Plastic Waste
We have all heard things about plastic waste and plastic building up in the oceans, but how do we specifically contribute to that? Well, every time you use a plastic cup, throw away a plastic water bottle, or dispose of any other type of plastic, it has a chance of ending up in oceans and lakes. Plastic that is thrown away has many routes to bodies of water, such as through the Milwaukee river, which leads to Lake Michigan. Within these bodies of water, plastic poisons sea life, which in turn is consumed by and hurts us. Sea animals who ingest plastic, mostly in the form of micro plastics, later get internal issues from the plastic which threatens their lives. Larger fish who consume these fish and more ingest the plastic that those fish ingested, and end up with high levels of micro plastics and the toxins from them in their systems. This offsets the balance of ecosystems in the water too. Plastic also does damage in landfills, polluting not just the soil but also the groundwater and other organisms.
Gas Emissions
Global warming is another thing we are all familiar with, and it is driven by greenhouse gas emissions which are mostly methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrous oxide emissions. When we hear about gas emissions, we usually focus on CO2, one of the most abundant greenhouse gases and we forget about the most impactful gas: methane.When things are left in landfills to break down and decompose, they let off methane gas, which is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing the amount of stuff that we throw away, and composting or recycling what we can, we can help diminish these negative effects. To add to this, industrial production processes also release a lot of water vapor during heating and cooling, and water vapor contributes to 60% of greenhouse gas effects.
Water Waste
Living near lake Michigan, residents of Milwaukee are often ignorant of our water usage because we live adjacent to one of the largest freshwater lakes. However, water is not as plentiful as we may think and we should always be conscious of our usage. One cotton t-shirt takes 650 gallons of water to produce, so imagine how much water was used to build your wardrobe!
Food Waste
Leftover food that is thrown away ends up in landfills where it breaks down and lets off methane, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Throwing away food isn't the only way food adds to waste however. The production of food in factories, crops, and livestock all take large amounts of resources. Beef contributes to 40% of the emissions of livestock, and livestock in total contributes to 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions.