Zero waste California!!

“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

–Theodore Roosevelt, Seventh Annual Message, December 3, 1907

The California Integrated Waste Management Board promotes a Zero Waste California in partnership with local government, industry, and the public. This means managing about 93 million tons of waste generated each year by reducing waste whenever possible, promoting the management of all materials to their highest and best use, regulating the handling, processing and disposal of solid waste, and protecting public health and safety and the environment.

The main problem of using disposable utensils is that it creates unneccessary wastes that could be easily avoided. There is a need for consumers change their states of mind about taking advantage of recycling. Recycling helps reduce waste, but we must not neglect that recycling consumes energy and produces pollution at the same time. What is more, not all plastics are reclyced while most of them end up in waste or even into the Pacific Ocean.

Waste has become a world crisis but unfortunately many of us neglect. It is a relief that California ambitioned to make the state zero waste by the year of 2020. However, to be honest with, 2020 is not far away and by looking at the current state of waste management, I doubt that ambition can be reliazed in time.

Being a part of the community, I feel guilty when I see recycable and compostable materials piled up in the waste bin at San Francisco State University. It is a shame that the most educated population in the city failed to acknowledge the problem of waste management and its importance.

On top of the problems mentioned above, some of the other sub-problems of disposable utensils can be:
+ extra cost to recycle/ compost materials
+ insufficient recycle/ compost bins
+ compostable utensils increase cost

A slight change of behaviors in our daily lives, can help make the world a better place.