The True Cost of Waste

Waste is something that we like to hide. We have pretty bins, nice smelling bags, and do our best to hide our rubbish bins in a corner of the garage where they wont be seen, or smelt more then they have to. Waste is seen as part of life. As we drive down roads, there is endless amounts of litter to be seen. An overflowing dumpster at the local shopping centre is part of life. But our waste does not stop there. Second hand stores are getting overloaded with second hand goods, with large volumes been dumped simply because the cost of taking the materials to the tip was too high, or the local shop was more convenient on the Friday evening when we simply had to get the car unloaded for another weekend trip away. So what does this waste all cost? Not only on us as humans individually, but as a planet?

The planet around us revolves. Cycles can be seen in every area of the world. The food cycle, carbon cycle, water cycle, seasonal cycles, the list goes on. Unfortunately, with cycles, when unsavoury items get introduced, it is only a matter of time before they come back to haunt us. Landfill sites leaching contamination into the ground water, methane gas emissions, mercury build-up in sea life, and tonnes of plastic being spread across the world are all now showing to us how much we truly have wasted. And for what gain? Every kilo of food that gets thrown in the bin costs. Production costs, packaging costs, transportation, refrigeration, purchasing, transportation to home, storage, and then transportation to the landfill. All this costs get borne by the purchaser. Every kilo of packaging that gets released into the environment gets borne by the end user. As things get more expensive to dispose of, we have to spend more time working, to earn more money, to have less time, to buy more things to make ourselves more efficient, to then throw more things away, and the cycle continues. So how can we make the change?

We need to be willing to accept the true cost of the way we want to live. Unfortunately, forcing people to change via legislation does not work. In our local council, littering is an offence which costs $1000.00, if you get caught, Charged, and convicted. Its a long expensive process that rarely happens. Implementing a carbon tax or forcing large businesses to pay for their emissions is also passing responsibility. The responsibility lies with us. It is our individual choice. We all have the choice as to what we buy, where we live, what we drive, etc. In our developed nations, we need to be paying for the true cost of our wastage. If someone wants to go overseas for a holiday 4 times a year, don’t make it illegal- make the cost truly reflect what it should be. Have the emissions calculated and included in the cost of the holiday. If one person rides a bike to work, composts, recycles, and uses solar panels and batteries to limit any emissions in other areas, they can afford to spend their emissions budget on a holiday. They are balancing their wants and desires with the true cost of living. We must be efficient in all things. If we waste less, we require less hours of work to make our budgets, because we purchase less. This provides us with more time to spend on the things we truly like, on things that spark happiness in our hearts, and truly understand how wasteful we have been as a species.