It is our duty to give more back to the earth than what we take. Stats from the World Bank show we’ve been doing quite the opposite: we consume more than we return to our planet, and what we give back is mostly trash!
This Earth Day, let’s find out more about each pollutant and what we can do to drastically reduce our impact on the planet. Let’s also understand how Uuvipak products add back to the planet’s resource loop in a sustainable and responsible way.
Landfills And Their Hazards
Landfills are one of the biggest environmental hazards, and are an active contributor to climate change. They are created for dumping waste material that can’t be reused or recycled, like industrial and household packaging, masonry materials and plastics. When this breaks down, especially after rainfall, chemical reactions create liquid toxins which seep into the soil and groundwater, contaminating both for future generations. In addition to these, tons of food waste is dumped in landfills every year. These organic materials break down anaerobically (without oxygen) and emit methane, the most harmful greenhouse gas.
We can avoid adding to landfills by segregating our waste and reducing our plastic usage. Thankfully, most households and industries across the world are practicing recycling. But the use of plastic is not witnessing a remarkable decrease yet.
Plastics, Bio plastics And Their Disposal
Plastics, as we know, are one of the biggest causes of environmental depletion. Conventional plastics are made using petroleum-based materials and they do not break down to a level where they can return to nature. Minimizing the use of plastics is the need of the hour. Many industries are switching to bio plastics.
Biodegradable plastics or bioplastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA), are plastics made from compostable materials like corn derivatives. Another type of bioplastic is polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), made by microbes that are capable of producing plastic-like materials from organic matter.
Bioplastics can be biodegraded entirely by microbes until the final products are compost, water and carbon dioxide. However, because of bioplastics’ highly modified chemical composition, this process requires industry-level composting facilities which are not available in most of the world’s nations. More commonly, these products end up in landfills where they biodegrade in 20-30 years, contributing to environmental damage.
Uuvipak Products and Their Absolute Biodegradability Attribute
At Uuvipak, we are redefining sustainable packaging. Our products are not only home-compostable but even edible! We make our products from 100% organic waste, which breaks down naturally along with kitchen waste.
Uuvipak packaging products do not emit any environmental pollutants, making them a significant contributor towards a circular economy. Once disposed, Uuvipak biodegrades within 2 weeks and turn into healthy food for gardens and crops!
This Earth Day, let’s all pledge to reduce our usage of plastics, and find sustainable alternatives that will heal our planet and not harm it further!
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World Bank Statistics: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html
Cover photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash.