Environmental activities as part of a new age culture
Participation in environmental actions makes people think about the rational consumption of natural resources, the cessation of environmental pollution, the need to preserve endangered species of animals and plants.
The most significant and mass actions in which millions of people take part:
The penultimate Saturday in March – Earth Hour
Every year, city dwellers switch off their lights for one hour. Around the world, about 2 billion people join the action at this time.
14 May – World Forest Planting Day – on the eve of this date activists plant trees in forests, plant parks and squares.
22 April – International Earth Day – on this day all mass media call for more careful attitude to nature and specially protected natural areas. Representatives of parks, national parks and nature reserves organise many events – from the “Parks March” to “Green Marathons”.
5 June – World Environment Day – is accompanied by tree planting, waste recovery campaigns, clean-up campaigns and other environmental activities.
There are several other environmental actions that city dwellers can carry out on a daily basis, such as discarding unnecessary items or recycling and waste disposal.
Giving up unnecessary things
Every day in ordinary life, a huge amount of solid domestic waste is generated, which, when decomposing, emits hazardous substances. It takes about 5-10 years for paper to decompose, 90 years for tin cans, 200-500 years for polythene, and 1000 years for glass to disappear. Every particle of plastic created since its invention is still polluting the planet today.
It is believed that in order to produce less waste, we need to buy less. You don’t have to give up everything at once, but with every consumer action you should consider whether this thing is necessary at the moment or whether it can be dispensed with.
For example, instead of disposable goods:
✓ use cloth towels instead of paper towels;
✓ give up disposable plastic utensils and containers;
✓ replace coffee cups with reusable thermo mugs;
✓ use regular metal forks instead of plastic forks;
✓ replace disposable tubes with metal or glass ones;
✓ use reusable mesh bags or canvas bags instead of plastic bags and containers, so that one cloth bag avoids the use of 2,000 plastic bags;
✓ eliminate water in plastic containers and reduce purchases of plastic and film packaging;
✓ switch to reusable food containers and use reusable dispensers for shampoo, dishwashing detergent and glassware;
✓ not to take free redundancies: shopping bags, daily newspapers, useless souvenirs.
Recycling and disposal of wastes
Everyone can contribute to reducing waste – after all, much of the contents of landfill sites could be recycled if separate waste collection was made a sustainable household habit.
Sorting allows more raw materials to be given a second life, simplifies disposal and, most importantly, improves the environment by reducing the number of landfills.
Recycling can be channelled into:
✓ paper: unadulterated cardboard, newspapers, magazines, postcards, books, packaging, office paper;
✓ metal: aluminum and tin cans, metal lids;
✓ glass: bottles and cans (beverage and food), vials and bottles;
✓ clothing and footwear: leather, wool, fur, textile waste with a good fabric backing;
✓ electronics: disassembled into plastic, metals (including precious metals) and glass;
✓ plastic: bottles, bottles from household chemicals and shampoos, canisters, plastic bottles from labelling dairy products.
All this waste should be collected and taken to collection points for safe disposal.
What should never be thrown away: batteries, accumulators, mercury-containing thermometers and fluorescent lamps, as well as household chemicals, motor oil, liquid refrigerants. Items that must not be thrown away are marked with a crossed-out bin.
Such items and substances should not be put in the general waste bag, but should only be taken to special collection points, as they poison the environment with their compounds.
How to sort waste correctly
Glass, plastics, clothes and cardboard should not be thrown into one container – they will not decompose even over several centuries. Waste should be sorted into different containers: plastic in one container, paper in another, textiles in a third, plastic bottle caps and TetraPak (for milk and juices) should be collected separately.
Waste should be packed compactly – compact and compact tetra packs, plastic and tin containers, and then fasten all packages with a rubber band. Then take the waste to the nearest collection point and hand it over for recycling.