For many centuries the people who lived on our planet before us had been trying t make their life easier and more comfortable. They thought that resources of the Earth were endless. They used those resources without thinking about the generations that would come after them. Our ancestors chopped down the forests, killed animals that lived there and invented machines and instruments that polluted the water, the air and the soil. Our generation goes on to do the same. But nowadays abilities and powers of man are increasing. Technological progress allowed the humankind to use nuclear, chemical, laser, biological, and other machines and technologies instead of hand-operated and mechanical techniques.
However, technological progress and scientific, as a rule, are closely related to pollution of the environment, including air, water and land, with undersirable amounts of material or energy.
Pollution is a very complicated and a serious problem in all over the world and also in our country. An industrial and intensively farmed country, Ukraine contains some of the most polluted landscapes in Eastern Europe.
The most important treat for the environment in Ukraine is overflowing with garbage. Trash is becoming a larger and larger problem for us and for the environment. The worst situation with garbage is in overpopulated cities and the big industrial cities in Ukraine like Zaporizhiya, Kharkiv and others. But it is not only problem of such big cities. It is also a problem of little towns and villages sometimes.
Nowadays, Ukraine is more at risk from garbage than new political crises. Garbage in our country is a monster with a thousand faces formed by the world’s leading labels and brands. To realize the scope of this problem, we don’t have to consult an ecology textbook. A huge amount of garbage has accumulated in Ukraine, some 20 billion tons of industrial and about 5 billion tons of household waste (weighing approximately one billion tons) — in other words, roughly 500 kg per capita. All we have to do is walk outside to see garbage everywhere, in the streets, near the roads, forests, on the banks of rivers, on lawns and sidewalks — literally everywhere.
The struggle with garbage began with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Waste Management” in 1992, but the problem remains, gaining in size and scope. During the last years are various projects, conferences, and hearings undertaken, but we don’t see the result of them. There is a well-known saying: it is easier to prevent a disease than to treat it. Ukraine needs a policy aimed at reducing the use of various materials made from raw materials (a resource-saving policy), so that packaging can be either recycled or made from secondary raw materials. There must also be repeated usage of certain elements, like refillable cartridges. At the consumption stage we can purchase a two-liter plastic bottle of water or juice rather than a 1.5 liter bottle. Various ecological centers and civic organizations support this comprehensive approach.
The best way to disarm or better to kill our garbage monster is changing people’s mentality and teaches our citizens to sort their garbage by using so-called fractions-separating dry garbage from wet. Various separate collection systems are used throughout the world. Garbage is divided into 34 fractions in Japan and five fractions in Germany. Ukraine is planning to institute three fractions. We need this system to make our cities, towns and villages better and more comfortable.
Some people do not understand why it is necessary to sort garbage. But we must do and learn to do it.
There are a lot of environmental organizations in Ukraine and they we help us to improve the situation.
And now some tips what can or should you do to make our country and the world around us better:
