Garbage Filled Lifestyles

We've never used more products than we do in today's world. Not only are we making a ton of waste through the items which we use and consume, but the packaging we utilize to hold and keep these items also adds to the amount of garbage we're creating. While carryout bags, paper bags and paper sacks can be a big assistance in our lives, we may not truly need to use so much, and it's about time our way of life shifted to not need so many of these damaging products.

If you think about how many pieces of trash you create each time you travel to McDonald's, your conclusions can be staggering. You're often using something to hold the bag, something for the burger, the chips, the drink, and the placemat. Then there's the straw, Kleenex and sundae. Not only does each person who comes in use most of these items, but you also have to consider the amount of waste they're making out the back as they cook all the things we consume. Now consider how much waste is being created by this McDonald's outlet in one day, and consider the many thousands of outlets there are throughout the world. We're slowly turning our world into one big garbage can, and places to put it all are starting to run out.

There are now many trash piles situated in many oceans of the world. These are uninhabitable by fish life, and are put there solely as a result of human actions. It seems amazing that we've been able to block this issue out of our minds, but the realities of dealing with these issues seem to be too much for us to deal with.

You might believe recycling will solve this issue, but there's a problem with that also. One is that not everything can easily be recycled. The other is that in the course of recycling something, oil or coal will need to be used to work the recycling plants, these things, of course, create their own, non-recyclable waste items.

It's a great idea to start reducing the level of waste we create everyday. We can do this by not utilizing plastic bags or unneeded products, and by not going to places like McDonald's which create a ridiculous amount of waste. But these won't solve the deeper problem, that we've become a society that is happy to use up so much of our natural resources. What is needed is not just a superficial alteration to the way things are done, but a fundamental change in our attitude towards nature. Such a shift happening purely of our own volition seems unlikely, and there's a great possibility that it may take an environmental disaster before people wake up and realize the damage that is being done to the world. Improvements to the environment can be made, but the laws within which we exist have been shown to be ineffective in protecting the environment, and it's time we started to demand real protection for the places in which we live.