Introduction
Often, the modern benefits of civilization create convenience for people and cause irreparable damage to nature. In the last ten years alone, more plastic products have been produced worldwide than in the previous century. The exponential increase in the amount of industrial, unique, and household waste makes us think about the problem of garbage removal and disposal. One modern city resident throws out about 1 ton of various waste per year, which needs to be put somewhere (Chen B. et al., 2021). In the conditions of megacities, the formation of spontaneous dumps should not be allowed, so there will always be work for companies involved in garbage removal.
Notes from history tell that at the beginning, about two centuries ago, an industrial revolution took place in England, as a result of which the first manufactories using machine labor were born. Progress occurred rapidly, which allowed the first factories to evolve into giant enterprises, where human labor is used in a minimal amount. Such rapid progress in science and technology has one significant drawback: the global garbage pollution of the native planet.
Disposable tableware, bags, packaging, bottles, and various containers are the most common types of plastic waste that companies produce every day. Only ten percent of its volume is ultimately recycled and reused in everyday life (Chen B. et al., 2021). Consequently, the garbage may be hiding out in landfills, but the effects on our environment are in plain sight. Garbage is one of the main contributors to our pollution issues. Garbage pollution affects our land, water, and air.
Background and Consequences
The industrial revolution gave rise to various types of production globally, which over time sought to use more efficient and cheaper materials. The pursuit of efficiency turned out to have adverse effects on the planet and nature: greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of the Earth increased significantly. Now that global warming is already affecting the problem, many federal authorities are required to regulate the operation of industries (Narethong, 2020). Most large companies set goals and operations for the transition to environmentally friendly technologies, materials that can be recycled entirely.
The American environmental researcher Chris Dearmitt in his book The Plastics Paradox, proposes, first of all, to separate the concept of garbage from the concept of waste (2020). Garbage should be considered an unnecessary object thrown in the wrong place, not in a particular container, which leads to clogging of the environment where it is left. In this case, the same unnecessary item should be considered waste but left in a specially equipped place, such as a garbage container (Dearmitt, 2020). This terminological approach allows us to separate garbage from waste and recognize the fact that the environment is polluted exclusively by garbage left by man. According to statistics, in the US, 85% of garbage arises due to individual human behavior (Ahmann, 2019). However, of all single-use items with a short lifespan – the ones usually thrown away the fastest – 83% end up in designated waste collection areas, and 17% end up thrown anywhere, i.e., become garbage (Ahmann, 2019). Of this 17%, half of the volume of garbage is lying around the waste collection points, which indicates, although unsuccessful, still the intention of a person to get correctly rid of unnecessary things.
Disposable bags clog city sewer systems and create flood threats, and plastic debris litter beaches, and recreational coastal areas, hurting the tourism industry. Factories producing plastic products release up to 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, and approximately 800 animal species are now threatened with extinction due to eating and poisoning plastic (Walker et al., 2019). It is known that plastic decomposes for about two hundred years. Once in the ground, plastics break down into small particles and release chemicals added to them during production into the environment. It can be various chlorine chemicals, such as toxic or carcinogenic flame retardants. Micro granules of plastic and its chemicals seep through the groundwater to the nearest water sources, which often leads to the mass death of animals.
Attempts to stop the catastrophic trend have continued since the middle of the 20th century. Even then, environmentalists sounded the alarm about the growing “Great Garbage Patch,” which currently, according to various estimates, covers up to one percent of the Pacific Ocean. According to UN environmentalists, about 13 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean every year (Walker et al., 2019). Plastic makes up 80 percent of all debris in the world’s oceans. Under the influence of sunlight, it breaks down into tiny particles; plastic microgranules accumulate persistent toxic substances on their surface (Walker et al., 2019). Undecomposed plastic bags end up in the stomachs of marine mammals and birds. Ecologists have calculated that tens of thousands of birds, whales, seals, and turtles die every year from this (Quispe-Mamani et al., 2021). Animals die of suffocation, or indigestible debris accumulates in their stomachs and interferes with their work.
This problem is social because to eliminate it, it is needed to do only three things: clean up, promote garbage collection, and create conditions for convenient and widespread garbage collection. All three of these activities are entirely dependent on the person and, as a result, are in the area of responsibility of people. The consequences affect nature first of all, but human life lies in continuing this influence. People eat fish from the ocean, which is polluted; people breathe poisoned air. If nothing is changed, then the effect of garbage can be highly damaging in the future.
Points of View
It is logical to assume that those regions are more responsible for garbage pollution where there are more industries. These countries include Asian ones: China, Thailand, Vietnam, and many others. Over the past decades, China has gained dubious fame as one of the direst environmental situations. In January 2020, the authorities unveiled a plan to phase out non-degradable plastic in certain areas and replace it with new materials by the end of 2025 (Tong et al., 2020). Restrictive measures have already affected large cities of the Celestial Empire: by the end of December, shops, restaurants, pharmacies, and other places that serve the mass consumer must completely abandon plastic bags, cutlery, and drinking straws. In reality, China is facing a problem where the authorities’ will alone is not enough. Difficulties in producing and importing household waste for recycling have been going on for more than forty years, and it takes years to change this process entirely. So far, the authorities are putting forward a plan without harsh punishments for violators, but to achieve a result, it is necessary to move on to more drastic measures after a while.
However, the US is also one of the leaders in producing plastic waste. This problem was exacerbated during the pandemic when personal protective equipment was added to the waste (Nwogugu, 2021). The country is trying to get rid of waste through exports and landfills, but these are far from the most effective measures from an environmental point of view. The ocean suffers the most in this region: although the population of the United States is much smaller than India, for example, they come next in the ranking of water pollution with garbage (Anderson & Leal, 2019). Because of this, coastal residents are forced to eat poisoned fish and sometimes even walk on a mountain of plastic. The environmental problem affects, explicitly or indirectly, everyone – from ordinary residents of the region to manufacturers under pressure from the authorities and the global community.
Solution
The decision was born during China’s refusal to partially import plastic waste, on which many European countries and countries in North America were dependent. This decision provides that the import of plastic waste must now be carried out in other countries, not only Asian ones. Advanced economies such as the UK and the US can invest in developing manufacturing industries in emerging economies, which can generate many jobs. In addition, countries that have been able to recycle waste with environmental technologies will also be able to work with their waste, reducing ocean, air, and environmental pollution. Government officials will improve their economy through promising developments, and ordinary people will get cleaner land and jobs.
China’s political decision should not mean that the “problem” of plastic waste will move to other countries or be buried in landfills. Instead, this opportunity should be a starting point for developing sustainable plastic waste management practices and increasing recycling levels in waste-exporting countries. Green legislative solutions for industry allow governments to use this opportunity to get rid of plastic waste where it is generated. Plastic waste regulations demonstrate how green industrial policy can directly affect our daily lives (Chen D. et al., 2021). While research on green industrial policy is somewhat scarce to date, the United Nations Environment Program and the Partnership for Action for Green Economy are leading the way in providing data, insights, and concrete advice to policymakers, enabling them to implement these transformations in their countries (Unuofin, 2020). Therefore, according to this decision, there are already certain developments at the supranational level.
The share of waste imported into China is approximately 8 million tons every year, going to other countries. Such a large volume is unlikely to be immediately pulled by any other state except China, and therefore preliminary measures are required for the UK and the USA. Governments and authorities also have a role to play by investing in recycling and waste management, and the UK government is already drawing up a plan (Jefferson, 2019). The ban exposed systemic weaknesses in recycling processes in the United States. The National Recycling Coalition said the ban exposed problems stemming from dirty recyclables (Yoshida, 2022). The introduction of single-stream recycling in the United States, which mixes paper, metal, glass, and plastic, means that a significant proportion of recyclables are less clean and less valuable by about 45%. Some developed countries have responded to the ban by sending their waste to Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, and some Chinese recycling entrepreneurs have set up factories in neighboring countries to generate income from this new business (Jebe, 2020). The new industry has promising growth rates. Moreover, it can be stimulated by the federal authorities of various countries.
When it comes to state and scientific sources pursuing shared interests, there is no doubt of reliability. The only obstacle to achieving the goal is time. The strengths of such sources lie in their unanimous agreement on pretty large targets: weaknesses – the absence of the only correct solution in practical implementation and the lack of such experience. Future research lies precisely in the plane of applied application, including economic and political nuances. A positive ethical result is to increase jobs in environmentally significant enterprises and develop a critical and promising business area. However, as a result, production may not fully realize the processing in their economic interests, which are above environmental ones. A negative result suggests the intervention of foreign countries in the economy of developing countries’ various buildings in the regions. This development of events can lead to various conflicts, loss of production, and violation of agreements, again to the detriment of nature.
Conclusion
Garbage pollutes the planet, and to stop this adverse effect, the authorities’ involvement is needed. One possible solution lies in the plane of economics and politics: China provoked the need to develop this infrastructure in other countries by refusing to accept waste imports. The development of the recycling industry in developing countries will allow recycling their garbage in return for polluting the earth and oceans and cooperating with the UK, the USA, and other developed economies through investment. However, to fully solve the problem, an integrated approach is needed that changes the culture of consumption in the self-consciousness of each person.
References
Ahmann, C. (2019). Waste to energy: Garbage prospects and subjunctive politics in late‐industrial Baltimore. American Ethnologist, 46(3), 328-342. Web.
Anderson, T. L., & Leal, D. R. (2019). Marketing Garbage: The Solution to Pollution. In Free Market Environmentalism (pp. 135-153). Routledge.
Chen, B., Chen, Z., Liu, Y., Zhu, S., & Cai, X. (2021). Effects of garbage salvaging and suspended crossbar on microplastic pollution along a typical urban river. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 1-10. Web.
Chen, D., Wang, Y., Wen, Y., Du, H., Tan, X., Shi, L., & Ma, Z. (2021). Does Environmental Policy Help Green Industry? Evidence from China’s Promotion of Municipal Solid Waste Sorting. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6), 2799. Web.
Dearmitt, C. (2020). Plastics Paradox: Facts for a Brighter Future. Pearson Education Limited.
Jebe, R. (2020). Deglobalizing Garbage: US Legislative Responses to Disruption of the Global Plastic Waste Supply Chain. Available at SSRN 3730754. Web.
Jefferson, M. (2019). Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world. Energy Research & Social Science, 56, 101229. Web.
Narethong, H. (2020). Environmental Governance: Urban Waste Management Model. Journal La Lifesci, 1(2), 32-36. Web.
Nwogugu, M. C. (2021). COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia, Policy Responses and Multiplier Effects. Routledge.
Quispe-Mamani, J. C., Arce-Coaquira, R. R., Ulloa-Gallardo, N. J., Mamani-Flores, A., & Aguilar-Pinto, S. L. (2021). Effects of Environmental Pollution Generated by the Garbage Dump on the Population of Centro Pobladochilla, Juliaca-Peru. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology, 2416-2433. Web.
Tong, Y., Liu, J., & Liu, S. (2020). China is implementing “Garbage Classification” action. Environmental Pollution, 259, 113707. Web.
Unuofin, J. O. (2020). Garbage in garbage out: the contribution of our industrial advancement to wastewater degeneration. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27(18), 22319-22335. Web.
Walker, T. R., Adebambo, O., Feijoo, M. C. D. A., Elhaimer, E., Hossain, T., Edwards, S. J.,… & Zomorodi, S. (2019). Environmental effects of marine transportation. In World Seas: an environmental evaluation (pp. 505-530). Academic Press. Web.
Yoshida, A. (2022). China’s ban of imported recyclable waste and its impact on the waste plastic recycling industry in China and Taiwan. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 24(1), 73-82. Web.
Social Media: A Distraction In The Workplace
Background
Social media has become an important part of most individuals’ daily life regardless of age. It has changed people’s lives in diverse ways, ranging from being a crucial source of information to a platform that promotes social interactions. Companies have also embraced social media as an instrumental tool for engaging their customers and marketing their products and services. Therefore, it is common to find employees using social media in their workplaces. However, it is essential to evaluate the impacts of social media in workplaces. Thus, this paper explains the research topic, “Social media: A distraction in the workplace.”
Research Topic
The research topic to focus on is “Social media: A distraction in the workplace.” The topic hypothesizes that the use of social media in workplaces is a significant distraction that hurts individual and organizational productivity. As noted in the introduction, individuals and businesses have embraced social media. Any technology has its benefits and shortcomings, and so is social media. An investigation based on the research topic will seek to establish social media distracts workers from effectively executing their duties.
Significance of the Research Topic
The research topic is important to society since the general public will understand how excessive usage of social media can distract them from executing their everyday activities or actively participating in social events. For instance, social media can distract caregivers from attending to infants, jeopardizing their health and development. The topic is essential to an organization because it can help them design and implement stringent policies to ensure that employees use social media for only work-related purposes while in their workplaces. Equally, companies can use findings derived from researching the topic as basics for training their workers on how to use social media responsibly. The topic is vital to me since it will help me explore the way excessive use of social media can negatively impact my productivity at work and in daily life, and plan how to moderate usage of the technology.
Insufficiencies in Current Research about the Topic
Various studies have been conducted to investigate how social media adversely impacts employees’ productivity. However, current research on social media as a significant distractor in workplaces has some limitations that necessitate further study on the topic. For instance, Herlle and Astray (n.d.) reviewed the literature on the impact of social media in workplaces. Although the research provided recommendations on how to control social media usage in workplaces, it was too broad, focusing on both the negative and positive impacts of the technology. Leftheriotis and Giannakos (2014) investigated whether the use of social media for work improves productivity or wastes workers’ time in the insurance industry. The findings of the research cannot generalize the focus narrowed to one particular industry. The recent study by (Priyadarshini, Dubey, Kumar, and Jha (2020) also failed to capture the impacts of excessive use of social media on employees across diverse sectors. Therefore, research on how social media is a distractor in workplaces, focusing on different sectors or industries can give generalized findings and recommendations.
How I Would Go about Studying the Topic
I would research the topic by focusing on different industries. The hypothesis “social media is a distractor in workplaces” would guide my study. I would correct data through observation and questionnaires that target workers and their supervisors. I would use a tracker mounted on the employees’ devices to observe how much time they spend on social media doing other things besides work-related activities. The questionnaires would ask the respondents to indicate the frequency at which they check their social media accounts and the time they spend on the platforms during working hours. I would ask them to indicate how much they believe social media distracts them from working and hurts their productivity. I would then analyze the data get findings and make conclusions.
References
Herlle, M., & Astray, V. The impact of social media in the workplace [Ebook] (pp. 67-73). Florida International University, USA.
Leftheriotis, I., & Giannakos, M. (2014). Using social media for work: Losing your time or improving your work? Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 134-142. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.016
Priyadarshini, C., Dubey, R., Kumar, Y., & Jha, R. (2020). Impact of social media addiction on employees’ wellbeing and work productivity. The Qualitative Report, 25(1), 181-196. doi: 10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4099
The Current Problem Of Obesity In The United States
In their speech, the speaker raises the current problem of obesity in the United States and describes what health consequences it carries. The purpose of this speech is to inform people about the current issue, as well as what effect obesity can have on health. The awareness lies in the fact that some people may confuse overweight and obesity, which does not allow them to respond to the danger in time. Although the media are trying to convince people that obesity is harmful to health, in the United States, there is a tendency to increase the number of people with obesity.
The hook used by the speaker is quite convincing and leads to the main problem of the speech. The speaker does not use statistics or an introductory story in the introduction but only demonstrates the apparent fact that obesity is a severe problem that hurts people’s health. The opening is not outstanding or memorable, but it clearly defines the topic of the further speech, its relevance to the audience, and focuses on the main aspects of the upcoming discussion.
The presentation focuses quite precisely on the research, it is structured and provides information about the current data. The speaker offers statistical data that determines which diseases can follow obesity. The organization of the speech is convenient, it is easy to follow, and it excludes complex professional phrases and words that may be incomprehensible to an ordinary person who is not a specialist in the medical field. The speaker uses smooth transitions and allows listeners not to lose the thread of the presentation.
The central part of the presentation is divided into two parts, between which the transition is carried out. The first part focuses on the current problem of obesity, and the second part describes the role of the media in working with people. The first part identifies the problem and provides statistics, as well as the listed obesity-related diseases. In the second part, the speaker talks about the positive and negative aspects of the work of the media. The positive ones are that people can create communities that help people unite and work together to fight the problem of obesity. Various social media platforms can help develop similar communities and groups.
The negative effect of the media is that through the broadcasting of various programs, people may form an incorrect perception of the problem of obesity. Subsequently, this will also affect their health and physical wellness. The mass media can spread unreliable facts that people can believe. These data make it possible to make the speaker’s speech convincing and convenient for perception and further reflection. In this part of the speech, citations of studies and people taking an active role in these studies are actively used.
The conclusion summarizes the main results of the speech and repeats the thesis given at the very beginning. The ending does not contain practical recommendations and does not encourage people to monitor their body weight and their physical health. The speaker very briefly sums up his speech and focuses on the fact that their presentation was focused only on residents of the United States. The conclusion is not memorable and vivid, which can reduce the correct perception of information by listeners. To correctly summarize his speech, the speaker needs to form several recommendations for people prone to obesity, as well as encourage people to monitor their health, especially in current conditions.