THIS SEASON, there must be a serious rethinking on the practical ways of reducing the environmental impacts of religious feasts and rites. Our holiday season practices must be in harmony with the ecological reforms that our society badly need.
‘Tis the season of wasteful consumption, right? But this doesn’t have to be to this way. Wasteful consumption is crass consumerism devouring Mother Nature’s finite resources and defacing her with ugly mines, dumps and garbage. Every step of the consumption trail further generates pollutants that are warming the planet.
Why not make the elimination of wasteful consumption our New Year’s resolution? This can be a stimulus for ecological conversion and for greater people’s involvement in the many environmental battles facing the nation.
Eliminating wasteful consumption is timely and urgent if we are to remedy and reverse the dreadful conditions of our environment. As we fall victim to crass consumerism, we see our society getting addicted to plastic bags and disposables, messing up our habitat, trashing our rivers and seas, and creating a legacy of contaminated dumpsites that threaten public health and the environment.
Again, we call for the closure, cleanup and rehabilitation of open dumpsites and the implementation of the ecological zero waste resource management. Dumpsites are like gaping wounds of a nation stinking with litter and garbage. We must close and heal these wounds. The continued dependence on dumping and landfilling has become a huge strain on the budget, a scourge on host communities and wildlife, and a curse on the climate.
Zero waste resource management can emulate Mother Earth’s closed-loop processes where products are designed to be recycled back to commerce or nature and where nothing is wasted.
