The average American produces 4.51 pounds of trash a day up from 2.68 pounds in 1960. Recycling has long been touted as the solution, but there are downsides to recycling too.

Pros and cons of recycling

Recycling can be an important part of waste management: effective recycling of all kinds of materials can prevent them from clogging up landfill, polluting the environment, and can avoid the environmental strain caused by manufacturing new items.

However, there are many issues associated with recycling. It’s important to understand these complexities in order to make more eco-friendly decisions not only around how you deal with your waste, but in how you live your life more generally.

Advantages of recycling

Before we dive into the issues and challenges associated with recycling, let’s take a look at the benefits of this approach and why it can be valuable in some circumstances.

Recycling helps reduce pollution

Traditionally, the world has dealt with its trash in one of two ways, both of which cause pollution:

In addition to these types of pollution, landfill also causes other kinds of environmental degradation. Most notably, large tracts of native habitats are cleared to make way for landfill, resulting in deforestation, which can, in turn, threaten endemic species, lead to water scarcity, and contribute to climate change.

One of the major benefits of recycling is that it can greatly reduce the amount of trash we send to landfills or incinerators, helping to reduce pollution as well as avoid other environmental problems associated with these approaches.

Additionally, responsibly recycling hazardous waste ensures that it won’t pollute the environment and threaten human health. For example, one quart of engine oil can contaminate over two million gallons of fresh water if not disposed of properly.

For advice on how to recycle or otherwise responsibly dispose of tricky household items, see our posts on LED light bulbs, kitchen knives, propane tanks, and broken glass.

Recycling cuts energy and resource use

By recovering materials rather than sending them to landfill, we don’t need to mine or manufacture new ones, thereby protecting our planet’s limited resources.

Furthermore, the mining and manufacturing industries damage the environment in a range of ways from clearing native habitats to leaching toxins into the soil and waterways and emitting greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change.

Therefore, recycling materials can help to scale back these activities and reduce their negative impacts on the environment.

Recycling also helps to save on the energy needed to make these new products and materials. Although the recycling process uses some energy, this is generally much less than manufacturing new materials.

Glass, for example, requires less energy to recycle than manufacture, as existing glass melts at much lower temperatures than its raw materials. In this way, recycling helps to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as having economic benefits.

Recycling raises awareness of environmental issues

Getting people to recycle can have impacts far beyond the initial effect of recycling that plastic bottle or BRITA filter. By getting more involved in this process and making an effort to dispose of our trash more responsibly, we become more conscious of our eco-footprint.

Essentially, going through our trash and recycling what we can makes us think about the environment and how we impact it, on a regular basis. It makes us think about how much waste we create, and may well encourage us to take steps to reduce this.

Furthermore, for anyone who wants to be more eco-friendly, recycling can be an easy first step to take, as well as being a great way to teach kids about environmental issues. It can also be an important part of a mindset shift that may open people up to be more environmentally-friendly in other ways too.

In some cases, this can pave the way for other lifestyle choices that go even further to protect the planet, such as composting, installing solar panels, or avoiding palm oil.

Recycling can save you money

Not only can recycling be beneficial to the environment, but it can also be advantageous to your wallet.

You can make money through recycling certain materials, most notably some types of metals – learn how here. You’re unlikely to earn large amounts this way, but it’s something!

Some towns also offer cash incentives for recycling glass items or aluminum cans. Products made from recycled materials are often cheaper, so opting for these kinds of products can save you some cash.

The recycling industry creates jobs

Recycling is a labor-intensive process: large numbers of people are needed to run recycling facilities, from transporting and processing waste to creating new products from recovered materials. In this way, the industry can create a range of skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

Ecocycle.org estimates that we would generate around 1.1 million jobs in the USA if the recycling rate increased to 75%. Currently, we recycle around 30% of solid municipal waste.

According to the same organization, recycling and reuse creates nine times more job opportunities than incinerators and landfill sites.

Furthermore, the recycling industry has the potential to drive economic growth, creating new jobs as it does.

Pitfalls of recycling

While recycling can be environmentally, socially, and economically beneficial, the wide-spread and aggressive campaigns promoting it over the past few decades have overlooked its risks and downsides. This has also led to it becoming something of a band-aid solution that can allow us to overlook the more challenging, underlying causes of our waste problems.

Our recyclables may be exported

China took almost half of the world’s recycling waste for decades until they banned the process in 2018. In the years immediately before the ban, many Western countries exported large volumes of their recyclables there: in 2016, the US alone sent them 16 million tons of paper, metal, and plastic.

Of these, around one-third were not recycled due to contamination and ended up littering the Chinese countryside and oceans instead. We continue to send our recycling to low-income countries across the world, such as Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Bangladesh, and Cambodia.

Not only does this pass the waste problem on to others who are probably less equipped to deal with it, but it means we lose control of the process and how much of these materials are actually recycled. Not to mention the greenhouse gas emissions generated by transporting literal mountains of trash across the globe.

We also lose control of how this waste is handled, as the Chinese example shows: around 1.5 million metric tons of plastic is dumped off the coast of the country every year. It’s disturbing to think how much of this may be our own waste that we dutifully sent to recycling.

Furthermore, as more countries institute bans against accepting foreign recyclables – Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia quickly followed China and introduced laws against importing plastic waste – we need to look for other options. As a result, we’re increasingly relying on countries with poor environmental protections, opening this situation up to even worse impacts on the planet.

Recycling inadvertently encourages us to use disposable items

Critics say that recycling gives us a false sense of security, as it makes us feel like we’re solving our waste problem when really it’s only slowing down or delaying the damage we’re causing the environment. 

Recycling isn’t really the ultimate solution to pollution and waste management as it uses large amounts of energy, is expensive, and can be hazardous to people and the environment if not done properly.

Furthermore, plastics can only be recycled a limited number of times: usually once or twice, so we still need to keep manufacturing more plastic items.

It can even encourage us to use non-recyclable materials. For example, not all plastics are readily recyclable, but many people don’t understand this, so may use them under the false assumption that they can be recycled.

In this way, recycling can potentially do more harm than good by allowing us to justify using disposable items, not to mention using energy and resources as well as producing pollution and greenhouse gasses during the manufacture of these items and during the recycling process itself.

Recycling programs also fail to address our biggest source of waste. In the US, food waste makes up the biggest proportion of municipal trash.

Food can’t be recycled, so by focusing on recycling as the main solution, we’re overlooking this key issue. Food waste not only clogs up landfills and emits pollution as it breaks down there, but producing much more food than we need has a range of negative impacts on the environment, from the use of toxic fertilizers and pesticides to contributing to climate change.

Recycling requires consumers to carefully prep their recycling

Another major problem is it relies on individuals to prepare their recyclables properly before putting them out curbside or sending them to a recycling facility.

Recyclables can be contaminated by food waste or because they’re mixed with materials the recycling facility won’t accept, such as straws and plastic bags. Such items are a huge red flag for recycling centers as they could get stuck in machinery and damage very expensive equipment.

If items are not thoroughly cleaned and properly sorted it not only makes that item unrecyclable, but it contaminates the whole load. Essentially, one greasy food container could mean that an entire truck of recyclable materials gets sent to landfill.

Recycling uses energy and can generate pollution

Unlike reducing and reusing, recycling is a fairly energy-intensive process. Unless this energy is produced from renewable sources, it means relying on finite fossil fuels, which also generates greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.

Waste to energy plants could be a solution to this issue, but are not common in the USA.

Although recycling generally consumes less energy than sourcing and producing new materials, it’s better to avoid this energy use at all, for example, by reducing our consumption.

Properly recycling everything from plastic to silicon does not generally cause pollution and eliminates the soil, air, and water pollution caused by other forms of waste disposal. However, if the recycling process is not managed properly, it can contaminate the environment in a range of ways.

Electronics, for example, are sometimes sent to developing countries for recycling, where non-recyclable components may be thrown out, polluting land and waterways if that country doesn’t have strong regulations in place to prevent this.

Likewise, if plastics are not processed properly, they can release VOCs, volatile organic compounds, when they melt, which pose a risk to both human health and the environment. This can be damaging to human health, as well as pollute the local environment, threatening plants and animals.

Along with environmental risks, there can also be safety risks for workers if facilities are not properly managed. For example, If facilities don’t take proper safety precautions, workers may be exposed to toxic components when they hand-sort trash or handle recyclable materials.

Recycling is actually expensive

Recycling is an expensive process, and this is even more true of the initial costs required to set up recycling programs and infrastructure in the first place.

Import bans from China and other countries have also made recycling less economically viable. Just a few years ago, local governments across the US could make money selling recyclable materials.

These sums were generally modest – not a substantial revenue stream, but enough to make it worthwhile for sanitation departments to recycle all kinds of materials. However, now the situation has completely reversed, with towns needing to pay huge sums of money to run their recycling programs.

The US’ dependence on exporting recyclables for so many years meant that, unlike some European countries for example, we never developed extensive recycling infrastructure, exacerbating these issues.

The comparative cost of recycling also depends on other waste disposal options and how expensive they are. For example, in the US, it’s relatively easy and affordable to find space for landfills, making recycling programs a less attractive option.

This cost-benefit ratio relationship means some materials are more difficult to recycle than others and makes the future of recycling uncertain. Around 100 towns have already suspended their curbside recycling programs.

The real question is how long will cash-strapped local authorities sponsor our addiction to disposable materials?

How can we fix the recycling problem?

One solution that would address some of the issues associated with recycling in the US would be to invest in recycling systems and infrastructure. This would make the process more efficient and cost-effective, making it more viable for local authorities to sponsor local recycling programs.

In turn, this would reduce our reliance on exporting our recyclable materials, giving us more control over how much of our waste is actually recycled and under what conditions, and avoid dumping our waste problems on other countries.

This investment would also need to be matched by a commitment by authorities to sponsor recycling programs, as even with better infrastructure, these processes are still costly. 

Encouraging businesses to use recycled materials in their products would also help to expand the domestic market and make recycling more economically viable, though it’s unlikely to cover all costs.

Legislation to restrict or eliminate landfill could also be part of the solution. Making it more expensive to send our trash to landfill would make recycling comparatively more affordable.

Simply put, as things stand, we make it too easy to send waste to landfill, passing the cost on to the environment instead.

A more radical approach could be to pass the cost of recycling disposable materials on to the companies that produce them, such as by requiring brands to pay a deposit or penalty for selling products in certain types of packing or containers. This would ultimately pass the cost on to the consumer, as manufacturers would undoubtedly put their prices up accordingly.

However, it would also encourage both brands and their customers to explore other options, including truly zero-waste solutions.

Although these steps can help to make recycling more efficient and cost-effective, a big part of the solution should also be pursuing alternatives in order to reduce our reliance on recycling.

Viable alternatives to recycling

While recycling undoubtedly has its place in both waste management and living an eco-friendly lifestyle, it’s not the end of the story. In fact, recycling should arguably be seen as a last resort after you’ve tried other approaches to dealing with and eliminating waste.

Go zero-waste

A zero-waste approach can go a long way to minimize our impact on the environment. There are a range of ways to achieve a zero-waste lifestyle, such as:

• Only buy products in reusable containers, and get refills of everything from grains to shampoo
• Compost your organic waste
• Look for zero-waste products such as toothpaste, deodorant, and even toilet paper
• Get creative and reuse, repurpose, and upcycle whenever possible
• Buy second-hand clothing and accessories rather than new items

Going completely zero-waste can be a challenge, especially at first. However, avoiding single-use plastics with reusable bottles, coffee cups, and shopping bags can be a good start.

Opt for quality over quantity

Another powerful way to reduce both our rate of consumption and the amount of waste we produce is by buying quality products.

Society has become geared toward cheap, disposable products. Much of what we buy today, from clothing and electronics to single-use plastics, is only built to be used for a short period of time before it breaks, wears out, or stops working.

On the surface, this doesn’t matter, as we can easily buy a replacement for a nominal cost. However, the cost is passed on to the environment through the additional drain on resources and energy needed to manufacture new items, not to mention the waste that is produced.

In contrast, when we buy good-quality items that last a long time, they don’t need to be replaced so often, so we throw away less. Additionally, less energy and resources need to be used to produce the replacement items we buy.

We can even go a step further and try to cut down on the amount of stuff we buy entirely. It’s important to buy quality-made products, but in some cases, we can avoid buying anything at all by adopting a more minimalist approach.

Repair rather than throw away

All too often, we throw away items that could be as good as new with a little TLC. Your toaster breaks, and instead of taking it to the repair shop, you jump online to buy a new one.

Likewise, the heel comes off your favorite pair of boots (an easy fix), and you buy a new pair, or rather than mending a ripped seam in that near-new sweater, you get a new one.

The low cost and easy availability of all kinds of consumer items are largely to blame for this: it’s often quicker and even cheaper to buy a replacement than to have it repaired (or fix it yourself).

However, the cost to the earth is immense: every new product we buy takes energy and materials to make and probably produces pollution in the process. What’s more, our old item becomes trash that ends up in landfill or pollutes our waterways.

In contrast, repairing things typically involves minimal use of energy and resources, making this a huge net gain for the environment.

Should we skip recycling?

The short answer to this question is no: we shouldn’t ditch recycling entirely. Recycling can be an effective way to deal with trash and can form a vital part of a multifaceted approach to waste management and looking after the environment more generally.

However, over-reliance, particularly using recycling as an excuse not to pursue other tactics, is highly problematic, especially over the long term.

Arguably, we should see recycling as a short-term solution while we restructure how society functions, from production to consumer habits, in order to slash the amount of waste we produce or, better still, eliminate it entirely.

Check out our guides to recycling difficult items like cork and razor blades, and learn more about going zero-waste.

25+ actionable ways to reduce the waste you send to landfill

With horror stories like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to managing and reducing our waste. However, there are loads of ways that you can slash the amount of trash you send to landfill, many of which are easy to do, and some will save you money and make your life better at the same time.

1. Embrace curbside recycling

Although recycling is not the all-in-one solution some people pretend it to be – learn about the drawbacks and complexities of recycling – it is an important part of waste management, especially over the short to medium term.

Many towns run curbside recycling programs that make it easy to recycle a range of items, from aluminum cans and plastic bottles to cardboard cartons.

However, you must follow your local municipality’s recycling rules. Be sure to double-check which materials you can recycle curbside and what you need to do to prepare them first.

In most cases, you’ll need to clean or rinse containers and remove tape or stickers from cardboard and other materials. You usually need to separate different types of materials, as each needs to be recycled separately.

Failing to follow the rules and including an item that is either not recyclable or hasn’t been adequately prepared or cleaned can contaminate the entire load, meaning that it’s sent to landfill.

2. Make an effort to recycle other items as well

Just because you can’t recycle certain materials curbside doesn’t mean you can’t recycle them at all.

You can recycle many things, from LED light bulbs and electronics to wine corks and packaging peanuts, with a bit of effort.

Some towns run special collection or drop-off programs to recycle certain items or materials – contact your local sanitation department to find out.

Some big box stores also accept certain materials, sometimes at certain times of the year. For example, The Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Lowe’s all have Christmas light recycling programs at the start of the year.

You can also find recycling centers that take all kinds of stuff by using an online finder tool like Earth911.

For really tricky materials, you may need to use a mail-in service. For example, TerraCycle takes all kinds of materials, such as cigarette waste, sauce packets, coffee capsules, and laminated paper.

Although many of these programs come at a cost, you can be happy knowing that you’re not passing this cost on to the planet.

3. Look for products made from recycled materials

You can also help to reduce landfill waste by supporting efforts at the other end of the process and buying products made from recycled materials. This means these materials are put to good use rather than being sent to landfill or polluting the environment.

Furthermore, using recycled materials avoids extracting new resources and greatly reduces the energy consumption and greenhouse gasses associated with making the product.

This can range from everything from clothes made from swimwear made from recycled bottles to rugs and building materials made from things like old car tires and reclaimed wood.

4. Get composting

When it comes to disposing of your organic waste, the best method is to compost it. This is a fantastic solution because you can deal with your waste entirely in your home, even living in an apartment.

Food scraps and other organic materials naturally break down in the right environment. However, landfill is not designed for this: organics don’t properly biodegrade in landfill because they don’t have enough oxygen.

Instead, they decompose inorganically, giving off methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

You can compost food scraps and also other organic materials like non-synthetic fabrics and paper, meaning they break down naturally and release negligible amounts of methane at most. All they leave behind is rich compost that you can use to nourish your garden.

5. Donate whatever you can

Donating items instead of throwing them away is a win-win. Not only does it keep them out of landfill, but you also have the opportunity to give something valuable to someone in need.

Clothes and accessories are a prime example: US households send 11 million tons of clothing to landfill every year. Many of these pieces are still in wearable condition, so instead of tossing out your unwanted clothes, give them to your local charity store, like a Goodwill.

There are plenty of other things you can donate, such as:

• Give old books to your local school
• Donate old furniture and homewares to a homeless shelter of domestic violence organization
• Take working electronics, toys, and household items to charity stores

In all cases, you should only donate things that are in good, usable, and working condition. If you have anything that fits this description, giving it away should be your first option!

6. Avoid single-use containers

Modern society has become all too reliant on single-use containers, from shopping bags to takeout food containers and cutlery. Think about how many containers you use in a year, then multiply that by the 330 million people in the United States, and nearly eight billion people worldwide.

This represents literal mountains of plastic and styrofoam that gets sent to landfill and sits there for hundreds of years. For example, a plastic bottle takes around 450 years to break down, and a styrofoam food container takes approximately 50 years, though neither of these materials actually biodegrade.

Even paper and cardboard containers are often lined with non-biodegradable materials, such as plastic-lined take-out coffee cups, or plastic-coated noodle boxes.

Here are some alternatives to single-use containers:

• Invest in a reusable, stainless steel water bottle instead of buying plastic ones
• Take a reusable keep cup to your coffee shop
• Buy calico or fabrics bags for your grocery shopping
• Use Tupperware instead of disposable food containers
• Buy reusable silicon cutlery and take it with you on trips or for lunch breaks

If you can’t completely avoid food containers, make sure to recycle them – learn how here.

7. Look for sustainable packaging

Like disposable containers, single-use packaging is highly prevalent these days and significantly contributes to landfill waste.

As an eco-conscious consumer, you need to be vigilant about two types of packaging:

1. Packaging that is inherent to the product itself, such as shampoo bottles or toothpaste tubes.
2. Packaging that is used to ship the product to your door.

If you buy online, look for sellers who use recycled and recyclable packaging for shipping. It’s also essential to look for zero-waste products that come encased in reusable, recycled, and recyclable containers or are inherently zero-waste.

Check out our guides to zero-waste deodorant, shampoo, and toilet paper.

8. Skip the straw

This one is pretty well publicized, but it’s worth repeating. Plastic straws make up around 4% of all plastic waste sent to landfill.

Although this is not a huge percentage by weight or volume, these little non-biodegradable tubes have a disproportionately high impact on the environment. Plastic straws are small and lightweight, so are more likely to be washed out of landfill into waterways, where they can pollute the local environment or make their way to the ocean.

There, they can be devastating to marine ecosystems: their sharp edges can injure sea turtles and other animals, or they can break down into microplastics that are then ingested.

Instead, invest in your own reusable straw made of silicone, metal or bamboo, or skip the straw entirely. After all, do we really need a straw to drink juice or soda?

9. Opt for whole foods

Another way to reduce the amount of waste you produce is by reviewing your shopping habits. Buying whole foods like fruit, vegetables, and grains is an easy way to avoid packaging, as these items are available loose rather than wrapped in plastic.

Making these changes is not only better for the environment but also for your health, as whole foods are generally a much healthier choice!

10. Cook at home more

Cooking at home is another way to reduce the waste you produce, as well as being generally better for your health, not to mention more budget-friendly. By cooking yourself, you can easily avoid disposable takeout containers, which are usually unrecyclable or at least challenging to recycle.

Like many of the steps on this list, you don’t need to make an absolute change. You can make a difference by just cooking more meals at home, and still get takeaway sometimes!

11. Save and store your leftovers

Food makes up a significant proportion of US waste: around 22% of all household waste is food scraps.

Not only does this contribute to landfill, it is also one of the major contributors to climate change, partly due to methane release as it decomposes anaerobically in landfill. Growing food can also have various impacts, from soil pollution to deforestation, which is only heightened by wasted food.

Before you toss your leftovers in the trash, consider how to reuse them. Save them for an easy repeat meal the next day, or make them into a new dish the next day.

You can also freeze all kinds of foods to avoid having to throw them away: cooked meat can be kept in the freezer for up to four months, vegetables for eight months, and bread for three to six months.

Having a few meals in the freezer is always a lifesaver after a long day when you don’t feel like cooking, or if you have an unexpected visitor!

12. Be strict with meal planning

Another way to avoid wasting food is by effectively planning your meals. Before you go to the grocery store, make a meal plan for the week.

Detail what you’ll cook and make for each meal daily, and use this to create a comprehensive shopping list. This will help ensure you buy only what you need and don’t have to throw unused food away because it has expired.

13. Go for loose-leaf tea

You may not realize it, but the humble tea bag is a major waste culprit. Most tea bags are lined with polypropylene, a non-biodegradable plastic. Worse still, the organic materials inside the bag can’t decompose naturally and just add to landfill volume.

By switching to loose-leaf tea, your tea-drinking habit will be much more eco-friendly.

You just need to buy a tea ball or a cute vintage-style teapot with a built-in strainer and you can say goodbye to teabags forever!

If you’re not prepared to give up tea bags for whatever reason, be sure to cut open the bag and put the leaves in your compost, before throwing the rest in the trash. Or better still, look for bioplastic teabags.

14. Invest in rechargeable batteries

As a society, we’re getting much better at recognizing and avoiding disposable items like plastic bags and single-use water bottles. However, some of the disposable products we regularly use are less obvious.

Batteries are a prime example of this – we’re accustomed to buying batteries for our flashlights or wristwatches, and then throwing them away once they’ve lost their charge.

Not only does this contribute to landfill waste, but batteries contain a range of heavy metals and toxins, including nickel, lead, and cadmium. These can leach into the earth from landfill sites, contaminating the soil and potentially polluting waterways or the underground water table.

An excellent alternative is to buy rechargeable batteries: all you need to do is plug into a wall socket using an adapter, and it will replenish their charge.

While it’s true that these kinds of batteries are significantly more expensive than their disposable counterparts, you’ll soon recoup your investment in what you save on constantly buying replacements. Not to mention, this benefits the environment greatly!

Another eco-friendly option is to go for solar-powered products that run on the power of the sun. You’ll find everything from toys and rope lights to garden umbrellas, with a built-in solar panel or a small, portable panel that can be connected.

15. Use energy-efficient light bulbs

Light bulbs are another example of a common disposable household item that all too often ends up in landfill.

While you can recycle most kinds of light bulbs, this can be tricky, as they’re often classified as hazardous waste. You will need to dispose of them eventually; energy-efficient light bulbs last many times longer than traditional ones, significantly reducing waste over the long term.

Opt for energy-efficient LED light bulbs that deliver up to 50,000 hours of illumination for a fraction of the energy used by incandescent light bulbs.

16. Buy in bulk

Sticking to reusable bags when you go to the grocery store cuts back on single-use plastic bags, but what about all the bags, bottles, and other packaging you pick up at the supermarket?

If you go through your trash, you’ll probably find it full of product containers and their associated packaging. While some of these items can be recycled, for others, you have no option but to send them to landfill.

You can avoid this issue entirely by visiting your local bulk store. These shops sell everything from rice and pasta to spices in bulk – you need to take your own glass jars or similar reusable containers, and they’ll fill them for you!

17. Make your own cleaning products

Most cleaning products come in plastic containers. While you may be able to buy them in bulk or with refills, an even better solution is to make your own.

By making your own cleaners, you skip the packaging entirely, and can use old bottles or containers to store them. It may sound like a tall order, but it’s actually pretty simple to make a variety of cleaning agents from easy-to-source ingredients.

Furthermore, you can avoid the harsh chemicals found in most conventional cleaning products by using natural alternatives, and so protect not only the planet, but your and your family’s health too.

For example, baking soda will gently scrub away residue without damaging surfaces, while lemon juice is a natural bleach and vinegar is a powerful all-purpose cleaner.

Learn how to make your own, all-natural cleaners here.

18. Craft your own personal care products

In the same way, you can also craft your own personal care products and avoid buying them from the store in their associated containers and packaging. Again, this is easier to do than you may think: it’s relatively simple to make your own soap, shampoo, face cream, and even bubble bath.

You can find loads of tutorials online – here are a few to get you started:

• Try your hand at this super simple, all-natural bubble bath
• Make this all-natural shampoo from essential oils
• Learn the basics of soap making
• Make a natural face mask from avocado

19. Buy second hand

You can help reduce landfill waste by producing less trash of your own and helping to remove waste from the cycle. For example, buying second-hand products gives those items new life and stops other people’s waste from going to landfill.

There are plenty of good-quality pieces of clothing, accessories, furniture, homewares, and more that people want to get rid of even though they’re still perfectly usable and in good condition. They may be moving interstate, their tastes have changed, or it doesn’t serve their needs anymore – either way, their trash could be your treasure.

Hit up your local second-hand and thrift shops, browse flea markets, or jump online and check out what’s available on eBay and Craigslist. You’ll be surprised what you can find!

20. Buy less

Another way you can reduce landfill waste by modifying your consumption habits is to buy less entirely. When we discuss waste management, we usually focus on the end of the waste cycle: reuse and recycle.

However, it’s also important to consider the third R – reduce – which occurs at the beginning of this process. If we can reduce the amount of stuff that enters that cycle in the first place, we’ll have less that we need to reuse, recycle, or otherwise manage at the end of the day.

Furthermore, much of what we buy is fairly unnecessary. After all, do you really need four pairs of jeans and three summer dresses when one of each would do?

And how many of the appliances and gadgets cluttering up your kitchen do you really use?

By shifting how we view not only waste but also consumption and our lifestyles overall, we could greatly reduce the amount of stuff we buy, in turn decreasing the demand on manufacturers to produce it in the first place and slashing the amount of waste in the world, as well as reducing the drain on the earth’s precious resources.

21. Rediscover

Another approach that can help you greatly reduce the amount of stuff you buy is to take stock of what you already have. If you rediscover some of the things you have lying around at home, you may be surprised about how few things you need to buy.

If you dig through your closet, you’ll probably find all kinds of items of clothing that you’ve barely worn and forgotten about, and could start to wear again rather than buying something new. Equally, look at the back of your pantry to find long-life food, spices, and sauces that you should eat before the expiry, rather than heading to the grocery store.

22. Repair damaged or broken items rather than throwing them away

Another unfortunate part of modern society is that we tend to see everything as disposable. If something breaks, gets damaged, or is just a bit worse for wear, our impulse is usually to throw it away and buy a new one.

This is one area we should copy what our grandparents used to do as a matter of course, and try to repair the old item, only throwing it away as a last resort.

Here are some ways to save pieces that have seen better days:

• Darn holes in socks or patch a tear in your jeans or a jacket
• Take your old shoes to a cobbler to have them resoled or the heels replaced
• See if there’s a repair shop in your area that can fix your broken electronics
• Repair broken ceramics like plates and bowls at home

23. Invest in high-quality items

Although it is possible to patch up and repair lots of things, the adage “they don’t make things like they used to” is all too often accurate these days. Indeed, many modern products aren’t built to last, either impossible to repair or not worth the effort.

That’s why buying high-quality items that will last you much longer before splitting, tearing, or breaking down is essential.

Instead of fast fashion, opt for a well-made piece of clothing from a local brand. Rather than cheap electronics made by a manufacturer you’ve never heard of, invest in a quality product from a reputable company.

Going for quality comes with a higher initial investment, but you’ll save money over the long term, as you won’t need to keep buying replacements. Most importantly, you’ll rarely, if ever, need to dispose of these kinds of items, as they’ll last you a lifetime.

24. Reuse and upcycle

Reusing things can be a powerful way to divert your waste and avoid it going to landfill. Reusing could be simple, such as reusing old shopping bags or using plastic bottles for storage.

However, you can also get creative, transforming your trash into something beautiful rather than sending it to landfill. Everything from pens and fabric scraps to old shoes and wood pieces can be used as raw material for crafting.

If you have kids, this is not only a fun activity, but it also helps them learn about the importance of waste management, and protecting the environment more generally.

Here are a few fabulous upcycling ideas:

• Make a unique dining table from old wood pieces
• DIY a funky flower vase from old pens or markers
• Turn old shoes into cool planters
• Create coasters from old wine corks
• Upcycle old furniture with chalk paint

25. Spread the word

As with any environmental issue, you can only do so much alone. If you want to help reduce landfill waste on a large scale, you must educate others.

By spreading the word about the problems associated with sending trash to landfill and what people can do instead, you can encourage others to be more eco-friendly in how they manage their trash.

Talk to your neighbors and friends, post something in your family Whatsapp group, or share an article (like this one!) or video on social media.

The power of this comes from the ripple effect: say you convince just three people to take action and reduce the waste they send to landfill. Then each of these people educates three others, passing the word on to three more, and so on.

Before long, this could reach hundreds or even thousands of people.

26. Join campaigns

If you really want to have an impact on a large scale and do something about the world’s waste crisis, you can join forces with others by joining a campaign. There are plenty of organizations, from local groups to multi-national non-profits, working on various facets of this issue.

Just a few examples include:

• Earth Day
• One Stop Waste
• Refilltheworld.com
• Oceana USA

There are plenty of ways to get involved, from lobbying your local representatives and signing petitions to participating in beach or highway clean-ups and volunteering to support the organization.

Final thoughts

The amount of waste we collectively, both as a country and globally, send to landfill is outrageous. We can no longer continue to dump mountains of organics, plastic, and other non-biodegradables and forget about them.

Not only do landfills have a range of negative impacts on the environment – from soil contamination to contributing to climate change – but we’re simply running out of room.

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to reduce landfill waste, from recycling, reusing, and upcycling our trash, to not producing it in the first place, whether buying zero-waste and refillable products or simply buying less.

You can make a difference by changing your habits or have an even bigger impact by educating others or joining campaigns.

For more tips on Green Living, take a look at our posts on sustainable gifts, vertical gardens, and this reading list for eco-conscious readers.

6 key environmental issues and movements in Japan

With over 125 million people living on a series of islands, Japan is a densely-populated country. It’s also biologically diverse with a range of climates and types of habitats, giving it a unique set of environmental issues and challenges.

The Japanese government and population are rising to this challenge, with a range of innovative solutions and policies, some of which set an example for the rest of the world to follow. Let’s take a closer look at the key environmental issues in Japan, and how the nation is tackling them head-on.

1. Waste management

Waste is a critical global issue, but managing waste is especially problematic in Japan, thanks to its dense population and high level of development. The country is the world’s second-highest generator of plastic packaging waste, with total volumes of municipal waste increasing exponentially since the mid-20th century, as the island nation rapidly industrialized.

Japan has long relied on incineration to deal with the large amounts of waste its population produces, destroying almost two-thirds of its trash this way. While countries like the US send the majority of their waste to landfill, this simply isn’t an option for Japan, which lacks the space to accommodate large landfill sites.

While sending trash to landfill has its own environmental implications, incinerating trash is perhaps even more problematic. It releases particulate matter, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals into the air which can be damaging to the environment as well as to human health.

This is one of the reasons that Japan has high levels of dioxins in its atmosphere, a group of compounds that are classified as persistent environmental pollutants (POPs). Dioxins can accumulate in the food chain, and threaten human health when ingested via food.

In 2001, the US Department of Justice raised issues with Japan over health risks to American service members stationed in the country. The DoJ claimed these deaths were caused by pollution from the Jinkanpo Atsugi Incinerator, and worked with the Japanese government to close the facility.

In recognition of this issue, local communities and municipalities have started introducing initiatives to slash the amount of waste they produce, mostly through recycling. Governments at various levels are supporting this movement through sponsoring technological advancements in incineration and recycling, as well as better packaging labeling and other policies to encourage recycling.

The town of Kamikatsu, for example, set a goal to become zero-waste by 2020. In 2018, the town reported an 81% recycling rate, which is very impressive compared to just under 24% of US municipal waste.

2. Nuclear power and radioactive waste

Japan was one of the countries that is the most reliant on nuclear power, generating around one-third of its electricity prior to 2011, but this has fallen significantly since then. This creates another critical waste management issue: how to deal with radioactive materials.

The nation is making moves to establish an underground storage site for radioactive waste, but the high level of seismic activity in Japan has led to a range of concerns over the underground storage of nuclear waste.

Public support for nuclear energy, which was previously very high, has waned since the 2011 incident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A tsunami triggered a meltdown at three of the facility’s nuclear reactors when the loss of power caused their cooling systems to fail.

Now only 18% of the Japanese population is in favor of nuclear reactors.

In 2021, Japan attracted international criticism for dumping contaminated wastewater from the decade-old disaster into the Pacific – further highlighting its struggles with dealing with radioactive waste.

Therefore, the long-term solution may be to move towards less problematic sources of energy such as renewables. Japan is already making significant strides in this direction – more on this later.

3. Fishing and whaling

Overfishing is an issue in many parts of the world, but it’s particularly pertinent in the island nation of Japan, whose diet relies heavily on fish and fish products.

The average Japanese person eats around three pounds of fish a day. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the country is one of the world’s biggest catchers of fish, resulting in overfishing in Japan’s waters with consistently declining fish stocks. As a result, Japan has tightened its rules on fishing in recent years.

Whaling is another key environmental issue. Whale meat was an important part of the traditional Japanese diet, served raw and cooked in a number of dishes.

In 1986, Japan banned commercial whaling in 1986, “research whaling” never stopped, and limited commercial whaling in Japan’s own waters resumed in 2018.

On the other hand, the Japanese government emphasizes that it is an important part of their culture and argues that whaling can be conducted responsibly and sustainably. Though they set caps on the number of whales that boats can kill as part of sustainability quotas, this move continues to be met with international outcry.

4. Disappearing coral reefs

In 2016, Japan’s largest coral reef, the Sekiseishoko reef in the Sekisei lagoon experienced a mass bleaching event, destroying around 70% of the coral, with over 90% at least partially bleached.

The reef had been notable not only for its beauty and size, but also its diversity; over 400 different types of coral had been observed there.

The causes of this catastrophic event have been identified as rising sea temperatures due to climate change, as well as the introduction of starfish that eat the coral.

This issue is not unique to Japan, with rising sea temperatures impacting coral reefs all around the world. The world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, has reportedly lost half of its corals over the past 20 years.

The solution also needs to be a global one: scientists argue that we need dedicated, worldwide action to reduce carbon emissions and prevent further rising temperatures, both on land and in the ocean.

5. Protecting biodiversity and endangered species

According to National Geographic, Japan is one of 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world, that is, places where an exceptional number of unique species are surviving under the threat of extinction. Therefore, protecting this biodiversity and preventing important species from becoming extinct is another key environmental challenge the country faces.

Since the 1980’s, scientists have understood the importance of biodiversity and the need to protect every species in order to avoid upsetting the fragile balance of nature’s ecosystems. Japan is made up of nearly 7000 different islands, formed by tectonic activity and spanning a range of climates.

The country’s plants and animals evolved over time, adapting to these conditions, and being left largely untouched in isolation for millions of years. Nearly half of its animals and reptiles and around one-third of its plants are unique to Japan, giving the nation a responsibility to protect them.

It is rising to this challenge, with the Japanese government leading the way with a range of initiatives to protect its unique species and biodiversity. These include working with farmers to reduce their use of pesticides and fertilizers to protect the broader ecosystem, and breeding programs for endangered species.

Many see Japan as setting an example for other countries to follow in protecting their own native species and promoting biodiversity.

6. Japan’s green future: carbon neutral by 2050

In recent years, Japan has become a global leader in carbon neutrality. The world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, in 2020 the country announced that it planned to be carbon neutral by 2050.

This will be no mean feat: in 2018, Japan produced more than one billion tons of greenhouse gases, so reducing this to net zero will be an enormous challenge. It will involve completely reimagining the country’s industrial structures and implementing sustainable practices at all levels, from individuals to large companies.

A big part of the government’s approach is heavy investment in new green technologies, from the research and development phase to full-scale commercialization and implementation. To do this, the Japanese government launched a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) innovation fund in December 2020 which promises to fund everything from next-generation solar panels to hydrogen planes and cargo ships and fuel cell vehicles.

Another initiative is to make sure 100% of all new passenger car sales are of electrified vehicles by 2035, an area where Japan is already a global leader. Other approaches include building post-combustion CO₂ capture plants and massive offshore wind turbines.

Although the plan is being driven by the Japanese government, the business sector is also stepping up, with many companies and business associations adopting low-carbon action plans as part of a shifting culture towards sustainability.

However, it’s important to consider how much this relies on nuclear power: Japan’s plan involves revitalizing its nuclear industry and even building new plants. Given the concerns of nuclear power, and Japan’s particular issues with disposing of reactive waste, this could lead to further environmental and safety issues in the future.

Final thoughts

Though the country is unique in many ways, many of the environmental issues Japan faces are shared by the rest of the world. From coral bleaching and species extinction to dealing with radioactive waste and striving for carbon neutrality, there are a range of lessons we can learn from the island nation, both good and bad.

In particular, the country is taking amazing strides towards becoming carbon neutral in just a few decades, all the more impressive given its status as one of the world’s biggest emitters. However, this approach relies partly on increased reliance on nuclear energy, which comes with its own environmental concerns.

For more on the nuclear power debate, take a look at this guide to the pros and cons of nuclear energy or learn more about the types of renewable energy.

17 actionable ways to prevent soil pollution (and keep it clean)

Human activities are causing various kinds of soil contamination, with major culprits including fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture, the mining industry, waste disposal, and the improper handling of hazardous chemicals.

This has a range of implications for people and the planet, from risks to human and animal health to threatening our food supply, destroying forests and other habitats, and contributing to climate change.

If you want to learn more about soil pollution, its causes, and its impacts, take a look at our comprehensive guide here.

Thankfully, there are plenty of things we can do to prevent soil pollution on an individual, community, and political level. Let’s start with the big-picture policies and approaches, then look at actionable and easy steps you can take to make a difference.

1. Involve local communities in land and soil management

As with virtually all kinds of conservation, soil management is most effective when it involves governments, companies, and the local community. Protecting our precious land resources demands dedicated efforts and buy-in from all levels of society.

Therefore, it is essential to educate individuals and groups about the importance of soil conservation and what they should do to prevent land pollution. Equally, governments must listen to the voices of the local community and take the time to hear their concerns and ideas about land management.

People often have unique on-the-ground insights that can be invaluable for legislators and help them to create better laws and guidelines. Additionally, communities will be more likely to comply with the rules if they are created with their needs in mind.

2. Improve legislation on soil pollution control and prevention

Unfortunately, there need to be stronger laws in the US and elsewhere to prevent soil pollution. While companies, organizations, and communities are responsible for protecting the natural environment, the best way to ensure that they do this is through strict legislation.

Given the diverse causes of soil pollution, preventing it requires a range of laws and guidelines across various areas and at the state, federal, and international level.

These areas could include:

• Tighter controls on the transport, storage, and use of hazardous substances
• Permanent solutions for safe, long-term storage of nuclear waste
• Restrictions on the use of chemical pesticides and agriculture
• Incentives for organic farmers
• Bans on mining practices that release toxic dust or liquids into the environment
• Encouraging vertical cities to limit urban sprawl
• Laws to avoid food wastage, such as incentivizing companies to donate unneeded food through tax breaks
• A price on carbon to encourage industry to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewables

3. Adopt waste-to-energy practices

Waste-to-energy (WtE) is, in essence, turning trash into power. More specifically, it involves using waste treatment processes to generate energy, whether in the form of electricity, steam, heat, or fuels like diesel.

Industry can adopt WtE to power their facilities and municipalities can use it to run power stations that feed the grid 24 hours a day, just like a normal power plant, but completely clean, with no greenhouse gas emissions.

Many different types of waste can be used as fuel, including municipal solid waste (MSW), semi-solid effluents from industry, liquids such as domestic sewage, and gasses like refinery exhaust fumes.

The most common type of waste used in WtE is MSW, which represents an abundant and continual supply of fuel. Furthermore, it helps to prevent soil pollution by diverting solid waste from landfills, where it could disperse contaminants into the environment.

4. Conduct research on the soil environment quality baseline

In order to protect the health of the soil environment, it’s important to know where we stand. Therefore, one of the key steps in preventing soil pollution is to conduct research to get a clear picture of the current condition and quality of the soil.

Ground quality surveys give us a baseline that we can use to identify changes as early as possible and take the necessary action. This also means conducting regular surveys to monitor the situation and address any issues.

This work could be commissioned by local authorities, non-government organizations, or by establishing community-based monitoring networks of the quality of the soil environment. Strong networks with a suitable data-sharing process will make it easier to develop quick and effective solutions when problems emerge.

5. Implement soil remediation

Prevention is always better than cure, but when soil has been polluted, the responsible party should address this through remediation. If the company or person responsible isn’t willing or able to do so, local authorities should step in to repair the damage.

6. Control mining and industrial pollution

Another essential part of preventing soil pollution is keeping a close eye on major polluters, such as mining, agriculture, and industry. Rather than introducing laws and leaving companies to get on with things, governments need to ensure that they’re following the rules.

This should involve formal monitoring, with detailed plans for supervision built into legislation to ensure key actors are complying with all rules and guidelines.

It could also be a good idea to conduct regular checks of the soil environment to make sure it is not contaminated – this could be done by the company and reported to the government or, better yet, by an independent expert.

Furthermore, as the carrot to this stick approach, governments can offer incentives to companies that implement eco- and soil-friendly practices. There are a wide range of ways to do this: examples include subsidies for organic producers and tax breaks for companies that install solar panels and other renewable energy systems.

7. Be strict when approving new uses of land

Soil pollution prevention is closely linked to how land is approved for new uses. It’s essential that governments carefully consider each application for land use, whether for construction, agriculture, mining, and industry, and weigh it up against possible environmental impacts, including implications for soil health.

Even residential construction can have a range of negative impacts on the soil, so it’s important for authorities to critically assess this use and whether it could lead to soil pollution. Furthermore, before giving approval, authorities should conduct detailed surveys on the current soil condition, and use this to set appropriate guidelines for management and control if the new land use does go ahead.

These surveys will also show if the soil is already contaminated, so that authorities can order a stop to any planned construction or use of the land until the situation is addressed and any risks eliminated.

8. Make companies pay for polluting

It’s not enough to simply have laws and guidelines in place that aim to avoid soil pollution. For these to be effective, there need to be consequences for anyone who breaks the rules.

Furthermore, these consequences should be harsh enough to be a true deterrent to wealthy companies. This could include steep financial penalties and even jail time for activities like illegal dumping, dispersing pollutants into the environment, use of prohibited chemicals, or unauthorized land use.

Another effective approach is having polluters pay the costs of treating and remediating contaminated land. This is a great way to directly hold companies responsible for the damage they cause and discourage repeat offenders, though is most effective if governments retain responsibility for creating plans for remediation and monitoring the results.

9. Promote research and development

Although we know a fair amount about the causes of soil pollution and how we can prevent it, more research is needed. Further research and development will allow us to develop better processes and more effective solutions to not only remediate contaminated soil but also stop it from being damaged in the first place.

This could include research into detecting soil contamination, new soil remediation techniques, and alternatives to pollutants like chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as the soil environment more generally and the impacts of soil pollution.

Unfortunately, research dollars are all too often spent on areas of commercial or military priority, rather than concepts and technologies that could benefit the environment.

Governments and companies alike should take a farsighted approach instead, and support research that promotes sustainability. After all, the long-term health of the planet is essential for the economy, human health, and all aspects of life as we know it.

10. Go organic

Conventional agriculture is one of the biggest causes of soil pollution through the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides which contaminate the soil with a range of toxic components. Modern farming also typically involves the use of heavy machinery that can damage the earth.

Finally, overgrazing is all too common: in seeking higher and higher profits, producers pack farm too many animals on each piece of grazing land. The large concentration of animals strips the plants and nutrients from the soil, causing permanent damage over the long term.

Organic farming is all about returning to more traditional and eco-friendly practices that are kinder to the soil and the environment in general, as well as being safer for human health.

Organic producers do not use any of the following:

• synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
• genetically modified organisms (GMOs) 
• artificial preservatives
• artificial flavors or coloring. 

Instead, they rely on natural fertilizers like manure and compost, natural methods to control pests, and keep weeds under control through crop rotation, mulching, tilling, and hand weeding.

Organic farmers also only feed animals only organic food, don’t give them antibiotics or hormones, and keep them in an environment that is suitable to their natural behaviors, instead of being confined in small areas. You can be confident that a product is truly organic if it carries a recognized, independent certification such as USDA, NSF, and GOTS.

Buying sustainable food is one of the best things you can do as a consumer to prevent soil pollution. Not only to you avoid products that directly contribute to ground contamination, but by supporting organic brands you’re sending a message to other producers.

If enough people shop organic, the industry will shift towards organic methods to meet consumer demand. You could even grow your own organic herbs and veggies at home with an Aerogarden or vertical farm.

Buying organic products isn’t just limited to food: there are a range of textiles, personal care products, and cosmetics that contain materials or ingredients that can damage the soil, depending on how they’re produced.

Equally, if you choose to buy wooden furniture or anything else made from wood or tree products, check that it’s sustainably sourced. This ensures you’re not supporting deforestation and that the plantations the wood comes from are handled responsibly to avoid polluting the soil.

11. Dispose of solid waste properly

Solid waste is a major cause of soil pollution. When virtually any type of waste isn’t disposed of correctly, it can disperse pollutants into the environment: as it breaks down, the material may give off harmful gasses, leach toxins into the soil, or particles can wash into waterways.

Even if these contaminants aren’t directly released into the soil, they may make their way there eventually, whether carried by rivers, absorbed through the atmosphere, or traveling through groundwater.

For this reason, it’s important to responsibly dispose of all of your waste, especially potentially-hazardous materials, such as batteries, light bulbs, metal items, propane tanks, and pharmaceuticals.

At a government level, authorities can encourage practices to treat both solid waste and wastewater to avoid it leading to pollution. This includes practices such as neutralizing acidic and alkaline waste, and separating biodegradable trash to break it down in a controlled environment.

12. Slash the waste you produce

Responsibly disposing of your waste is important, but an even better solution is to reduce the amount of waste you produce in the first place. Even when you send it to landfill, regular household waste can produce a range of pollutants that can contaminate the soil and groundwater.

Recycling is a good place to start. In 2018, US households collectively produced nearly 300 million tons of solid waste, of which only 70 million tons were recycled.

Make sure you recycle everything you possibly can and prep it properly first, such as rinsing out bottles and food containers. Failing to do this can mean the entire load of recyclable items are sent to landfill – so check the rules with your local sanitation department.

Many materials are recyclable, including plenty that you probably didn’t realize you could recycle. Check out our guides to recycling things like broken glass, food containers, and aluminum foil to learn how.

Another great approach is to buy zero-waste products, from toilet paper and shampoo to deodorants and toothpaste. These items are free from plastic, from the materials they’re made from to their packaging, instead using materials that can be recycled, composted, or reused.

Additionally, try to repair items as much as possible rather than replacing them: darn that small hole in your socks, sew in a new zipper, or put a patch on your jeans. Take your electronics and home appliances to a licensed repair shop, or have a cobbler resole your shoes or repair your damaged purse.

Finally, you can reduce your waste by taking action at the beginning of the cycle. Buying fewer things will ultimately mean you produce less waste. Carefully consider whether you really need something before you purchase it and develop a capsule wardrobe of eight to 10 pieces per season – we really don’t need so much stuff in our lives!

13. Get composting

Even organic waste can produce contaminants when it decomposes in landfill. On the other hand, when you compost your food scraps and other organic waste, it breaks down with minimal impact, turning into excellent organic fertilizer perfect for nourishing your garden plants.

Organic matter can’t decompose normally in landfill because it doesn’t have enough oxygen, so it rots anaerobically, releasing large amounts of methane. In compost, it breaks down aerobically, as nature intended, releasing smaller amounts of carbon dioxide – although this is also a greenhouse gas, methane’s global warming potential (GWP) is significantly higher.

In this way, composting at home can help avoid pollutants being released from landfills and potentially contaminating the soil. You can compost even if you don’t have a big yard: learn about composting in an apartment here.

While composting is an excellent way to deal with your organic trash, it’s critical to limit the amount of waste you produce in the first place, especially when it comes to food. Wastage represents a staggering 30 to 40% of the US’ food supply.

This means acres and acres of land used to grow unneeded food, potentially polluting the soil in the process. Be careful to only buy as much food as you need, check your fridge and pantry daily and use items that are about to expire, and freeze things that you won’t eat immediately.

14. Minimize chemical use

The modern American household is full of chemicals, from cleaning products and air fresheners to motor oil and laundry detergent.

Simply using these products can pollute the environment: when you spray aerosols, fine particles dissipate into the atmosphere. Similarly, washing cleaning products, body wash, or shampoo down the drain can send a host of toxins and even microplastics into the sewage system.

These particles can eventually make their way into the soil, whether absorbed from the air, groundwater, or through waterways.

In the US, waste-water treatment only removes some chemicals from sewage: around half of all pharmaceuticals and “newly emerging contaminants” remain after treatment to be released into waterways, according to Scientific American.

Instead of using chemical-based cleaners and other household products, opt for alternatives made from natural, non-toxic ingredients. For example, take a look at these chemical-free laundry detergents.

If you can’t avoid using certain chemicals, be sure to handle them carefully and dispose of them responsibly. Never throw hazardous materials or pharmaceuticals in the trash our pour liquids down the drain, instead, contact your local sanitation department and ask how to dispose of them responsibly.

15. Spread the word

Taking a few steps yourself and changing your habits can go a long way to help prevent soil contamination. However, you can multiply your impact exponentially by educating others about the causes and impacts of this type of pollution, as well as what they can do about.

Start by learning all you can about the issue: check out websites like World Soil Information, Science Direct, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, or read books such as Earth Detox, The World We Need, and The Monsanto Papers. There are also some great documentaries and movies that educate and inspire, such as The 11^th Hour, Home, Michael Clayton, and Erin Brockovich.

From there, spread the word among your networks. Talk to your friends and family, share posts on social media (you can start with this one!), and teach your children eco-friendly behaviors.

You could even volunteer with local organizations that educate the community about soil pollution or related issues.

Earth Detox

CHECK LATEST PRICE

16. Lobby your representatives

Even if you aren’t in a position to implement new legislation or policies, you can use the democratic system to drive change. Get in touch with your elected representatives at all levels – local, state, and federal – and tell them how important soil pollution prevention is to you.

Pressure them to introduce laws that protect the soil environment, as well as mechanisms to ensure that everyone complies with these rules. You can also encourage them to be tougher on companies and groups who cause soil pollution, and to fund research and development that will promote better soil environments.

17. Join campaigns

If you really care about soil pollution, why not get involved? Many groups and organizations are working on protecting the soil environment and associated issues, from groundwater safety to protecting forests and other wilderness areas.

The organizations working on these issues include:

• World Wildlife Fund
• Groundwater Foundation
• The Nature Conservancy
• The Land Institute
• Asia Soil Conservation Network
• African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative
• Kiss the Ground

There are loads of ways you can get involved in these campaigns, depending on the amount of time and energy you’re able to give. It could be something as simple as signing a petition or sharing a campaign on social media, or you may want to become a volunteer and advocate for the cause.

How to do your part to prevent soil pollution

The prevention of soil pollution is everyone’s responsibility. This is a critical issue that can have a wide range of negative impacts on people, animals, and the environment, from posing a risk to human health to threatening natural habitats and even the global food supply.

Therefore, it’s essential that we take action to remediate already contaminated areas and prevent further pollution, as individuals, companies, and responsible authorities. At a political level, essential actions include introducing legislation to prevent soil pollution and hold polluters accountable, funding research, involving local communities, and improving waste management systems, including incorporating waste-to-energy approaches.

As individuals, living more sustainable lifestyles, from better managing our waste to avoiding chemicals and buying organic products, will go a long way to prevent all kinds of further damage to the environment, including soil pollution. We can also educate others and advocate for change, whether lobbying our politicians, joining campaigns, or both!

For more pointers on how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle, check out our introduction to zero-waste or our post on solar panels to power your home with renewable energy.

What is soil degradation?

Soil degradation occurs when soil loses value, whether in terms of minerals, organic matter, structure, texture, water retention, or volume, in the case of erosion. Healthy soil is about 25% air and 25% water – the rest is made up of minerals and organic matter – and is home to a complex “soil food web” of microscopic fungi, algae, bacteria, and protozoa, as well as insects, earthworms, and small animals.

“a teaspoon of soil contains more life than there are humans on earth.”

Assistant Professor Christine Sprunger from Michigan State University

There is a wide range of reasons why soil can become degraded (more on this below), and the level of degradation can range from mild to severe when the ground is essentially dead.

People often confuse soil degradation with soil pollution, and while there is some overlap between the two, they are different processes. Soil pollution or contamination is defined as when the ground becomes contaminated with chemicals or toxins to such an extent that it poses a risk to plants, animals, or people.

Therefore, soil pollution is essentially a form of soil degradation, while there are also other ways that soil can become degraded. Read more about soil pollution.

This issue also directly impacts people: poor soil produces food that has lower nutritional value or is unsuitable for growing food at all, leading to human hunger and even famine. A report by UN Agency IPBES found that soil degradation affects over three billion people worldwide, which is already leading to mass migration and conflict.

What causes soil degradation?

Just as there are several forms of soil degradation, there are also a range of causal factors. These range from agriculture and mining, to deforestation, urban sprawl, and forest fires.

1. Conventional agriculture

Unsustainable farming practices, and in particular intensive cultivation, are one of the major causes of soil degradation. A prominent example of this is the Great Depression dust bowl. In the 1920s, farmers started adopting tractors and farm machinery to intensively plow large tracks of what had previously been native grassland.

Exacerbated by droughts throughout the 1930s, this culminated in an arid, dusty wasteland that stretched from the Texas panhandle to the Midwest, and the dust itself coated cities on the east coast. It also led to widespread poverty and food insecurity throughout much of the USA.

More recently, conventional agriculture has badly degraded soils all over the world. In particular, the misuse or excessive use of fertilizers kills organisms that are a vital part of the soil food web and pollute the ground with toxic chemicals.

Overgrazing is another huge issue. Overusing fields, mainly for the meat industry, strips the ground of its nutrients as the animals eat so much grass that the soil can’t sustain this vegetative growth level. Cows, in particular, can compact the earth, compromising its structure and air and water content.

2. Industry and mining

Industrial and mining activities lead to widespread contamination of soils with chemicals and other toxic components.

Conventional mining techniques generate large amounts of ground, water, and air pollution, from solid toxic particles emitted when crushing or processing minerals to chemical runoff into rivers and streams. These toxic materials may be directly deposited onto the soil, make their way there via waterways, or the soil can absorb them from the atmosphere.

Likewise, manufacturing, transport, and other industrial activities generate air pollution, leading to acid rain that can pollute soils some distance from the original source. Chemical spills and leaks during the transport, storage and use of chemicals also contaminate the ground.

Furthermore, industrial and mining activities can cause groundwater contamination when the underground water table is polluted with poisonous chemicals. This contaminated groundwater leeches toxic materials into the soil, polluting the earth and often permanently degrading it.

3. Urbanization

As our ever-growing cities expand, they degrade the land they occupy and much of the soil around them. Buildings contaminate soils with various chemicals right from the start of construction and continue to do so over time.

For example, even tiny particles or paint flaking off homes can contaminate the earth, and poorly-maintained septic tanks can leech organic material and bacteria into the soil.

Landfills are another massive culprit: as our waste breaks down, it gives off a range of toxic metals and compounds which leech into the ground, waterways, and groundwater. Urban construction can also cause waterlogging, leading to an unhealthy build-up of salt in the soil.

4. Deforestation

Clearing trees, grasslands, and other native vegetation can severely impact soil composition and health. Once plants are removed, their roots no longer hold the soil in place, and the uncovered ground is exposed to the elements.

This often leads to erosion as the unsupported earth washes or blows away. Furthermore, essential components in the soil, such as minerals and organic matter, can leech into the surrounding environment, and microbial life may suffer.

Deforestation in Haiti, which has lost around 98% of its native rainforests, has resulted in huge top soil losses. As a result, the previously agricultural island is now largely infertile; this is one of the main reasons for massive food insecurity there today.

Deforestation in Haiti was also the primary cause of devastating floods in 2014, which killed over 3000 people

5. Fire

Fires are a natural part of many forest ecosystems, helping to clear old vegetation.

However, this balance is shifting, with climate change triggering forest fires on an unprecedented scale, and slash-and-burn agriculture is becoming a standard method of clearing land.

These unnaturally frequent and severe fires can degrade the soil in various ways, from sacking its nutrients to leaving it vulnerable to harmful invasive species of plants, insects, and animals. Furthermore, extreme fires can lead to deforestation, aridity, and even desertification if the earth is irrevocably damaged.

6. Natural causes

Natural factors can also contribute to soil degradation, and this is a process that has long occurred in nature. Wind, rain, and surface runoff can all cause erosion or otherwise lower the integrity of the soil.

Equally, plants may deplete the soil of its nutrients, making it less fertile, and waterlogging can increase soil salinity or adversely change the composition of chemicals and minerals. However, the causes of soil degradation are overwhelmingly linked to human activity, so we need to take action to prevent these and preserve the health of the earth’s precious soils.

How can we help prevent soil degradation?

The three principles to promote good soil health are:

• Avoid disturbing the ground
• Maintain plant diversity
• Make sure there are always living roots in the soil and ground cover above

Therefore, sustainable farming practices (polycultures, polycropping, agroforestry, and permaculture) are all excellent ways to prevent soil degradation. Preventing deforestation and repairing degraded land are also vital for healthy soils.

For more specifics on soil pollution prevention, see this post.

1. Adopt sustainable farming practices

While conventional farming practices, especially over the last century or so have been devastating to soil health, this doesn’t mean that we need to abandon agriculture altogether in order to prevent soil degradation. There are a range of sustainable practices that look after the earth and preserve it for long-term use.

For example, farmers can leave vegetation on the soil rather than clearing it away during harvesting, allowing nutrients to return to the earth. Reducing irrigation by choosing more climate-suitable and hardier crops such as hemp and bamboo can also help prevent soil salinization.

Conservation tillage is another sustainable farming practice that can help prevent soil degradation. Conventional tillage loosens the soil and leaves it bare, meaning it could wash or blow away.

In contrast, there are several conservation tillage techniques, including no-till, ridge-till, and mulch-till, that work the soil without leaving it vulnerable to erosion.

2. Ditch monocultures

For centuries, conventional agriculture has relied on monocultures. This is where a single crop is farmed on the same piece of land over and over. Over time, this leeches certain nutrients from the soil, leaving the soil exposed to the elements during non-growing seasons.

Instead, crop rotation involves planting different crops in the same field throughout the year, so the nutrients are extracted from certain crops during their growth and replaced by others. Similar results can be achieved by planting complementary crops together simultaneously.

Furthermore, adopting polycropping or crop rotation can allow farmland to be in use throughout the year. This supports one of the main soil health principles: having living roots and ground cover year-round.

3. Embrace permaculture and agroforestry

Permaculture is a sustainable way to grow food and other crops while protecting the soil and the wider environment.

Permaculture is based on embracing the efficient designs and structures found in nature. This can include planting species together that have a symbiotic relationship and using groundcover crops to protect the soil and agroforestry.

In agroforestry, rather than clearing trees, crops are grown around them: an example of this is shade-grown coffee. Alternatively, farmers may replant trees, shrubs, and hedges on their fields in order to boost soil health and increase their yields.

Agroforestry not only preserves native vegetation, providing habitats for wildlife, but it can also be favorable to crops by protecting them from the wind and rain, as well as returning nutrients to the soil.

4. Protect forests and promote reforestation

Protecting our forests is an essential part of preventing soil degradation, as native woodlands play a vital role in keeping the ground healthy.

This shouldn’t be limited to simply protecting the forests we have right now: the world has lost more than 60% of its original forests and grasslands, and we should seek to address this by replanting at least some of this native vegetation.

Although reforestation may never be able to fully bring things back to how they were, research shows that it can partially restore soil properties.

Not to mention that preserving our forests has plenty of other benefits for people and the planet, from helping to fight climate change and protecting endangered plants and animals to shielding people from disease.

5. Reclaim and repair degraded land

Soil degradation is a massive global issue, and the solution involves not just preventing further damage, but also reclaiming and repairing degraded land.

The exact process to repair degraded soil will depend on the cause and type of degradation and can include the following:

• Crop rotation
• Applying organic compost
• Planting cover crops
• Soil remediation through planting specific plants, introducing fungi or microorganisms, or apply heat to remove contaminants.

Governments can offer incentives for responsible land management, reclaim degraded land, and fund programs to identify and repair degraded soil. Doing so will not only support reforestation, food security, and human health into the future, but it could help to fight climate change.

The UN estimates that improving soil health could cut our current greenhouse gas emissions by up to 35%.

Final thoughts

We don’t often think about soil health, but it’s vitally important. Not only is it where we grow most of our food and many other materials that we rely on, but soil forms the bedrock that supports all land-based ecosystems.

Soil degradation is a massive issue that, if left unchecked, could threaten life on earth as we know it. Furthermore, the causes and effects of soil degradation are closely related to many of the planet’s other big environmental problems, such as climate change, deforestation, waste, and pollution.

Therefore, the good news is that if we take action to address these critical issues, we’ll go a long way to protect the earth’s precious soils!

To learn more about this topic, check out our post on soil pollution.

The impacts of deforestation may seem pretty removed from our everyday lives, but the truth is, this destruction can directly affect people in a range of ways. If you’ve ever wondered “how does deforestation affect humans?”, keep reading!

What is deforestation?

Deforestation is the process of removing large amounts of trees over a significant area, essentially destroying complex ecosystems. The causes of deforestation can be natural, such as fires or floods, or they can be due to human activity.

Overwhelmingly, humans directly or indirectly account for the vast majority of historic and ongoing deforestation, most notably clearing land for agriculture, mining, and cities, as well as the legal and illegal logging industries and pollution.

Forests play a vital role in the health of our planet. They’re home to the majority of the earth’s plants and animals, regulate the world’s water supply, and act as massive carbon sinks, sequestering greenhouse gasses and protecting the planet from climate change.

As little as 10,000 years ago, most of the world – 71% of the planet’s land surface, a total of 10.6 billion hectares – was covered by forests, shrubs, and wild grasslands. Only around 38% or 4.1 billion hectares of this still exists, with the rest of this area being converted into crop fields, monoculture plantations, cities, landfill, or mining sites, or turned into wasteland because of pollution.

Furthermore, deforestation is continuing at a shocking pace: in 2021, we lost 10 million hectares, or 27 soccer fields per minute, globally. Unfortunately, as things stand there’s little sign of this slowing down.

How does deforestation affect humans?

The environmental impacts of deforestation are well documented, from loss of habitat and species extinction to desertification, water issues, and climate change.

However, many people don’t realize just how much deforestation can impact on people and our future.

It’s damaging to human health

Deforestation destroys the natural environment of many wild animals, which can put humans at risk when these animals go looking for food and shelter and up in populated areas. This can have devastating and dramatic effects, such as people being injured or even killed by wild animals: in 2014, tigers killed 17 people in India in just five weeks.

However, a much more prolific effect is the rise of zoonotic diseases, pathogens that spread from wild animals to people, partly because of increased contact, and partly due to other impacts of deforestation, such as the creation of ideal breeding environments for mosquitoes.

One study found that 1% loss in forest cover in an Indonesian village led to a 10% increase in malaria cases, while another linked Ebola outbreaks to recent deforestation which put people in contact with infected wild animals.

In 2021 alone, Malaria infected around 247 million people and killed 619,000, while the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in Central and West Africa killed over 11,000 people.

Even the COVID-19 virus is believed to have originated from zoonotic origins. Though the exact circumstances are unclear, it’s not a leap to conclude that a similar pathogen and even a pandemic on the same scale could arise from animal migration due to deforestation.

In fact, recent SARS and Ebola epidemics originated from diseases spread by wild animals to humans, and researchers fear the next pandemic could originate from forest animals, driven by the destruction of their habitats.

It threatens indigenous communities’ way of life

Deforestation threatens the livelihoods of local communities, as well as the very way of life of indigenous peoples who have relied on forests for thousands of years.

Globally, indigenous communities are being displaced by logging and other human activities, or are finding that the land can no longer support them and their traditions because of deforestation and environmental degradation. For example, indigenous communities in the Amazon have faced displacement and violence because of deforestation and illegal logging.

It messes with the water cycle

Deforestation greatly impacts the water cycle, as trees play a vital role in regulating the water cycle. Therefore, removing them can cause water scarcity, drought, or flooding at the other end of the scale.

Trees take water from the ground using their roots and then release it into the air as water vapor, which forms clouds and ultimately falls to the earth as rain or snow.

Removing these trees can directly reduce the amount of rain, making surrounding areas more arid, and decreasing river flows. Furthermore, the impact can be felt over an extremely large area: experts predict that wide-spread deforestation in the Amazon could reduce rainfall in the USA.

Without enough water, people can’t grow food, or raise animals, and don’t have access to adequate sanitation. Experts even say that we could see conflicts over water as this resource becomes more scarce in the coming decades.

Forests also absorb rainwater and keep the soil in place during heavy rainfall. Therefore, when we remove these trees, it can cause devastating floods that destroy people’s property and even put their lives at risk.

For example, the devastating 2004 floods in Haiti that killed thousands of people have been linked to widespread deforestation across the island nation, which has cleared around 98% of its native forests.

It causes soil erosion

When forests are cleared, whether for crops, animal grazing, mining, or something else, this inevitably degrades the soil. Not only can these activities leech toxic chemicals into the soil and strip it of its nutrients, but without plant roots to hold it in place, whatever fertile soil is left can blow or wash away.

This leads to soil erosion, and, over time, means that we have less arable land to grow crops or support herd animals for meat and animal-based foods. Together with water scarcity, soil erosion, and degradation can cause mass food shortages and even famine.

It contributes to climate change

When we cut down forests, we lose valuable carbon sinks, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and accelerating climate change.

Climate change is predicted to have a range of devastating impacts on humans, including extreme weather events, food and water shortages, and generally making the planet that we call home less habitable. It could also have extreme economic impacts, with the Columbia Climate School predicting it could cost us $520 billion a year.

People all over the world have already begun to feel the impacts of climate change, with extreme weather events such as historic floods in Pakistan, record-breaking heat waves in Europe and famine in the Horn of Africa, in 2022 alone.

These are just a few examples, and unfortunately, things could get much worse if we don’t take action to reverse climate change, starting with protecting our forests.

What are the main causes of deforestation?

As the global population explodes and we need more resources to fuel our increasingly-demanding modern lives, these activities are accelerating, and with it, deforestation.

Agriculture and forestry

Large-scale agriculture has been and continues to be one of the main causes of deforestation around the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 40% of global tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010 was caused by commercial agriculture.

Forests are cleared en masse to grow crops from wheat and corn to coffee and sugar, or graze livestock, as well as grow animal feed. This not only destroys forests in the short term, but it can make land unsuitable for future use: overgrazing can compact the soil and extract all of its nutrients, turning it into an eroded wasteland.

The palm oil industry is another major contributor to deforestation, especially in South East Asia. Palm oil has long been the world’s most popular vegetable oil, and is found in a large range of foodstuffs as well as personal care products, household items, and even biofuel.

This popularity has prompted producers to clear huge tracts of mostly tropical rainforest to plant oil palm plantations. According to the Say No to Palm Oil campaign, “every hour an area the size of 300 football fields” is cleared by the palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia alone.

As the demand for palm oil continues, producers clear more rainforests to make room for more plantations, putting the Orangutan at risk of extinction, among other devastating impacts on the environment. This is one of the areas where consumers can directly help to prevent deforestation, by making an effort to choose palm oil-free products.

Finally, native forests are cleared to plant pine and eucalyptus to make paper and other wood products, from furniture to toilet paper. Although these monoculture plantations might be forests in one sense, they are not the same as their old growth counterparts: they aren’t effective habitats for native species, are not as effective at regulating the water supply, and are only about 40% as effective carbon sinks.

Urbanization

As the world’s population grows exponentially and becomes more industrialized, cities and urban environments are exploding.

As cities grow, so does their footprint, and so forests may be cleared to make way for houses, roads, and services. These buildings and infrastructure need materials, many of which are sourced from forestry and mining materials.

There are also some less obvious effects of urbanization: for example, urban communities tend to consume more than rural ones, and, in turn, produce more waste. They send much of this trash to landfill, so we need to clear forests and other natural environments to accommodate ever-growing landfills full of plastics that take hundreds or even thousands of years to break down.

Furthermore, landfill and other urban activities can contaminate the soil, which itself a cause of deforestation (more on this later). Finally, people living in cities are less likely to grow some or all of their own food, relying on large-scale agriculture instead.

Illegal logging

Illegal logging can also lead to deforestation when companies cut down valuable, sometimes ancient trees to sell their timber. It’s estimated that between 15 and 30% of all of the world’s timber is illegally logged, which is why it’s essential to only buy sustainably-sourced wood.

Illegal logging is occurring on a large scale and can be driven by recognized businesses and organizations. In 2009, whistleblowers revealed that the world’s largest meat producer, Brazilian company JBS was illegally cutting down protected areas in the Amazon to graze their cattle.

The company’s staggering response was to pledge to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain, but only by 2035.

Mining

Even though most mining activities happen underground, they can have devastating impacts above the earth’s surface. The mining industry clears swathes of land to support its operations and infrastructure, as well as polluting the soil and waterways, which can make both toxic and destroy all kinds of natural environments, including forests.

Furthermore, some materials are sourced using open-cut mines, which can involve clearing large tracts of native vegetation.

Forest fires

Forest fires have been a natural part of many ecosystems for thousands of years, helping ecosystems to regenerate. However, fires lit by people, whether accidentally or intentionally, combined with increasingly harsh environmental conditions due to climate change, means that we’re seeing unprecedented wildfires that are contributing to deforestation, such as those in California in 2021.

At the same time, the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture, where fire is used to clear land and try to rejuvenate overworked soil, saw over 33,000 illegal fires in the Amazon basin in August 2022 alone.

Soil pollution and desertification

It may sound obvious, but forests rely on the soil to grow and thrive. Soil contamination is a huge issue, with the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture, pollution from mining and industrial activities, as well as spills and accidents delivering a range of toxic materials to the ground.

This can poison the earth and destroy forests fairly quickly, or threaten the health of the ecosystem over time. This becomes a vicious cycle: as the soil is contaminated, it becomes unable to support plant life.

Read these posts to learn more about soil pollution and how it can be prevented.

Wrapping up

So, how does deforestation affect humans? From driving disease and food insecurity to causing flooding, droughts, and other natural disasters, deforestation is already having a range of devastating impacts on people.

Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to prevent deforestation, such as:

• Buying certified wood products, wood alternatives, or second hand, and cutting use of paper
• Cutting your waste by recycling, reusing, composting, and opting for zero-waste products
• Shopping for palm oil-free, organic, and sustainably sourced products
• Lobbying your representatives for tougher legislation on illegal logging, as well as farming, forestry, and mining that causes deforestation
• Support organizations and campaigns that protect forests and plant more trees

For more ideas, take a look at our post on how to protect forests.

What is soil erosion?

In essence, soil erosion is when soil is relocated from one place to another, usually by wind or water. As part of this process, the soil is removed, or eroded, from its original position.

This can strip the ground of fertile topsoil and even reshape the landscape. Over time, soil erosion can make the land less able to support vegetation and crops, impacting the environment and humans alike, as well as causing pollution and contributing to water scarcity and climate change.

The erosion process has three stages:

1. Detachment: the soil is loosened or removed from its original location.
2. Movement: the earth is then moved by one of a variety of forces, most commonly wind or water.
3. Deposition: the soil is deposited in another location, whether on the ground or in waterways.

This cycle of detachment, movement, and deposition may happen so slowly that it barely impacts the environment or may occur rapidly with dramatic effects.

There are various types of soil erosion, which include:

What are the main causes of soil erosion?

In the early stages of soil erosion, wind, water, or other forces remove the lighter, finer particles found in the topsoil. Over time, once these particles are gone, larger and heavier materials found in the deeper soil layers may also erode.

Erosion has occurred in nature almost since the earth was formed, shaping and reforming the landscape over time. However, human activity is, directly and indirectly contributing to soil erosion, greatly accelerating the process on a wide scale.

Deforestation and land clearing

Clearing forests and other vegetation is one of the major causes of soil erosion. When trees and plants are removed, their roots no longer hold the earth in place, leaving this soil vulnerable to water and wind erosion.

Even residual roots from plants that are no longer there can create channels for water to infiltrate the soil rather than running off the surface, which could cause erosion.

Additionally, when soil is covered with vegetation, its organic matter is continually being replenished as leaves, fruits, and animal droppings fall to the ground and are broken down by microorganisms.

In the absence of these processes, the soil composition changes over time, and its organic component is depleted, making it vulnerable to erosion.

As large areas are left bare and open to the elements, the process of erosion accelerates. If there are no trees, shrubs, or organic matter to act as windbreaks, soil particles can be carried much further by wind or water.

Vegetative cover and organic residues protect the soil from raindrop and splash impact, as well as slowing down the movement of water, preventing sediment from moving too far and giving moisture more time to be absorbed into the ground.

While crops offer some level of protection, native vegetation such as forests and permanent grasses are most effective in covering the soil and helping to prevent erosion.

Agriculture

Conventional agricultural practices can damage the structure of the soil and lead to erosion in other ways. Agricultural regions in the USA are affected by erosion at a rate of 1,500 feet per million years, compared to 60 feet per million years in the case of natural erosion.

In particular, conventional tillage loosens the soil and often leaves it bare for months of the year, creating a perfect storm for erosion.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that in the absence of conservation practices, cultivation causes soil to erode 100 times quicker than it is replaced.

Additionally, both crop farming and overgrazing can deplete the soil of organic materials, making it more vulnerable to erosion. Organic particles are more resistant to erosion than many inorganic components, so when these materials are removed through grazing or agriculture practices, the soil is more likely to erode.

Finally, when smaller fields are combined into larger ones in an effort to maximize profits, this frequently increases the slope length of the land. Longer slopes mean water can pick up speed and flow faster, and this increased force makes it more likely to cause erosion.

Mining

The mining industry is another big culprit when it comes to soil erosion. Open-cut mines, in particular, not only dig into large tracts of ground, they also expose the remaining soil to the elements, making it vulnerable to erosion.

This problem is compounded by the fact that mining activities often contaminate the soil with heavy metals and other toxic pollutants. Therefore, as the soil erodes, it can pollute surrounding habitats, waterways, and the underground water table.

Natural causes

Soil erosion can happen because of a number of natural causes. Although these factors have been causing erosion for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, human activities have exponentially increased the pace and severity of soil erosion.

Water and wind

Rain and water runoff can easily erode the soil, especially in the case of heavy rains, but even in more mild conditions. Typically, lighter soil types such as silt, fine sand, and organic matter are most vulnerable to being washed away, but heavier soil and mineral particles can also be removed by harsher weather and severe floods.

Even mild winds can cause soil erosion over time, reducing soil quality. Just as strong flowing water washes the soil away, more severe winds are more likely to cause greater erosion, and lighter soil materials are more susceptible as they are easier to pick up and blow away.

A prominent example of this was the infamous American dust bowl during the 1930s, when loose, dry soils were blown away after years of drought and over-cultivation. This further compounded the impacts of the drought and the Great Depression, and the clouds of earth reportedly blacked out the sun across vast regions of the Southern USA.

Natural properties of the soil and the landscape

The individual natural properties of the soil determine its erodibility factor, or its ability to resist erosion. These properties include the texture and structure of the soil, as well as how able it is to retain and transmit water, also known as permeability.

The presence and proportion of certain materials, such as organic matter and clay minerals, can also influence how likely the soil is to erode, with soils with higher concentrations of organic matter being more resistant to erosion.

The natural geography of the land can also make land more vulnerable to soil erosion. Most notably, the slope, gradient, shape, and aspect of the landscape can impact how severely the soil is eroded, or whether it is eroded at all.

For example, in hilly areas with a higher degree of slope, water will move more quickly across the surface, increasing the severity of erosion.

While soil erosion can occur naturally, the severity and scale of erosion is greatly increased by human activities. Furthermore, even when natural factors are the direct cause of soil erosion, human intervention is often the underlying cause.

Researchers estimate that human intervention is responsible for ten times more soil erosion than all natural factors combined. This is not new: farming and other human activities have contributed to soil erosion for thousands of years.

Additionally, climate change due to human activity has made certain conditions that contribute to soil erosion – such as extreme weather, flooding, and drought. Therefore, it’s important to understand how soil erosion can affect people and the environment, as well as what we can do to prevent it.

How does soil erosion affect us and the environment?

Although soil erosion is a natural process, it can have a range of negative effects, especially when it is accelerated by human activity. The increasingly severe and rapid soil erosion caused by factors such as agriculture, mining, and deforestation is already having devastating impacts on people and the environment.

It contributes to soil degradation

Soil erosion affects soil quality in a range of ways. Most obviously, this process removes the topsoil, impacts the volume and composition of the soil, and makes it less fertile.

Erosion also typically compacts the soil by removing the lighter, looser particles on the upper layers. In turn, soil compaction can have various effects, such as reducing the earth’s ability to absorb water, making it less suitable for crops and vegetation, disrupting the water cycle, and increasing the risk of natural disasters.

Erosion and degradation can increase soil acidity by changing the soil composition, making it less suitable for plant life.

As the soil degrades and becomes less able to support crops and other plant life, less and less organic matter is returned to the soil, further degrading the soil in a vicious cycle.

In extreme cases, this may eventually lead to desertification, when rich fertile soils turn into arid desert.

It impacts the agricultural industry

Soil erosion almost always involves a loss of topsoil; in some cases, the fertile topsoil may disappear altogether. This can significantly damage crop yields and could make the ground utterly unsuitable for cultivation.

Erosion can also shape the landscape, leading to the loss of productive farmland as well as damaging infrastructure. For example, bank erosion can carve away fertile farmland while causing damage to fence rows and undermining bridges.

All of this can greatly compromise the agricultural industry, damaging the local economy and threatening communities’ way of life.

It leads to food insecurity

Along with the economic and social effects, food production also suffers when the agricultural industry struggles. In extreme cases, this can cause food insecurity or even famine.

With around 60% of people living in lower-income countries and one in four US households already suffering from food insecurity, the prospect of further food insecurity risks is highly concerning.

It contributes to water scarcity

Soil erosion and degradation can play havoc with the water cycle, leading to droughts, flooding, and water scarcity.

As the fine topsoil and organic matter erodes, this can leave only rock ground that is less able to absorb water, leading to drought, failing crops, and even desertification. Water runoff, in these cases, can also cause devastating floods.

It causes pollution

Soil erosion can also cause problems in the wider environment. When particles are washed into waterways, this can lead to water pollution and sedimentation.

Because eroded ground is less able to absorb moisture, this leads to increased water runoff. In agricultural areas, this can wash fertilizers and pesticides into rivers and streams, causing further water pollution that may poison aquatic plants and animals.

This can devastate aquatic ecosystems, make rivers and canals unnavigable, and cause large-scale natural disasters. Water pollution caused by soil erosion can also contaminate drinking water, threatening communities’ water supply and potentially making people sick.

It contributes to climate change

Soil erosion and degradation can lead to deforestation over the long term. Forests act as important carbon sinks; therefore their destruction releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and increases the rate of climate change.

Additionally, soil itself can sequester carbon, effectively acting as carbon sinks. Top soil rich in organic matter that contains carbon, which can be released into the atmosphere as the ground erodes.

According to the United Nations, there is a direct link between soil degradation and how much carbon it can store. As global temperatures rise, killing off vegetation and driving more soil erosion, this is set to become another vicious cycle.

It can put human life at risk

The effects of soil pollution can put people at risk not only through food insecurity but because of various other dangers.

Soil erosion can cause flooding: erosion decreases rivers’ ability to absorb large volumes of water, and sedimentation build up in waterways preventing water flow. In Indonesia in 2020, silt build-up in rivers and canals caused devastating floods that killed hundreds of people.

When the earth behind seawalls erodes away, this threatens the structural integrity of the sea wall. In extreme cases, this can cause the sea wall to fail completely, putting properties and human lives at risk through flooding and storm damage.

Why is the soil erodibility factor important?

Every soil can be classified in terms of its erodibility, which is its ability to resist erosion, and this will depend on its physical characteristics. Texture, structure, permeability, and organic matter content all contribute to how well the soil will resist erosion.

Texture is the most influential factor in determining soil erodibility:

• The most erosion-resistant (therefore least likely to erode) are sand, sandy loam, and loam-textured soils
• Very fine sand and some clay-textured soils are more likely to erode

Soils that infiltrate water more quickly are more resistant to erosion, because moisture is more readily absorbed and filters through the ground, rather than running off at the risk of causing erosion. Conversely, compacted soils, or those with a hard crust, are less able to absorb water and more likely to be eroded through water runoff.

Conventional agriculture can impact the texture of the soil, for example compacting it through the use of farming machinery or because of grazing animals. Farming and grazing can also lower the levels of organic materials in the soil, reducing its erodibility factor.

When the soil erodibility factor is reduced through human activities such as agriculture, this makes the ground more vulnerable to forces such as rainfall-runoff, flooding, and wind. In turn, this means that erosion is more likely to occur.

Erosion itself can also reduce the soil’s erodibility factor. As the soil erodes and loses its organic-rich topsoil, this often results in poorer structure and lower composition of organic matter, making it more susceptible to erosion.

As the level of organic matter drops, this also reduces the concentration of nutrients and crop yields suffer, meaning poor crop cover which further damages the soil erodibility factor.

What can we do to combat soil erosion?

Given the close relationship between human activity and soil erosion, we can do plenty of things at a political and individual level to prevent erosion and mitigate its effects.

Protect our forests and support reforestation

Deforestation is one of the major causes of soil erosion, so protecting our forests and supporting reforestation efforts is a powerful way to prevent erosion.

At a political level, necessary actions include tighter controls on logging, agriculture, and mining, introducing sustainable forestry policies, encouraging tree-free products, and funding tree-planting efforts.

As an individual, here are just some of the things you can do to protect our forests:

• Buy certified wood products or wood alternatives, and avoid tree-sourced items wherever possible
• Avoid using paper, disposable plates and food containers, and switch out disposable napkins, toilet paper, and diapers for sustainable alternatives
• Join tree-planting groups or plant trees in your garden
• Get your news and magazines online, get an e-reader, and join your local library
• Buy organic produce and products
• Reduce the amount of waste you produce and recycle everything you can

Build infrastructure to prevent erosion

Building terraces into slopes can also stabilize the soil and protect plant life, helping to avoid soil erosion. Planting robust plant species in areas prone to erosion can also help to stabilize the soil.

We can also control water erosion by building infrastructure like walls, protective barriers, or drainages such as pipes and canals.

Encourage sustainable farming practices

Sustainable farming practices can go a long way to protect soils from erosion. Perhaps most importantly, conservation tillage farming doesn’t leave the soil vulnerable to being washed or blown away.

The impact of tillage on the soil erodibility factor depends on how it is conducted: specifically, how deep the soil is tilled, in which direction, and at what time of year, as well as ensuring to leave as much vegetation or crop residues on the surface as possible at all times.

Conservation tillage involves managing all of these factors and tilling the land in such a way as it will have minimal risk of causing erosion or otherwise degrading the soil. These include minimum-till and no-till techniques, as well as ridge-till and mulch-till approaches, which maintain soil integrity and cover.

Cropping practices that cover the land year-round, either with living vegetation or crop residues, can also protect the soil from water runoff and wind damage.

As a consumer, you can support sustainable farming practices and help fight soil erosion by buying organic produce and products.

Final thoughts

Soil erosion is a significant environmental issue affecting the broader ecosystem and human economic interests, food security, and safety. However, despite this, the problem doesn’t receive much attention, so it’s essential to understand the causes and effects of soil erosion.

You can do your part to prevent soil erosion through responsible consumer and lifestyle choices, such as looking for organic and forest-friendly products.

If you’d like to go even further, you could lobby your local representatives to take action on soil erosion, or join campaigns to support the cause.

If you’d like to expand your knowledge on other key environmental issues, take a look at these posts on hydroelectricity, the advantages and disadvantages of biomass, and zero-waste living.

What is the carbon cycle?

For millions of years, the carbon cycle has regulated all life on Earth.

Carbon is known as the building block of life. It’s an essential part of every living being that’s ever existed on Earth, from plants and animals to microbes and bacteria.

Carbon is a naturally-occurring element that was originally created by ancient dying stars, and is now found in abundance on Earth. Carbon atoms can form part of a range of molecular compounds, including all organic compounds, from alcohols and sugars to proteins, including DNA.

There are a fixed number of carbon particles in the world. They may form part of biomass, rocks or the soil, cement, or gasses in the atmosphere.

However, whether they stay in this state or are converted into a different compound, there can never be more or less than this finite number of carbon molecules.

In nature, these molecules move between different materials, forming part of new compounds all the time, as part of a range of different processes, such as photosynthesis, plant respiration, decomposition, and air-sea gas exchange. This is known as the carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle operates across three spheres on Earth:

At all of these levels, carbon is subject to various chemical reactions that cause it to move between living and non-living things, change states, and form part of new compounds. It’s called the carbon cycle because, as part of this natural process, carbon molecules move in a cyclical way, continually returning to their previous state and then transforming once more.

For example, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air, transforming the carbon molecules into organic matter through photosynthesis. Once the plant dies, this organic matter breaks down into organic carbon.

The soil respires this carbon into the air, where it is once again is absorbed by plants and trees, and the cycle repeats over and over again.

More recently, however, human activity has significantly interfered with the carbon cycle. Most notably, burning fossil fuels sends huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere, overloading the carbon cycle.

What are the carbon cycle steps?

The carbon cycle describes the route which each carbon particle travels from the source to each carbon sink, and then returns to the system in a perpetual, never-ending system. The carbon cycle works through a range of processes, with living organisms playing an important role in many of the carbon cycle steps.

Carbon cycling can be either short-term or long-term. A short-term carbon cycle may be completed in minutes or years, and forms part of the natural processes of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

On the other hand, long-term carbon cycles can last for thousands or even millions of years, with carbon molecules being stored in sinks such as forests, oceans, and rocks for long periods of time.

Step 1: Carbon enters the atmosphere

The carbon cycle begins when carbon enters the atmosphere in the form of CO₂ gas.

This can happen in various ways, including:

• Through respiration, where plants and animals convert organic matter into energy, releasing CO₂.
• Through combustion, when wood, fossil fuels, or other carbon-based materials are burned, giving off CO₂ as a by-product.

Through these and other processes, CO2 gas is released into the Earth’s atmosphere, kicking off the carbon cycle.

Step 2: Carbon is absorbed by organisms

Carbon is then absorbed from the atmosphere by plants, algae, and other photosynthetic organisms. These types of organisms conduct photosynthesis, a natural process which uses chlorophyll to transform carbon dioxide into energy in the form of sugar.

As part of a chemical reaction that occurs inside the plant cell, water loses electrons (oxidization), while CO₂ gains electrons (reduction). Through this reaction, water is turned into oxygen, which the plant releases into the atmosphere, and CO₂ is turned into glucose, a simple sugar.

Step 3: Carbon travels through the food chain

Once the carbon molecules have been incorporated into sugars in the form of plant matter such as leaves, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, animals eat these plants as food.

When the food is broken down in the animal’s digestive system, the carbon molecules are absorbed into the animal’s tissues. The animal may then be eaten by a carnivorous animal, and so the carbon molecule moves further up the food chain.

Step 4: Carbon returns to the atmosphere

The fourth and final carbon cycle step occurs when the animal dies, and decomposer organisms such as bacteria or fungi break down the corpse. As part of the decomposition process, carbon dioxide is given off and is absorbed back into the atmosphere.

Breaking the carbon cycle down into four stages is a straight-forward way to understand this process. However, this cycle is sometimes split into a total of seven steps in order to better explain the complexities and variations of these processes.

How is carbon stored?

Carbon is stored in various materials on Earth, which fall under three broad categories:

The majority of the Earth’s carbon is stored in rocks, while the remainder is found in plants, fossil fuels, the soil, the ocean, and the atmosphere. It’s important to maintain a balance between the amount of carbon in each of these reservoirs, as this can have a major impact on all life.

Why is carbon cycling important to life on Earth?

The carbon cycle is essential to all forms of life found on Earth, as it forms part of many of our basic functions, including eating and respiration. It also plays a vital role in the natural environments that all living organisms rely on to provide us with food, water, and shelter.

Carbon cycling is essential for living organisms

All living organisms are made of carbon to some extent, and so we literally could not exist without this vital element. Carbon is the basis for all food sources of all plants and animals, and so a disruption to the carbon cycle could mean that any and all living creatures no longer had access to the food necessary to survive.

Through the carbon cycle, carbon molecules are continually moving through ecosystems, rather than being stored in carbon sinks or in the atmosphere, meaning that they’re available to support life.

The carbon cycle plays an important role in climate regulation

A key part of the carbon cycle is how carbon is released into the air as CO₂, and then absorbed by plants and water, meaning that it is closely related to climate change.

The composition of CO₂ and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere forms a protective blanket around the planet, trapping heat and preventing it from escaping into space. Without these gasses, the entire planet would experience sub-zero temperatures year round, like some of the other planets in our solar system.

Instead, thanks to the presence of gasses such as CO₂, most of the Earth enjoys mild temperatures for much of the year, making it suitable to support life. However, as the levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere increase, less and less heat can escape into space, and the Earth gradually becomes hotter.

Since the industrial revolution, humans have burned increasing amounts of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas, releasing tons of carbon into the atmosphere that would otherwise have stayed stored in the form of fossil fuels and slowly released over millions of years.

This has already led to an increase of average global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius), according to NASA.

Scientists predict that, if left unchecked, global temperatures could rise by as much as 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2101, compared to the 1901-1960 average. Even a much more modest rise in temperatures could lead to devastating impacts, including extreme weather events, drought, and food insecurity.

Therefore, maintaining balance within the carbon cycle, for example by protecting carbon sinks like old-growth forests, would help to regulate CO₂ levels in the atmosphere and prevent the devastating effects of climate change.

The carbon cycle is important for maintaining balance within ecosystems

The Earth’s ecosystems are complex, finely-balanced systems, and so even the smallest change can have massive and wide-ranging impacts. Because it underlies many of the essential functions of living organisms, the carbon cycle is essential to maintain balance and ensure that ecosystems continue to function effectively.

Human activity is impacting the carbon cycle in a range of ways, including, but limited to the use of fossil fuels. For example, deforestation is happening on a massive scale globally, and this is significantly affecting the carbon cycle.

By clearing trees and other vegetation, we remove carbon sinks and cause more CO₂ to be released into the atmosphere. In many cases, highly-effective carbon sinks like old-growth forests are replaced with crops, animal pasture, or mono-culture forestry which absorbs around half the amount of carbon compared to species-rich forests.

The carbon cycle is critical to the food chain

Essentially, food chains are based around how energy – in other words, food – moves from one living creature to another, supporting life further up the food chain. Near the beginning of the carbon cycle, plants absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere and turn it into energy through photosynthesis.

This is equally true for marine as well as terrestrial ecosystems. For example, in the ocean, phytoplankton (microscopic photosynthetic organisms) absorb CO₂ from the water or directly from the atmosphere.

Phytoplankton are then eaten by marine animals, including whales, and so the carbon moves up the food chain.

If this step of the carbon cycle did not occur, every other living organism in the food chain – from the smallest invertebrates and herbivores to the largest apex predators like lions and sharks – would not be able to exist.

Wrapping up

Understanding the carbon cycle steps is critically important, as these underpin many essential processes that support life on Earth. All living organisms are made up of a significant amount of carbon, and rely on it for live-giving functions, from eating to breathing.

Unfortunately, human activities, especially over the past couple of centuries, are playing havoc with these processes. Most notably, burning fossil fuels and clearing native vegetation is causing increasing amounts of carbon to be released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide.

We need to take action at an individual, organization, and government level to address these issues and reestablish a healthy balance within the world’s carbon cycle.

To learn more about critical environmental issues, take a look at these posts on wetland mitigation, sea wall advantages and disadvantages, and waste management.

Thankfully, there are many simple changes we can make in our lives to help reverse this trend and protect one of the earth’s most precious resources.

25+ simple ways to protect forests

There are many reasons for deforestation. Old-growth forests are cut down to use their wood or other materials and removed to create room to plant crops or monocultures like pine or palm oil trees. Alternatively, they are cleared for other human-related activities like mining and urban sprawl. Either way, the end result is the same. 

It’s vital that we protect the earth’s forests. Our old-growth forests play a vital role in water regulation and preventing drought, and are home to an incredible number of plant and animal species: 70% of the earth’s land animals and plants live in rainforests alone.

Forests also play a vital role in climate change: currently, around one quarter of the world’s carbon emissions are sequestered in forests, rangeland, and grasslands. However, the more forests are destroyed, the less CO₂ they’ll be able to absorb, further accelerating global warming.

As a consumer, the choices you make can help to provide ways to protect forests, and you can also do this through education and advocacy. Here are some simple, actionable steps you can take to protect trees at a local and global level.

1. Look for certified wood products

When buying anything made from wood or wood products, look for a recognized, independent certification like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Rainforest Alliance, and the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil. This indicates that the materials are sourced responsibly from sustainably-managed forests.

A Rainforest Alliance Certification also guarantees that the product was produced ethically, and the people involved in all stages of production were treated fairly and paid a decent wage.

2. Avoid tree-sourced items

Better still, another of the useful ways to protect forests is to look for tree-free products that are made from alternatives to wood or paper. One of the most popular alternatives is bamboo, an eco-friendly crop that is quick to regenerate without needing reseeding or fertilizer.

Hemp can be another excellent replacement for wooden and paper products. This material is highly sustainable because hemp plants are hardy, quick-growing, and require little water, pesticides or fertilizers.

Both hemp and bamboo are strong, durable and soft, and versatile: you’ll find a wide range of hemp and bamboo products, from toothbrushes to paper towels and toilet paper.

3. Choose reusable containers

Another great way to protect forests is to use reusable containers, and so helping to reduce the demand for disposable paper containers, which are made from forest products. Invest in a set of good-quality reusable containers, preferably plastic-free ones.

Not only can you use them to safely and conveniently store your leftovers, but you can even take them with you to your local restaurant next time you get a takeaway, and ask them to use these rather than to-go containers.

4. Stay away from disposable plates

One of the simplest ways to protect forests is to opt for smarter choices when it comes to cutlery. Next time you have a party or go for a picnic, use reusable plates and cutlery instead of the disposable variety. It may be a little less convenient, but a bit of extra washing up will go a long way to reduce your waste and help to protect forests.

5. Print on both sides

The paper industry is one of the biggest global contributors to deforestation: 33-40% of the industrial wood traded globally is for the pulp and paper industry, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

You can literally half the amount of paper you use by printing on both sides of the paper, rather than printing everything single-sided. This simple act will greatly reduce the impact on forests.

6. Switch to bamboo paper

Cutting down your paper usage will go a long ways to protect forests, but switching to bamboo paper is an even better solution. Bamboo is much more sustainable than the wood chipping industry, and paper made from this crop is just as strong and practical as regular paper.

You can buy bamboo paper for printing, as well as bamboo toilet paper and paper towels.

Bamboo Reusable Paper Towels - 2 Rolls

CHECK LATEST PRICE

7. Go paperless

Better still, you can eliminate paper from your life altogether! Luckily, we’re now living in the digital age, and it’s possible to avoid paper almost entirely with little effort.

Here are a few ways you can go paperless at work or home:

• Rather than printing documents and filing them physically, save everything in the cloud
• Turn down business cards and save your contacts online
• Switch your paper diary for a digital calendar
• Use a do list app like todoist

8. Ditch paper towels, napkins, and toilet paper

Just like paper, paper towels are made from trees and directly contribute to deforestation. A much more sustainable alternative is to use washable cloths or bamboo paper towels,

Similarly, invest in a set of cloth napkins that you can wash and reuse. You’ll never need to buy paper napkins again, and save a bunch of trees in the process!

You can even replace toilet paper with a zero-waste alternative, such as bamboo toilet paper …

Check out our favorite zero-waste toilet paper products here.

10. Seek out zero-waste diapers

Opting for reusable diapers is one of the more impactful ways to protect forests, and can actually save you money too. Disposable diapers not only contribute to deforestation, but they also generate huge amounts of waste which takes decades to break down, as they’re typically made from a combination of wood pulp and plastics.

Going old-school and using cloth diapers is much more eco-friendly. As a busy parent, washing dozens of diapers might sound like a nightmare, but many areas offer diaper services that will switch out your diapers for clean ones.

Alternatively, you could use diapers made from bio and plant-based materials, such as bamboo. Take a look at our top picks for eco-friendly diapers here.

11. Request digital bills instead of paper

One of the simplest ways to protect forests and reduce paper consumption is by opting for digital documents whenever you can. In the digital age, paper bills are an unnecessary use of trees. Contact your suppliers and service providers and request that they send your bills via email rather than in the post.

Even if it’s just a few bills a month, this can make a big difference over the long term! As well as saving trees, receiving your bills digitally means you’ll get them sooner, and it makes it easier to save and manage your finances, as everything is automatically saved in your email.

12. Get your news and magazines online

Another way to avoid using paper and protect forests is to avoid buying physical newspapers and magazines. Almost all publications are now available digitally, so you can subscribe to your favorite source of news or magazine and read it on your phone, tablet, or computer.

Another benefit of this approach is that you can access the content as soon as it’s published rather than waiting for it to be delivered.

13. Get an ereader

Like magazines and newspapers, you can go digital with the books you read by investing in an ereader like a Kindle, Kobo, or Onyx Boox.

Modern ereaders are designed to let you read for hours without your eyes getting tired, and you can load thousands of books into one portable device. You can take an ereader with you wherever you go, and read them in the dark, so not only are they eco-friendly, but they’re also arguably more convenient than paper books.

14. Rediscover the library

If you’re not a fan of e-books, you can still sustainably enjoy paper books through your local library. Libraries are the perfect example of the circular economy: the organization buys a few books that are used and enjoyed by many.

By using the library, you’ll also be supporting a vital local service and ensure that it continues to be available for future generations.

15. Start sending e-cards

Sending a host of birthday and holiday cards every year also uses a large amount of paper, which in turn contributes to deforestation. Instead, send your best wishes digitally, with an ecard; it’s one of the more creative ways to protect forests – and the recipient should appreciate it too. 

There are now a range of ecard services available, from ready-made cards to custom cards that you can create yourself and even add your own photos for a truly personal touch!

16. Reuse gift wrap paper and gift bags

We all get a bunch of gift wrap and gift bags every year. Rather than throwing it in the trash, put it aside and save it for when you next give a present to someone.

Not only will this help you reduce the amount of waste you produce, but it also means you won’t contribute to deforestation by buying new paper-based products. Along with using old gift wrap, you can also use eco-friendly alternatives such as recycled and recyclable paper, or scraps of fabric.

17. Avoid buying new wooden furniture

Wooden furniture is often manufactured from pine or other quick-growing wood that is grown by clearing old-growth forests in order to plant monoculture plantations. This is bad news for the environment, as it destroys natural habitats, puts species at risk of extinction, and these plantations are much less effective at absorbing carbon than established, native woodland.

Look for furniture made from sustainably-sourced wood, or buy used wooden furniture instead.

18. Buy forest-friendly (or certified) products

There are many products that can contribute to deforestation, even those that don’t appear to have any relation to trees, wood, or paper. Around the world, native forests are cleared to make way for agriculture, whether it’s crops like coffee and soy, or animal stock such as cattle for beef production.

Avoiding products like beef, soy, and uncertified palm oil is the safest way to ensure that your consumer dollar isn’t leading to deforestation. However, you don’t always have to avoid certain types of products, as long as you shop responsibly.

For example, you can buy shade-grown coffee that is grown under the forest canopy, meaning that trees aren’t cleared for its production. Again, you can also look for certifications like FSC and the Rainforest Alliance to ensure that the products you buy don’t come at the expense of old-growth forests.

Farmers’ markets, co-ops, and zero-waste stores are usually a great place to find these types of products. The TREE Foundation’s Rainforest-Friendly Purchasing Guide is an excellent resource that equips you to shop more sustainably.

19. Plant more trees

One of the simplest and most effective ways to boost the number of trees in the world is to one yourself. It may surprise you how much impact even a single tree can have: one tree will absorb more than a ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime, the equivalent of driving your car more than 2,000 miles.

If you have space in your backyard, plant a tree – or even a few – preferably native species that are local to your area. You could also join local groups or organizations and help them with their tree planting or reforestation projects.

20. Support sustainable forestry policies

You can also protect forests by supporting sustainable policies on a local, state, and federal level.

Governments at all levels implement a range of policies that can have positive or negative impacts on forests, from the developments they approve to controls on agriculture, planned and regulated tree-cutting and supporting ‘sustained yield’ approaches.

You can use your voice as a citizen by voting for candidates who support forest-friendly policies. You can also write to our call your local representatives and encourage them to take action in this area, as well as on other issues you care about.

21. Slash your waste

We all know that the world is facing a massive waste problem. A combination of a booming global population and increasing reliance on plastic and other non-biodegradable materials has pushed the amount of waste we produce far beyond sustainable levels, causing devastating water and land pollution, and threatening our marine environments.

However, you may not be aware of the direct relationship between waste and deforestation. As we send increasingly more waste to landfill, landfills need to grow to accommodate this demand, destroying natural environments including forests.

You can reduce the amount of trash your household produces by switching to zero-waste items such as, deodorant, toothpaste, and shampoo. When it comes to household waste you can’t avoid, it’s vital to dispose of it responsibly: recycle things like cookware, corks, and razor blades, to avoid them ending up in landfill.

Finally, aiming to live a more minimalist lifestyle can also go a long way: try not to buy things you don’t need, and repair items whenever possible rather than replacing them.

22. Cut down on food waste too

Another of the simple yet effective ways to protect forests is to make a concerted effort to cut down on food waste. Waste doesn’t only cause deforestation through clearing forests for landfill: the other side of this coin is food waste. In the US, we throw away around 161 billion pounds, or between 30 and 40% of the food supply, every year.

Because agriculture is one of the main contributors to deforestation, the more food we grow, the more forests are threatened. This means that food wasted represents forests that have been unnecessarily cut down to grow food that was just thrown in the trash.

Make sure you only buy enough food to meet your needs, and regularly check the best buy dates in your fridge and pantry to ensure you use everything before it expires.

23. Help prevent forest fires

The leading causes of deforestation are agriculture, the woodchipping industry, unsustainable logging, and mining. However, fires also destroy a large amount of forests every year: fires destroyed 23 million acres of land in 2021 alone.

You can help to prevent forest fires by checking the weather conditions and avoiding any activities involving fire or sparks in the case of hot, dry, and windy weather.

When camping, always build your campfire in an open location away from flammable materials, and always douse your campfire until it’s cold to touch. Or, if you can do without a campfire all together, then this is a great option too.

When off-roading, never drive or park on dry grass, carry safety equipment like a shovel, bucket, and fire extinguisher, and keep your vehicle well-maintained to avoid sparks from your exhaust. Finally, take care when operating equipment that may spark, such as chainsaws, and clear the area around where you’re working, especially if it’s dry and windy, and be extremely careful when burning debris.

Refer to this guide from the US Department of the Interior for more info.

24. Visit forests frequently but responsibly

Getting out there and actually visiting forests will also help you to protect them: not only is being in nature great for your physical and mental health, but this will also make you even more motivated to protect these incredible places.

When you visit forests, whether locally or far from home, be sure you do so responsibly. Always follow the seven Leave no Trace principles when in nature:

• Plan ahead and prepare
• Travel and camp on durable surfaces
• Dispose of your waste properly
• Leave what you find
• Minimize campfire impacts
• Respect wildlife
• Be considerate of other people

25. Educate yourself

If you really want to learn actionable ways to protect forests, it’s important to educate yourself. An important part of being a responsible global citizen is making the effort to learn about issues affecting the environment, including deforestation. Learn about forests, why they’re important, and the threats they’re facing on the local and global levels.

Here are some ways you can learn about forests:

• Read books such as “American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation,” by Eric Rutko, “The World Without Us,” by Alan Weisma, and “White Waters and Black,” by Gordon MacCreag.
• Check out websites like UNESCO and the WWF.
• Watch documentaries including Bones of the Forest, The Burning Season, and If a Tree Falls.

By educating yourself, you’ll have a better level of awareness of threats facing forests and how you can best take action. You’ll also be inspired to take action and to encourage others to do the same.

American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation

CHECK LATEST PRICE

26. Educate others

Once you’re armed with vital knowledge about forests and their situation in the modern world, you’ll be able to share this with others, teach them ways to protect forests, and encourage them to take action too. Encourage them to get out into nature, and learn to love trees, woodlands, and nature in general as much as you do!

Teach kids about forests through books and outdoor exploration, whether the kids in your life, as a school teacher, or volunteering to educate children through your local school or community program.

More generally, share your love of forests with your friends, family, and colleagues, by taking them on a hike or inviting them to participate in a tree-planting project. You could also raise awareness through tourism by promoting your local forest areas as a tourism destination.

27. Support organizations working for forest conservation

There are a huge number of organizations, non-profits, and projects working to protect forests, through conservation, advocacy to protect existing forests, and reforestation. You can support these groups in a range of ways: depending on your capacity, you could give a donation, volunteer, or spread the word across your network.

Here are just a few examples of excellent organizations working in this space:

• World Wide Fund for Nature
• The Nature Conservancy
• Rainforest Action Network
• The TREE Foundation
• One Tree Planted
• Plant a Tree Today
• The Sierra Club

You can also support the cause in other unique ways, such as switching to Ecosia, a sustainable search engine that uses its profits to plant trees.

28. Join campaigns to protect forests

If you really want to have an impact and protect forests on a local and/or global level, you can get involved in campaigns that advocate for laws to prevent deforestation, promote reforestation, and better manage our forests, as well as advocating for climate change solutions.

Learning about climate change and advocating for solutions, including but not limited to protecting forests, is vital. You can get involved in campaigns, whether signing a petition, contacting your local representative, or participating in protests run by organizations like Extinction Rebellion.

You can also demand that companies label their products so we know if they are certified and sustainable. Lobby your local representative to introduce better labeling laws, and get in touch with companies to let them know that you’d be more likely to buy their products if they were certified as forest-friendly.

Simply buying certified products can send a message to all manufacturers that consumers are looking for items that don’t damage the environment in general, and forests in particular. How you use your consumer dollar can be very powerful, so encourage others to do the same!

Final thoughts

Protecting our forests, whether a local forest in your area, or a rainforest on the other side of the world, is one of the most important things we can do to mitigate the effects of climate change and look after the planet in general.

There are many ways to protect forests, and things that we can do as individuals to prevent deforestation and promote positive policies such as reforestation. These range from the type of products we buy and the amount of waste we produce to supporting campaigns and advocating for change.

Learning about forests, spending time in them, and sharing your love for forests with others are some of the best ways you can help to protect these precious natural environments for future generations.

If you think others in your network could benefit from knowing how to protect forests, go ahead and share this post!

What is soil pollution?

Soil pollution occurs when the ground is contaminated with toxic pollutants such as chemicals and heavy metals. It is officially classified as pollution when these contaminants are found in high enough concentrations, posing a risk to plants, animals, or human health.

This term can also be applied to contaminants that occur naturally in the soil if they exceed normal levels, even if this is not enough to pose a risk to humans or the ecosystem.

The soil environment is incredibly complex, being made up of a diverse range of compounds and subject to a range of natural processes. Soils may be home to all kinds of microbes and impacted by rain, wind, and groundwater, which can seep up from below.

All soil contains a range of compounds, including a range of organic material, such as proteins, hydrocarbons, lipids, fatty acids, and DNA. Soils also naturally contain various inorganic particles, including metals, ions and salts (such as phosphates, sulfates, and nitrates).

In scientific terms, all of the above compounds are called contaminants, even if they occur naturally in the soil. Therefore, just because soil contains contaminants, this isn’t naturally an issue, nor does it mean that this has occurred due to human intervention or environmental problems.

However, soil pollution occurs when:

• The contaminants could harm humans and/or the ecosystem
• The number of pollutants present is above the level that naturally occurs in the soil

What causes soil pollution?

In nature, contaminants mostly make their way into the soil through the microbiological processes of soil microorganisms, plus plant and animal material breaking down and getting mixed into the soil. The soil can also absorb particles from the atmosphere, whether from rainfall, wind, or through absorption of shallow groundwater.

Natural processes can alter the levels of organic and inorganic materials in the ground, causing pollution. However, human activities have greatly increased the types and amounts of contaminants that get into the soil, both directly and indirectly.

Natural causes

It’s common for natural processes to change the types of materials found in the soil or their quantities. It’s much less common for natural processes to lead to toxic chemicals accumulating in the soil, but this has happened in a few recorded cases.

However, typically, natural causes will impact the soil in ways that do not pose a risk to people or the environment, such as:

• The soil absorbs elements from the air through a process called atmospheric deposition, but they are not washed away because there’s not enough rain, causing compounds to accumulate naturally.
• Compounds are naturally produced in the soil through specific environmental conditions.

For example, if there is a source of chlorine plus a metal present in the soil, this could be converted into perchlorate, a compound used in fireworks, via a natural chemical reaction. For this to happen, there would also need to be an energy source, such as a lightning strike.

Furthermore, once the soil is polluted through human causes, natural conditions and contaminants present may interact with these particles, resulting in further changes. These processes may reduce the toxicity or contamination level, or it may make things worse.

An example of this could be a leak from sewer lines, causing chlorine to enter the subsurface. The chlorine could interact with elements in the ground, generating chloroform or other trihalomethanes.

Human causes

Anthropogenic (human) causes are overwhelmingly to blame for ground and soil pollution issues. In some cases, this can happen accidentally, or it may be a more deliberate action when industry or agriculture dumps harmful substances into the soil.

Agriculture

Agricultural activities are one of the primary causes of soil pollution. Conventional agriculture involves the heavy use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, which diffuse into the soil.

Over-grazing of livestock also causes soil erosion, changing the soil composition and making it less fertile. Using heavy machinery can have a similar effect by compacting the soil.

Mining

The mining industry is another big culprit. When mines crush or process materials, especially heavy metals, this can emit toxic particles that contaminate the soil.

Additionally, various mining processes pollute surface and groundwater with a range of toxic chemicals, which then leech into the soil. Furthermore, mining activities can disturb the soil in a range of other ways, causing damage, erosion, and releasing contaminants into the earth.

Manufacture and industry

Various manufacturing and industrial activities can lead to soil pollution. Factories and foundries with furnaces disperse contaminants into the air, which are then absorbed into the soil directly or through rainfall.

Equally, all vehicles powered by fossil fuels release pollutants into the air, many of which end up in the soil.

Construction and housing

Construction is another major cause of soil pollution, especially in urban areas. Construction sites contain a range of chemicals that can pollute the soil, the most problematic being those that travel in the air as fine particles, such as PAHs, high levels of which can cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory system, or blood and liver issues, according to the CDC.

Another material of great concern is asbestos, a toxic and highly hazardous material found in many buildings built before 1989. If not handled correctly, fine particles of asbestos may be released into the atmosphere during the demolition or renovation of older buildings, where it is easily dispersed by wind.

Even when completed, buildings can still cause soil pollution. For example, as the paint on the outside of our homes and other structures weathers over time, it flakes off and ends up in the soil.

Lead-based paint can be particularly damaging to the soil, but almost all paints contain chemicals that result in soil pollution.

Septic systems for houses and other buildings can also be an issue. If septic tanks are not well-constructed or not maintained properly, they can leak various harmful and potentially dangerous materials into the ground, including chemicals, bacteria, and viruses.

Chemical waste and landfills

Chemical waste dumping is another big problem. This may be accidental or deliberate, such as in the case of illegal dumping, but either way, it introduces toxic chemicals to the soil environment.

It’s not just chemical dumping that is an issue: the regular household waste that we send to landfill releases pollutants as it breaks down, and these contaminants then leak into groundwater or disperse into the air, eventually contaminating the soil. If the waste contains chemicals, metals, and other toxins, these will also be released into the environment as it decomposes.

Not to mention the other types of pollution released as trash breaks down in landfill, such as the potent greenhouse gas methane.

This is just one of the reasons why it’s so critical to responsibly dispose of items such as LED light bulbs, propane tanks, and cooking oil, as well as limit the amount of waste we use through recycling and buying zero-waste products.

Accidents and spills

Accidental spills and leaks are another major cause of soil pollution. Whenever chemicals and other materials are transported or stored, there is a risk that small or large quantities may leak out. These chemicals may spill directly onto or into the soil, or they may be washed there by rain, carried by a river, or otherwise be absorbed into the soil later on.

Dramatic examples include a truck carrying chemicals overturning on the highway, or an oil tanker leaking petroleum into the ocean, such as the massive BP spill in 2010, when 4 million barrels of oil leaked from a damaged oil tanker into the Gulf of Mexico.

The immediate impacts of an oil spill in the sea are devastating to local marine ecosystems. However, the oil contamination can then spread to waterways such as rivers, eventually polluting the soil over a wide area.

However, there are more simple spills as part of our daily use of chemicals that ultimately contaminate the soil. For example, if you spill a bit of gas when filling your car at the gas station, this will eventually be washed into the soil.

Even storing chemicals, oil, and other hazardous materials carries a risk of contamination. There are literally millions of storage tanks in the US alone that are buried underground for long-term storage.

Over the years, these tanks may crack or degrade, and their contents can leak out into the soil. Given there are an estimated 20,000 abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the US, there is a real risk of improperly-maintained storage units leaking toxic materials into the soil.

This could yet include radioactive materials, as currently, there is no permanent solution for nuclear waste storage in the USA.

Why is soil pollution a problem?

Soil pollution takes many forms and can have a range of causes. Equally, it can have a large number of impacts, big and small, short and long term, on people, wildlife, and the broader natural environment.

Impacts on ecosystems

Soil is literally the foundation of land-based ecosystems, so its pollution can have severe implications for all forms of life. When soil is contaminated, it may not be able to support plants as well as previously, causing poor plant health and damaging vegetation growth.

Severely contaminated soil may be unsuitable plant life at all. This transfers further up the food chain, as animals, birds, and insects lose not only their food source, but also the habitat where they live, causing species displacement and threatening extinction.

Furthermore, when wildlife consumes vegetation grown in polluted soil, it can cause a range of health issues and may even be fatal.

Soil contamination also severely impacts creatures we can’t see: the microorganisms that call this environment home. Toxins can inhibit the growth of microbes, make it harder for them to perform their functions which are an essential part of the ecosystem, or kill them entirely.

Groundwater contamination

Groundwater contamination is another major issue that is closely related to soil pollution. This relationship flows both ways: just as groundwater pollution can contaminate the soil, contaminated soil can pollute groundwater reserves.

Maintaining clean groundwater is essential for a number of reasons. Not only do 50% of all people in the US depend on it for drinking water, but it’s also a vital source of water for irrigation, as well as feeding lakes and rivers, thus supporting a range of natural ecosystems.

Contaminants in the soil, whether fertilizers, chemical or oil spills, toxins released through mining, or leachate from decomposing landfill, can filter down through the ground and make their way to the groundwater.

Contaminated groundwater can lead to a range of negative effects, including:

• Human health implications: Drinking contaminated water can have serious health effects, including dysentery, hepatitis, toxic poisoning, and cancer.

• Impacts on wildlife: Plants and animals at all levels of the ecosystem depend on groundwater directly or indirectly. Polluted groundwater can be harmful, and even fatal, to all forms of life.

Deforestation and soil erosion

Over-grazing, plus using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy machinery in conventional agriculture, can cause soil pollution and degradation. Over time, these impacts decrease crop yields and quality, meaning farmers need to clear more land to plant new crops.

This not only expands the range of the soil pollution over the long term, but it can also lead to deforestation, as woodlands and other natural environments are cleared to plant more crops.

In turn, this can lead to habitat destruction, species extinction, and water scarcity, as well as contribute to climate change.

Additionally, as contaminated soil becomes less able to support plant life, it’s no longer held in place by plant roots, and can easily blow or wash away, a process that’s known as erosion. Soil erosion is a major issue, with impacts ranging from desertification to economic losses in the agricultural sector.

Soil erosion can even contribute to deadly “natural” disasters. For example, in 2020, Indonesia experienced deadly floods when eroded sediments clogged Jakarta’s rivers and canals.

Health, economic and societal impacts

When people are exposed to contaminated soil it can cause a range of health impacts. Toxic particles in the soil can also become airborne, leading to respiratory issues such as bronchitis and asthma when people inhale them.

Additionally, fruit and vegetables grown in polluted soil or with contaminated groundwater can take up these toxins, which we then ingest when we eat these foods.

The exact impacts depend on the type of contaminant, but short-term symptoms can include skin irritation, headaches, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Long-term exposure to toxins through contaminated food can lead to severe, even fatal, health problems such as cancer, nervous system issues, and kidney and liver damage.

Ultimately, if we pollute the ground so much that we can’t use it for farming anymore, this will limit our ability to grow food. This also extends to the other crops we rely on for various uses, such as cotton for textiles and biofuels like corn and sugarbeet.

This has obvious implications for global hunger, which is already a significant concern. According to the WHO, up to 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021, 150 million more than in 2019.

Soil pollution could also have devastating impacts to the US and global economies over the long term, as the agricultural and forestry industries become less productive, make less revenue, and offer fewer jobs.

What can we do to help prevent soil pollution?

Thankfully, there are plenty of things we can do to avoid soil pollution and mitigate the impacts of ground that is already contaminated. Effective action on soil contamination and land management needs to involve individuals, communities, companies, and governments, with all of these groups working together to protect the environment.

At a government level, authorities need to introduce tougher legislation to prevent soil pollution, closely monitor agriculture, mining, and industry to ensure compliance, and apply harsh penalties for those who fail to do so. Other measures could include funding research and development, adopting waste-to-energy practices, and implementing soil remediation projects.

Final thoughts on soil pollution

Soil pollution can be devastating to people and the environment in various ways, from causing health issues in people and animals and threatening food production to long-term eco disasters such as habitat destruction, deforestation, groundwater contamination, and climate change.

Soil contamination is caused by a range of factors, some natural, but the causes of the most severe forms of pollution are almost entirely linked to human activity. As the causes of this problem are diverse, it demands a range of solutions at the individual, company, and political level.

By now, you’ve hopefully got the full answer to the question ‘what is soil pollution’, and if we’ve done our job right – you’ll now be interested to know more about how to prevent it; so check out this post, to see what you can do to help.