50kg of trash - that was our yield of the NIKIN Clean Up Day 2022! Together with 17 motivated helpers, we freed our home base Lenzburg from waste in three groups on September 17. We sorted the waste into PET, aluminum, glass and metal and recycled it accordingly. In total, 50kg of waste were collected, which means that we will plant 50 trees.
However, littering, i.e. the habit of carelessly throwing away or leaving litter lying around in public spaces, remains a global problem. The packaging, cigarette butts, aluminum cans, beverage bottles and other items lying around are a nuisance and do not belong in nature. Did you know, for example, that it takes 100 years for an aluminum can to decompose? For glass bottles it is even 4000 years. Chewing gum lasts 5 years. And yet, that's where we keep encountering it. What can we do about it?
1. reduce: Try to avoid disposable products whenever possible. There are now really great alternatives for most things, like reusable cotton pads, washable rags and sponges, cloth shopping bags, coffee mugs and water bottles that last forever, cloth napkins instead of paper ones, and on and on.
2. Reuse: If you've already reduced, but maybe still can't get around a disposable product, try to reuse it as often as possible. There are no limits to creativity and things can and should definitely be repurposed - you can even conjure up flower boxes out of pet bottles, for example.
3. recycle: Once you have followed the first two steps, it is very important to recycle the leftover waste properly. Aluminum, glass, kitchen waste, paper, cardboard, pet, shampoo bottles, batteries, electronic waste and hazardous waste can all be disposed of properly, at least in Switzerland.
Have you already firmly anchored these steps in your everyday life? Or where do you think we can all improve?
