The problem of waste has become today one of the most important environmental problems faced by mankind.

Consumption volumes are growing rapidly, and with them the amount of waste is increasing. The garbage problem has been brewing for many years, which has resulted in massive pollution of the planet (Evode et al., 2021).

In the process of life, it is common for a person to leave behind all kinds of garbage and various wastes. Each of us does this in the usual way - we use garbage containers, trash cans, etc. But not everyone follows the rules of handling wastes outside our home. A person's habitat is his home. All what is outside of his comfort zone is considered a no man's land. It is on this territory that we seek to throw out what prevents us from living decently. The reason for such actions is human instincts. And this is absolutely normal, because no one wants to live in a place full of garbage and we often do not think about the consequences of discarded waste.

What can the consequences of discarded garbage be for the environment?

The population of our planet is growing every day, respectively, the amount of waste too. Garbage ends up in landfills, pollutes water bodies and destroys nature. Annually, due to these huge amounts of garbage a big part of nature just dies.

From a million tons of plastic waste, the inhabitants of the oceans and seas are suffering and slowly dying. Toxic substances are released from plastic, which lead to the death of plants, and are the cause of many diseases for people. Filling space, plastic waste destroys entire ecosystems, especially near rivers and oceans.

What can each of us do to minimize harm to the natural environment?

We should reduce the use of plastic bags. Very often, marine inhabitants try to explore the inner part of the bag and get into it. Being inside, they may just suffocate or eat pieces of polyethylene. Therefore, it is worth tying the bag tightly before disposal, or stop using it. You can replace such packages with paper ones.

Another danger is fishing gear which can be a trap for numerous animals as they can get entangled in nets and hooks can pierce their skin. Therefore, every fisherman should carefully monitor the equipment they use.

Though, the main problem of mankind at the moment are the huge consumption of plastic and waste sorting.

To date, quite a lot of organizations are trying to teach people to use other less harmful materials for life, such as silicone, wood and bamboo, clay and ceramics, natural fibers and paper.

Basically, the aesthetic appearance of the things they use is important for people, they do not often think about the consequences. Reducing harm to the planet is of interest to a small percentage of people.

Waste sorting and recycling are other important things we should think about.

We should learn to separate recyclable waste from non-recyclable one, as well as to specify certain types of waste which are appropriate for recycling.

Over the past few years, people have been increasingly trying to allocate their time to do this.

It is not difficult to put waste in containers of different colours and take a small step towards solving the problem of ecology.

After all, we all love to travel, enjoy the flora and fauna, walk through dense forests, swim in clean rivers and seas.

And if you don't want to solve an environmental problem for yourself, solve it for the future inhabitants of our incredibly beautiful planet!

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