New Years Resolutions
By Lucía Salazar
This is the time of the year when we are trying to set up our resolutions for the new year. Each one of us has a different wish; some are successful in the accomplishment of their resolutions, others are not. While some of us promise to lose those extra kilos gained during the holiday season, others engage in more long term promises, but most of the time we forget about it around February. Perhaps this year we should try to do something more valuable for all of us and for the environment. It will ultimately benefit the entire planet and our children.
Have you given any thought about the amount of non-degradable material that we throw in the garbage every day? Some provinces like Newfoundland do not have recycling facilities and for that reason we are used to dispose of almost everything in our regular garbage bag. Consumerism has made us dependent on elements like plastics that we do not need in our households. Plastics are made from non-renewable resources like petroleum crude and natural gas, and their manufacturing process creates toxic air emissions and sends elements of hazardous waste into waterways. Some multinational corporations have good manufacturing techniques and have committed not to contaminate the environment. Unfortunately nowadays most of the manufacturing of plastics is made in Asian countries where there are no regulations about the disposal of toxics, and since these are growing economies the rest of the world prefers to ignore what is going on there.
Canada has one of the worst waste managements in the industrialized world. We have so much space in our unpopulated country that we really do not notice how bad the situation is. Canada 's landfills produce greenhouse gases equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of five million cars. Plastics do not break down easily or quickly. They take many years and during that process they are poisoning the soil and the air.
When we do our grocery shopping we end up bringing home a lot of unwanted plastic containers in the form of packaging for fruits, vegetables and even bakery products. We really do not need these containers but we are paying for them. Why do we allow this to happen? Perhaps we are not aware that when we buy a package of fresh, nice looking strawberries a good percentage of that money pays for the plastic container that has no further use after the strawberries have been consumed.
Do not buy articles with excessive packaging. Check your local recycling depot and commit yourself to recycle plastics and non degradable materials. Disposing of them in our regular garbage does not make us better than those who spill oil deliberately in the ocean. This could be your new year's resolution.\
