The Environmental A-Z…the letter H…

Welcome to my Environmental A-Z…still an A-Z but with a difference …

The idea for this series came about because as my regular followers and commenters know I am passionate about the health of the world I am living in… however often when I am researching and reading articles I come across terms and have to look them up which spawned the idea for this…two-fold… it increases my knowledge and I hope yours…

The A-Z of the environment and Climate Change… letter H.

The best way to predict your future is to create it...Abraham Lincoln.

Hazardous Waste:

Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known or tested to exhibit one or more of the following hazardous traits: Ignitability. Reactivity. Corrosivity, Toxicity.

They are all around us and some come from everyday activities…there are those that may contain toxic substances generated from industrial, hospital, some types of household wastes. These wastes could be corrosive, inflammable, explosive, or react when exposed to other materials.

Let’s not be complacent about this...it matters how we dispose of them and to not comply is both dangerous and stupid.

Let’s start with our homes…Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) is any unwanted household product labelled as flammable, toxic, corrosive, or reactive.

The most common products include aerosols, anti-freeze, asbestos, fertilizers, motor oil, paint supplies, photo chemicals, poisons, and solvents.

How many of these do YOU just throw away with your normal waste? If it then goes to landfill it is then leaking into the soil and water…or do you pour them down the drain, burn them, pour them in a ditch, dump them on a vacant lot, or bury them in a field.

These practices are dangerous.

Waste from hazardous products can contaminate lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater (the places below the ground where water accumulates before it goes to a river, stream, or well). Often only a small amount of hazardous materials can cause serious problems. It only takes one gallon of oil to ruin one million gallons of water.

I know manufacturers have been fined for dumping hazardous waste and many still do it...I am not concentrating on them today as we need to look to ourselves…Know what you are disposing of and how…Let’s start at home and protect Mother Earth.

Household Waste…

It is a proven statistic that if everyone disposed of their waste correctly and responsibly it would make a huge difference…So don’t think that just because YOU throw your oil down your sink or drain that it doesn’t matter …IT DOES.

It is quite easy to dispose of household waste correctly it is also quite easy to take steps to not produce so much household waste if we don’t waste it we don’t have to dispose of it…

We do however need to plan…shop and cook clever to avoid waste we then don’t have to dispose of it…Do we?

The first step in the planning is how we shop…I am lucky in that I have fresh markets within walking distance …I also grow a selection of herbs, fruit and veggies…Not all of you are as lucky as I am so you need to plan, plan what you can grow even on a windowsill or pots, use your freezer, buy fruits and vegetables in season then pickle them, make jams and chutneys or freeze them..take advantage of bargains.

Before you go shopping check that fridge and shop that fridge look at what you have and what you can make from it… those leftover bits of vegetables make soup…flat soda ?…make granola, just freeze it and once frozen scrape with a fork…

Cola also is a great meat tenderiser…3 billion pounds of flat soda liquid is poured down the drains each year…what a waste when we can use it with little or no effort on our part…

Use unpaper towels...Up to 4 months of paper towels! Using reusable towels decreases 3,000 tons of paper towel waste a day. Save trees while saving space and money with this eco-friendly sustainable alternative.

I have ordered mine and will let you know how I get on…

Think before you load that dishwasher with dirty pans and plates have you scraped them squeaky clean into your food waste bin? Because most of us wash our excess curry sauce, soup down the drain…it then sticks to wet wipes, nappies and the end product is a fatberg…One and a half million tons of food and drink is chucked down the sinks each year.

Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)

What is fracking? ….short for hydraulic fracturing, it’s a method that uses high-pressure water and chemical cocktails to break up deep shale formations in order to extract gas …

The dangers of fracking…In addition to water quality issues, fracking wells release compounds into the air, such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and n-hexane; long-term exposure to these has been linked to birth defects, neurological problems, blood disorders and cancer. 

Quite frankly from what I have been reading if any fracking was carried out close to where I lived I would move…HOWEVER, a whole town cannot move…if you own your home who is going to buy it?…

It seems to me that profit is overriding any safety and health issues …the effect on drinking water sources…the damage it can and does cause is mind-blowing…

https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/hfstudy/recordisplay.cfm?deid=332990.

After watching this…I would would say yes…what do you think ?

Although I understand some of the changes HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD and to an extent know what we can do to slow it down, however, I also know that the earth has gone through changes over the centuries so how much can we manipulate and stop what is happening and how much is just a fact of life ???

That’s all for today…I hope I have explained it in layman terms and made some things clearer as I believe we should all have a clearer picture in our minds as to what we can change and how… also what affects our health and how…

See you in two weeks for the letter I…next Wednesday it will be Part 7 of the new A-Z on food and terms with the middle letter being H as in Anchovy…Doughnuts again but spelt properly…mine’s a jam one, please x

Thank you for reading it is a pleasure to see you here I hope you come again… Love Carol x

 

36 thoughts on “The Environmental A-Z…the letter H…”

  1. dgkaye

    Greed is the world we live in, health is always sacrificed for profit it seems. Loved this. I never pour oil down the sink. Much easier to steam vegetables then add a sprinkling of olive oil when done for flavor. Also, medications. I know so many people just toss unfinished meds in toilet or garbage. Very bad! When G passed, I took a huge bag of all his meds back to the pharmacy. ❤ xx

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Jim Borden

    enjoyed the video on fracking; made it easy to understand how it works and the issues. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the fatberg video, since I just ate lunch 🙂

    Looking forward to what you say about the unpaper towels…

    Like

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      Yes, I thought the fracking video made understanding a bit easier…watching Fatbergs not conducive to enjoying your meal wise not to watch…Yes, I am having a total rethink on the cleaning side of my household and making some changes…x

      Liked by 1 person

      2. CarolCooks2 Post author

        That’s a good idea…I was going to try soap nuts which apparently work well but I don’t have hot enough water and the washing machines here don’t heat water and although the sun heats the water it gets fairly warm but not as hot as soap nuts like so I have gone for a plant based liquid one…:) x

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      4. CarolCooks2 Post author

        Yes, because we don’t have a water heater we let the sun warm the pipes…same as the shower we have an a natural pressure but no shower unit which heats water we rely on the sun or have a cold shower which I like ..no mod cons here, Jim 🙂 x

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  5. koolkosherkitchen

    Dear Carol, it is true that using non-paper towels saves the tress, but using cloth towels requires laundering them, which, in turn requires chemicals, which get dumped into soil together with water. What is less harmful?

    Like

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I am having a total rethink on cleaning products and this is the next phase I already use plant-based washing products and unpaper towels are the next step for me…hopefully, they go hand in hand we shall see but I will be reporting back…x

      Like

  6. johnrieber

    This is all so valuable – and important! If we each did just ONE good thing a day to help our environment, we’d make a 4 -BILLION difference!

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  7. Chris Hall

    Fracking is deplorable. Even more so in beautiful unspoiled parts of the world like the Kavango area in Namibia and Botswana where the indigenous people and animals are seriously under threat. Closer to home, I’d like to think we’re pretty good at keeping our waste to a minimum and recycling all that we can, but there’s always more we can do.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I agree Chris and some of the reports I have read about fracking are horrendous and not just in Afican countries but in the US….No regard for human life whatsoever just profit …

      Liked by 1 person

    2. CarolCooks2 Post author

      Always, Chris… I am looking at my cleaning products that’s my next step…lots of things here regarding the environment that could be managed better it’s slowly happening I just feel I need to up my game and lend a hand…

      Like

  9. Sowmya

    Here in Canada , we carefully dispose everything in different bins. For household hazardous waste, we take it to special centres meant for this. But I agree with you that not many people do this .
    Excellent post Carol. Good that brought it to limelight. Thanks for sharing

    Liked by 1 person

  10. marianbeaman

    Someone in our neighborhood must have put left-over paint in the trash, for when the large truck picked up garbage, trails of white painted dotted the street. This is SAD because our city provides proper disposal of such products. :-/

    I am happy to say the items we recycle are at least 4 times the amount of trash we throw-away!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      That is just lazy when a city provides proper disposal… Nice to hear that you are resonsible and dispose of yours correctly although I never doubted that.. I wish they did the same here.. Thais are not good at recycling.. x

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  12. Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

    David is very good about recycling toxic substances and takes them to the local council tip. We compost nearly all excess food waste including any peelings etc and last year used the resulting compost for planting. We never pour fat down the sink and we do use vegetable fat excess when solidified in tubs for the birds who enjoy it especially in the winter. It does not take that much more time but we do feel we are at least avoiding adding to the pollution.. Excellent post Carol.. and I hope many take it to heart..hugs ♥

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      We also do our bit here although Thais are not great at recycling so I try as hard as I can to avoid food waste by not buying it in the first place and only buying what we need..Well done for your efforts..That’s a good idea for the birds although we don’t get winters here like you do and unless it in the fridge it just wouldn’t set…You are correct most things don’t take that much much time or effort Hugs xx

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  14. beetleypete

    Those ‘fatbergs’ are incredible, and there have been many in south coast holiday resorts here. We use a ‘spray oil’ most of the time now. It leaves no residue to have to dispose of, so nothing goes down our sink except the washing-up water. (We don’t own a dishwasher)
    Best wishes, Pete.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      Good to hear, Pete but many people are not so mindful as you are they just chuck it down the sink without a thought for the consequences..I don’t own a dish washer either 🙂 x

      Liked by 1 person

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