English Compositions

Short Essay on My Waste My Responsibility [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In this lesson, I will discuss how you can write short essays on My Waste My Responsibility . Three different sets will be written in this session within different word limits.

Feature image of Short Essay on My Waste My Responsibility

Short Essay on My Waste My Responsibility in 100 Words

Waste is any substance that is unwanted or unusable and gets discarded. As a nation, we generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste daily.

This waste includes domestic waste like kitchen refuse, paper, plastic, sewage, detergents and other discarded things, that often does not get disposed of properly and ends up polluting and destroying arable land, rivers and lakes. If every man takes responsibility for the waste generated by himself, together we can manage waste much more effectively. Buying reusable items and recycling more can get us far.

We should also remind ourselves to always throw garbage in garbage cans and sort garbage according to labels like organic, inorganic, compost, etc., which helps the management treat them. After all, keeping the planet clean is our duty.

Short Essay on My Waste My Responsibility in 200 Words

Waste is anything that is unwanted or unusable and needs to be disposed of. Waste can be categorised as solid waste, liquid waste, organic waste, recyclable waste, hazardous waste, et cetera. As a nation, we generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste daily and globally, billions of tonnes of trash is generated every year.

A large amount of this waste often does not get disposed of properly and ends up polluting and destroying arable land, rivers and lakes. It directly affects people living near garbage disposal areas as the decaying matter smells horrible, acts as a breeding ground for flies and mosquitos and can contaminate groundwater, causing dangerous diseases. Over time, this rapid increase in waste is going to render land infertile, water toxic, kill marine animals and destroy ecosystems. 

The best way to manage waste is by taking responsibility for the waste generated by ourselves. If every man takes the responsibility for the waste he generates, we will be able to reduce, manage and treat waste much more effectively. The first step in this direction is by raising awareness and teaching people how to properly dispose of waste. Always throwing garbage in garbage cans, sorting trash according to labels like organic, inorganic, compost, etc., and being conscious about our actions is important. After all, the planet belongs to all of us and we all should do our best to keep it clean.

Short Essay on My Waste My Responsibility in 400 Words

Waste is any substance that is unwanted or unusable or has served its primary purpose and needs to be disposed of. Waste can be categorised as solid waste, liquid waste, organic waste, recyclable waste, hazardous waste, et cetera.

As a nation, we generate thousands of tonnes of waste daily and globally, billions of tonnes of trash is generated every year. This waste includes domestic waste like kitchen refuse, paper, plastic, sewage, detergents and other discarded things, that often does not get disposed of properly and ends up polluting and destroying arable land, rivers and lakes.

It directly affects people living near garbage disposal areas as the decaying matter smells horrible, acts as a breeding ground for flies and mosquitos and can contaminate groundwater, causing dangerous diseases. Contaminated air and water can travel to places far away from the disposal site and make a lot of people sick. 

The rapid increase in waste has severely affected not just humans but other animals, plants and marine life as well. Over time, it is going to render land infertile, make water bodies full of toxic chemicals, kill marine animals and destroy ecosystems all over the planet. The best way to manage waste is by taking responsibility for the waste generated by ourselves. If all of us take it on ourselves to at least take care of the waste we generate, to reduce our consumption, reuse the things we buy and recycle as much as we can, together we can change the situation. 

For starters, we need to make people aware of the harmful effects of improper waste disposal. We need to start campaigns not just in the affluent areas, but also in suburbs, towns and villages. We also need to teach people useful and practical ways of properly disposing of their waste.

We need to teach the backward classes of our society how to identify and separate organic waste and inorganic waste, how they can use the organic waste to make compost, and what they can do with the recyclable waste. 

By making a small change in our habits, we can bring a huge change in the world. Making reduce, reuse, recycle our mantra, always throwing garbage in garbage cans, sorting trash according to labels like organic, inorganic, compost, etc., and being conscious about our actions is important. The planet belongs to all of us and we all should do our best to keep it clean. It is our responsibility and duty. 

In this session above, I have discussed all these essays in a very simple language for a better understanding of all kinds of students. If you have liked this lesson, or if you have any queries regarding this, mention that in the comment section below. 

To get all the latest updates on our upcoming sessions, kindly join us on Telegram . Thank you. 

a jar filled with collected trash

  • PLANET OR PLASTIC?

How People Make Only a Jar of Trash a Year

The growing zero-waste community is radically slashing their waste output, while living more fulfilling lives.

Imagine 15 grocery bags filled with plastic trash piled up on every single yard of shoreline in the world. That’s how much land-based plastic trash ended up in the world’s oceans in just one year. The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers . The U.S. is the king of trash, producing a world-leading 250 million tons a year —roughly 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day .

And yet there are a growing number of people—often young millennial women—who are part of a zero-waste movement. Their yearly trash output can be small enough to fit inside an eight-ounce mason jar. These are not wannabe hippies, but people embracing a modern minimalist lifestyle. They say it saves them money and time and enriches their lives.

a couple collecting plastic in California

Kathryn Kellogg is a zero-waste blogger who shares her experiences trying to use as little packaging and single-use plastic as possible. She lives in Vallejo, California, with her husband Justin Norton.

Kathryn Kellogg is one of those young millennials who has downsized her trash pile—anything that hasn’t been composted or recycled—so two years' worth literally fits inside one 16-ounce jar. Meanwhile, the average American produces 1,500 pounds of trash a year. (Learn more about Kellogg in the recent plastic issue of National Geographic magazine .)

“We also saved about $5,000 a year by purchasing fresh food instead of packaged, buying in bulk, and making our own products like cleaners and deodorant,” says Kellogg, who lives with her husband in a small house in Vallejo, California.

Kellogg is one of several zero-waste bloggers who share online the details of their efforts, along with practical tips and encouragement, for others looking to embrace a zero-waste lifestyle. In three years, she has gained 300,000 monthly readers on her blog goingzerowaste.com and on Instagram .

“I think many people are ready to cut their waste,” says Kellogg. However, she doesn’t want people to fixate on trying to stuff all their trash into a jar. Zero-waste is really about trying to minimize your trash and making better choices in your life, she says. “Just do the best you can and buy less.”

A Thriving Community

A breast cancer scare in college led Kellogg to start reading labels on personal-care products and finding ways to limit her exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. She found alternatives and started making her own products. Like her own readers, Kellogg learned from others, including New York City’s Lauren Singer, who has the very popular Trash is for Tossers blog. Singer started reducing her waste footprint as an environmental studies student in 2012 and has turned zero-waste into a career as a speaker, consultant, and retailer. She has two stores dedicated to making trash-free living easier for everyone.

There’s an active zero-waste community online sharing ideas, challenges, and support for those struggling with unhelpful friends and family who think it’s weird to worry about trash. “There’s a fear of being rejected when you try to do things differently,” Kellogg says. “But it’s not a radical act to clean up a kitchen spill with a cloth towel instead of a paper towel.”

Many of the solutions to cutting waste use practices that were commonplace before the era of plastics and disposable products. Think cloth napkins and handkerchiefs, vinegar and water for cleaning, glass or stainless-steel containers for left-overs, cloth grocery bags. These, and similar old-school solutions, produce no waste and are cheaper in the long run.

Questioning What’s Normal

Going zero-waste means questioning what’s normal and thinking outside the box, Kellogg says. As one example, she mentions that she loves tortillas but hates making them. But as part of her zero-waste quest, she didn’t want to buy packaged ones at the grocery. Eventually, she hit on the solution: buy a bunch of fresh-made ones from her local Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was even happy to put the tortillas in Kellogg’s container because it saves them money.

“Many such solutions to waste are insanely simple,” she says. “And any step to reduce waste is a step in the right direction.”

Cincinnati’s Rachel Felous took more than a few steps in January 2017 and cut her waste to one bag for the year. Felous was surprised and delighted with the impact it’s had on her life.

people recycling

Residents drop off materials at the new Zero Waste Center in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2018. The center is a one-stop household garbage collection site where residents can drop off waste for reuse or recycling, in order to help reduce the amount going to landfills.

“Going zero waste has been great,” she says. “I found an amazing community, made new friends, and new opportunities have come my way,” says Felous.

Although an environmentally aware nature lover, Felous hadn’t really thought about how much waste she produced until she moved. That’s when she realized how much stuff she’d accumulated, including a dozen half-used bottles of shampoo and conditioners. Not long after reading an article on zero-waste she vowed to take more responsibility for her own footprint. Felous also documents her struggles, challenges, and successes on Instagram during her quest to slash the trash.

By weight 75 to 80 percent of all household trash is organic matter that can be composted and turned into soil. As an apartment dweller, Felous deals with her organic waste by putting it in the freezer. Once a month, she takes her frozen lump to her parent’s house, where a local farmer picks it up to feed animals or for composting. If the organic waste went to a landfill it likely wouldn’t compost, because air can’t circulate enough there.

Felous, who runs her own web design and photography business out of her home, advises others to approach zero waste with small steps and show themselves kindness. Making a lifestyle change is a journey, it doesn't happen overnight. But it’s worth the effort, she says. “I don’t know why I didn’t start sooner.”

A Regular Family

Shawn Williamson started ten years ago. While his neighbors in the suburbs outside of Toronto drag three or four bags of trash to the curb on cold winter nights, Williamson stays warm inside watching hockey on TV. Williamson, his wife, and daughter have taken just six bags of trash to the curb in those 10 years. “We live a very normal life. We’ve just eliminated waste,” he says.

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Contrary to what most people think, cutting out waste isn’t a lot of work, he adds. “We buy in bulk to cut down on shopping trips, which saves us money and time,” Williamson says.

The only unusual thing about their small, 20-year old house is the amount of shelving used to store bulk purchases of rice, flour, dried beans, nuts, toilet paper, and other products—enough to avoid going shopping for a month, he estimates. “It’s not cluttered. I still park my car in the garage.”

Williamson, a business consultant specializing in sustainability, says his goal is simply to be less wasteful in all aspects of life. “It’s a mindset of looking for better ways of doing things. Once I figure it out there’s little effort to maintain it,” he says.

It helps that his community has a good recycling program for plastics, paper, and metals and he has room in his backyard for two small composters—one for summer and winter—that produce lots of rich earth for his garden. For everything else, he shops carefully to avoid waste and notes that throwing things out costs money: packaging pushes up the cost of the product, and then we pay for disposal of packaging in our taxes, he says.

Buying local makes it easier to buy foods and other products without packaging, from meat to soap. And when there is no choice, he leaves the packaging behind at the checkout counter. Stores can often reuse or recycle it, and leaving it sends a message: many customers don’t want their avocados wrapped in plastic.

peppers wrapped in plastic

These peppers packaged in plastic are for sale in north London. But 42 firms, responsible for 80 percent of plastic packaging sold in Britain, have signed a pact that aims to reduce plastic pollution over the next seven years through a series of measures.

Even after ten years of slashing waste, new ideas still pop into Williamson’s head. And here he means waste in the broader sense—not getting a second car that’s parked 95 percent of the day, or shaving in the shower to save time. His advice: take a good look at what you might be wasting in your life. “If you eliminate it, you’ll have a happier and more profitable life,” he says.

Five Principles of Zero-waste From the Experts*

1. Refuse - refuse to buy things with lots of packaging

2. Reduce - don’t buy things you don’t really need

3. Reuse - repurpose worn out items, shop for used goods, and purchase reusable products like steel water bottles

4. Compost - up to 80 percent of waste by weight is organic. But this rarely decomposes in landfills

5. Recycle – It still takes some energy and resources to recycle, but it’s better than sending stuff to the landfill or allowing it to become litter

*These are listed in order of importance

Editor's note: We corrected the spelling of Kathryn's name from an earlier version of this story.

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IMAGES

  1. Speech Essay on International Day of Zero Waste

    essay on zero waste my responsibility

  2. Essay On My Environment My Responsibility

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  3. Living a Zero Waste Lifestyle

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  4. Zero Waste

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  5. Infographic: 5 Ways To Go Zero Waste

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  6. Essay on Waste Management for Students and Children in English

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