous substance . 
 Bio reactor landfills are now being tested is developed countries such as the US and Canada . Air and water are passed through the garbage in a controlled way in these landfills to help waste decompose , or rot , faster . The gases produced are used to make electricity .

What 's wrong with landfills ???

In most landfills , air barely reaches the bottom layers and trash rots very slowly . Scientists from the University of Arizona studying landfills have found twenty - five -year - old hot dogs and grapes that were still recognisable ! 
 Landfills are expensive to build and manage . Even after a landfill is full and not in use , it has to be monitored for years . The two biggest problems are leakages of methane and leach ate . Some landfills , especially the older ones , burn the methane gas to get rid of it . When methane is burned , it destroys the ozone layer in the atmosphere . Methane is also dangerous because it can explode easily . When leach ate leaks into the groundwater and soil , it pollutes them . This can make people seriously ill.

Reasons to recycle

Reusing things does not , and cannot , completely make waste disappear . Neither can recycling , but it can prevent things that we no longer need from ending up in a landfill .Recycling is actually cheaper than dumping trash in landfills , rivers or oceans , and there are four good reasons to recycle .

Saves energy

Energy is used to make new items . When products are recycled , energy is saved .It takes 95 % less energy to recycle aluminium cans than it does to make new ones .One recycled tin can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours .One recycled glass bottle saves energy sufficient to run a computer for twenty - five minutes .

Saves natural resources

Natural resources such as water , trees , metals ,and fossil fuels come from the earth .Paper is made from trees , plastic is made from oil , can are made from metal .Each time people throw away paper and cans they also waste the planet 's natural resources .

Saves landfill space

Landfills take up space on land that could otherwise be turned into forests , homes or between twenty and forty kilo grams of plastic each year which can , otherwise ,be recycled . Plastic can take up to five hundred years to decompose or break down . When items get recycled they do not go to landfills .This saves landfill space and reduces the need for them .

Saves air and water from pollution

When clothes shoes , computers , furniture , and other products are made , the factories where they are manufactured emit greenhouse gases .Waste from factories is also dumped into rivers and oceans . This pollutes both air and water and is one of the known causes of global warming .Air is also polluted when garbage is burned .
  However , factories that makes recycled aluminium product cause 95 % less air and water pollution compared to factories that use fresh natural resources to manufacture them .Paper mills that recycle paper cause less water pollution than factories that make paper from scratch .
If you must throw out something recycle it !

Can you repeat that ?????

When milk is delivered at doorsteps bottles and the bottles are washed and returned to the milk man to be reused , the act keeps glass away from the recycling centre . When a rubber band is saved from a newspaper roll each morning to be reused later , it keeps it away from the landfill . Finding repeated use for things helps reduce waste.

Reuse before recycling 

Recycling involves collecting , sorting , and processing things into new products . This process needs money and uses transport , which adds to pollution . On the other hand , using an old teapot as a flower vase is "reusing " just as much as saving wrapping paper from a gift to pack a present later .This type of reuse saves money and natural resources because the item does not need to be recycled .

Again and a 'gain'

Products can be reused for the same purpose . Plastic bags can be saved to be used later . in countries such as India and Pakistan , soft drink bottles are collected after use and refilled to reduce costs of production . Sometimes , when furniture , toys , shoes and gadgets are damaged , they can be reused after repair . This too helps save energy . Fix it , so you can use it !

Disuse to reuse

One person's disuse can well become another ones reuse . Hangers from dry - cleaners can be returned to them . Selling or donating books , appliances , clothes and sports equipment earns money for people who give and saves money for those who takes . Exchanging items with neighbours and friends also helps people who could use things that other do not need . Yet , it is best to reduce first and reuse as a second option . 

Same but new 

Old tyres can be turned into boat fenders , steel drums can be used as feeding troughs for livestock , and torn clothes can be made into cleaning rags . ' Kabadiwallas ' , or scrap collectors , in India buy paper that is used for repackaging or recycling .  Countries like Jordan and Kuwait , which have a shortage of fresh water , treat and reuse waste water in fields parks , fountains , car washes and factories .

Less is more

When people buy products , they also take home its packaging , which eventually becomes waste . A bottle of shampoo goes to the trash can after the shampoo is used up . Choosing items with the least amount of packaging or packaging that can be reused or recycled , is a smart way of reducing waste .

Prevent it !

There are many ways to reduce waste . Precycling is one of them , and it involves preventing waste even before it happens . Everyone can precycle . It can be done at school , at home and at work . It simply requires people to think before they buy at store .
To become precyclers , people must buy long - lasting and reusable items in bulk , such as buying a large pack of butter or buying a set of soaps . Avoiding excess packaging means there is less of it to throw out .

Save it all !

Reducing waste also means saving natural resources .Using cold water for washing and bathing and  fixing leaky taps saves water . Turning off lights when not needed , running dishwashers and washing machines only when full , and using compact florescent lamps and solar panels help saving electricity .
Reducing waste also brings down pollution and greenhouse gases that are the major causes of global warming .

The less we use the more we save !

Chasing The Loop

The recycling logo is probably one of the most recognisable symbols around the world today . The Americans celebrated the first Earth Day in April 1970 . For the event , school and collage student were invited to design a logo paper recycling . Garry Anderson's design won him the contest . His recycling symbol represented a Mobius loop that was made up of three arrows in the shape of a triangle . Each arrow was drawn twisting and turning itself and chasing the other . 

Symbol of meaning 

The three arrows stand for the three steps that make up the recycling process . The first step is the collection of recyclable material - either from a person's doorstep or from a nearby collection centre . The collected materials is then sorted and cleaned and sold to centres that make new product out of them . This is the second step. Finally , the new products are sold to people . When we buy recycled products , we close the loop .This is  the third step .


Learning the loop

The original Mobius meant that the product had been recycled and had been made from 100% waste material . Today , there are many colours , numbers , and codes that have been added to the loop  Sometimes the three arrows are printed on a green , black , blue background or on no background at all . They can also appear with or without a circle . The arrows are also shown anti - clockwise or reversed - out . The symbol often appears with a percentage number .  

The three - point mantra

With more people living on the planet today , there is more waste  than there ever was . And , with is about 75% of the planet 's garbage ending up in landfills , the piles of rubbish are never really far from us . However ,there are three smart ways to get rid of garbage and to protect the environment at the same time - reduce , reuse and recycle .   

Reduce

When we use less , we reduce our waste . By reducing the amount of plastic bags , packaged food , and aluminium cans we use, we have less to throw or recycle . If people around the world were to buy fewer products than they normally do , it would have a huge effect on everything - from reducing pollution of the air , waste , and land to saving money . The easiest way to reduce is to buy less and to use less .

Reuse

Reusing things means that they do not need to be thrown out or recycled . The simple question people can ask themselves is : Can it be used again ??? It is not necessary that people must reuse all those things that they do not want anymore . They can think about donating , swapping or selling items such as clothes , furniture or toys . The  easiest way to reuse is to buy less and to use more.

Recycling

Recycling involves reprocessing of materials into new ones , milk carton glass bottles , aluminium cans and newspapers are some of the materials that can and should be recycled . There are generally three levels of recycling . the first level of recycles the product into a new one using the same material , for  example , glass products like bottles into new glass products like containers .At the second level , old products such as cardboard boxes are turned into a different yet similar product like cereal  boxes . The third level of recycling turns the discarded product into an unexpectedly new one , for example ,burning old car rubber tyres to produce electricity.