Keeping our homes tidy feels great, but where our discards end up is crucial. Unlike in the past, waste management is critical. Our throwaway habits significantly impact the environment.
Alarmingly, despite climate action, global waste is on the rise. In 2020, we generated a staggering 2.3 billion tons of trash, with only 62% collected. The rest is dumped, burned, or polluting our world. Recycling is low (19%) and landfills take on 30%.
Here is a list of the items that should be kept out of the trash.
Motor Oil
Trash isn’t the place for used motor oil. Proper disposal of used motor oil is crucial, as it’s the leading cause of pollution in our waterways. A pint of oil can spread into a giant oil slick covering an acre of water. This harms fish and birds and blocks sunlight needed by plants that rely on fish for food.
Paint
Don’t throw away oil-based paint, lead-based paint, paint thinner, and other similar products in the trash. Paint contains all kinds of solvents and chemicals that can damage land, air, and water. If they leak in the trash, those chemicals could seep into the ground and pollute the environment.
Prescription Drugs
Disposing of unused or expired medications improperly, like flushing them or throwing them away, can pollute our soil and water. This can harm both the environment and sanitation workers. However, for some very powerful medications (like those containing opioids), flushing might be the safest option according to the FDA. These medications are often highly sought-after for misuse and can be dangerous if not disposed of properly.
Tires
When you’re cleaning the garage and find some old tires, don’t toss them out. Tires are a disposal problem. They take hundreds of years to break down, leaking harmful chemicals into the soil and water. They also burn easily and attract mosquitoes. Throwing them away hurts the environment.
Batteries
You use batteries in everything, from toys to phones to everything. Throwing away batteries, especially rechargeable ones or those in laptops and phones (often lithium), is a big problem. The metals inside dead rechargeable batteries can leak and pollute the environment if not disposed of properly. Even worse, old batteries, particularly lithium ones, can catch fire in the trash! A single spark from a damaged battery could start a fire, harming people, property, and the environment.
Computer Monitors
As computer monitors become larger, cheaper, and lighter, it becomes tempting to upgrade now and then. The old monitor you’ll be discarding contains heavy metals. Discarding them can contaminate landfills, ultimately harming the environment.
Aerosol Cans
Aerosol cans like cooking spray, spray paints, disinfectant sprays, and so on are not to be thrown into the trash mindlessly. The problem with the aerosol cans is not the cans themselves, but what’s inside them. It could still contain some amount of chemicals or propellants in it, which could explode inside of a trash compactor.
Electronics
Don’t toss your old electronics in the regular trash. This includes TVs, computers, and even small things like flashlights. Old electronic devices contain toxic substances that include lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium. If these toxic substances get placed in a landfill, those chemicals can seep into the soil and water. Posing a serious health risk to people and wildlife.
Pressurized Containers
Fire extinguishers, propane tanks, gas cylinders, and oxygen tanks hold pressurized gas inside. This pressure makes them dangerous to throw away with regular trash. They contain pressurized gas, making them a potential bomb if tossed in the trash. Garbage trucks compact and crush trash, which could trigger an explosion.
Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Compact Fluorescent lamps (CFL) contain a tiny amount (4mg) of mercury. Mercury is a metal that can harm both people and the environment. While the mercury is safely trapped inside the bulb when it’s whole, a broken bulb can release harmful vapors. Mercury exposure can affect your brain, heart, and lungs. It can also harm wildlife and pollute the air and water. Even though it’s a small amount of mercury per bulb, it can add up over time, causing bigger problems.
Mattresses
Mattresses take up a ton of space in landfills – around 55,000 mattresses are thrown away every day in the US alone. Sadly, most end up there, taking hundreds of years to decompose and potentially leaking harmful chemicals. Memory foam mattresses are even worse, taking up to 1,000 years to break down.
Appliances
Old appliances are tricky to throw away. They’re too big for regular trash, like throwing away a whole desk. Plus, they’re made of a mix of materials, including metals, plastic, PCBs, concrete, and more, and are not great for the environment. Even if they fit in the bin, these materials can’t be recycled together. To make matters worse, some appliances contain harmful chemicals that can leak out and pollute the air and water.
Herbicides and Pesticides
It’s important to understand that, due to the nature of these gardening products, they generally can’t be thrown in the trash. They can’t also be dumped down the drain due to their effects on the ecosystem and wildlife. If the containers leak in the trash, those chemicals can seep into the ground and pollute the soil and water. Even worse, pouring them down the drain can send them straight to rivers and streams, harming fish and other wildlife.
Plastic Bags
Throwing plastic with your regular trash is a big problem for our oceans. Every year, a huge amount of plastic (like 136 billion milk jugs!) ends up in the sea. This plastic trash hurts sea creatures. They can get stuck or mistake it for food, especially tiny plastic bits. Sadly, plastic pollution in the ocean lasts forever. Plastics break down very slowly and leak toxic chemicals. Most of this plastic doesn’t even come from boats; it washes in from land, is blown by the wind, or is carried by rain. Since plastic is everywhere, it harms animals on land too, not just in the ocean.