“Conservation of resources”
Conservation of resources can be interpreted in at least two ways. One, this refers to the sustainable extraction and management of natural resources to manufacture man-made products for the benefit of human society, such as logging for wood, mining for metal ores and, converting land for agriculture. In this interpretation, it would be counterintuitive to claim, for example, that the use of metal straws may be more environmentally damaging than a typical single-use plastic straws. However, because metal straws are much more resource-intensive (e.g. metal ores, fossil fuel) than plastic straws, research led by Takunda Chitaka suggests that the production of one metal straw generates approximately 37 times the amount of greenhouse gas emission as a plastic straw. In other words, you would have to use one metal straw at least 38 times to have less environmentally impact than one plastic straw.
Another interpretation has to do with the management of man-made resources, from designated national landfills down to individual water bottles. In most cases, the management involves proper and responsible waste disposal that minimises these resources’ effect on the environment once they reach the end of their life cycle. To illustrate, the Semakau landfill in Singapore presents a modern issue of resource conservation because the increase in consumption, and the accompanying waste generated, over the years have exponentially grown and by contrast, diminishing the landfill’s ability to contain the waste. Rather than the expected 2045 projection to reach full capacity, the landfill is expected to run out of space for new trash 10 years earlier. According to the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, the amount of waste swelled by up to seven times since 1980s, which happen to also debut a new invention that revolutionised how we packaged and made stuff – single-use plastics.
| By means of responsible production, consumption… |