Waste
What is waste?
Basically, it’s everything that we no longer have use for – either because it’s worn, damaged, lost its usefulness or just not liked anymore. There are various forms of waste including the following: household, commercial, industrial, agricultural, clinical and hazardous wastes.
What happens to it?
Most municipal waste (in fact, over 70% of it) ends up in landfill – a large site where waste is dumped and finally buried. As all the organic components of this waste degrades it produces methane, which has 21 times more impact on the climate than CO2. Over 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from this source, but luckily we are able to collect much of this gas and contain it, reducing its impact. However- it would be much better simply to reduce this!
On the boat we will create waste, mostly what would be considered household waste. The large part of this will come from packaging (plastics, tins, bottles), but also some from the boat’s mechanical side. We use oil and diesel in the engine, and every so often we have to do oil changes (just as in our cars), and the waste oil needs to be dealt with in a very careful way. We also use batteries which will have to be specially disposed of at the end of their life. Then there is the leftovers, carrot ends and onion skins – all our organic waste. The easiest way to deal with this waste is to compost it.
Let’s take a closer look at packaging – our main source of waste on the boat:
Plastics – plastic is made from oil, as we discovered this is in limited supply. Today, a large portion of plastics are now recyclable. Try to make sure that the packaging used on products you buy is recyclable, and then remember to recycle it.
Tin cans – made from tin, a metal that is mined. It is far easier to recycle processed tin than it is to create a new tin can from scratch!
Paper and cardboard – from our precious trees. Easily recycled and can also be sustainably harvested.
What we do on the boat, we can do at home!
For more information on sustainability, please visit the following site:
www.energysavingtrust.org
