I'm interested in some thoughts on the questions. Especially on the impact of this lifestyle and reduce of emissions of plastic waste on insect communities. Because now we are using long-term items for a replacement of disposable ones or use some disposable things twice for re-use. Is good or not? What if this reusable things could bring even more negative effects on environment and insects particularly?
What do you think about it?
Thanks for responses.
Best life style with highest ecological stability, but very tough to implement.
It is important under which conditions and which products are used. For example you can use in agriculture biodegradable mulch films made with Ecovio from BASF. it is a strong mulchfilm and can be used several times. if you loose materiale on the field, it will completely degradate after a certain time frame and you will not have microplastics in the surrounding.
I'm not sure I understand what is meant by zero waste in an urban setting. Food, energy, and water (at the very least) are imported into the urban setting from the surrounding rural areas. All of these things are being used, and if they are not accumulating, then they are being discarded as waste. Sewage gets treated biologically to turn as much as possible back into atmosphere. Water is used and discarded. Energy, regardless of source, will produce wastes.
The easy way to have a 'zero waste' approach is to have very selective boundaries to your system being assessed. Assume, perhaps, that all waste organic matter is composted, and that compost accumulates. Assume, perhaps, that all of the wastes associated with energy production are external to the system. Assume that waste water goes back into the original source, and so on.
I don't think it's possible to have a true 'zero waste' approach. You could have a near zero waste approach, if all waste materials were returned to the rural areas - compost all organic waste, and use as soil supplements. Construction and demolition wastes get picked over an reused, recycled, or used as clean fill (meaning, of course, that it is clean). Waste water is cleaned and reused to the greatest extent possible. And so on.
Now, to answer your question... We try to build deserts in urban settings - we get the water away as fast as possible. That would have to change if one is trying to support a urban ecosystem that isn't a xeriscape. We import vast quantities of nutrients on an ongoing basis - nutrient management would have to be a significant component of the considerations. Land use planning would have to allow substantial greenspace with complex corridors to support a complex ecology - which means our transportation systems would have to be very much rethought. And so on. It's a fundamental shift away from the way we have contemplated urban settings.
Problem here - there is no zero-waste lifestyle. Waste cannot be avoided only minimized.
Dear Kateryna. Our lab is working on the influence of human impact including urbanization to insect communities. In particular, we have some investigations on and around dumps (scrapheaps). Unfortunately, there's not so much being done in a way mentioned by you in our country. And in this way, our work could be compared to some results of investigations in places with a zero-waste lifestyle. Do you have such places in your country?
One of the biggest problems resulting from overpopulation is the waste associated with human consumption, which is truly a pollutant. If pollution of these wastes is zeroed and converted to their basic natural compounds, land, water and air will be at their best natural and this is one of the most important goals of sustainable development.
Thanks for all the answers. I'd like to ask if you have any ideas on literature I could possibly read on the topic?
Waste 2nd Edition A Handbook for Management
Waste Management Practices: Municipal, Hazardous, and Industrial by John Pichtel
These books are mostly about tecHnicalities of waste management though. Anyway.
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