Our Homes’ Garbage Problem

In the context of our garbage problem, what defines “home”? Some would think it’s the structure we live in. Others picture the city or even state they reside. Is it our country? Nope. Think bigger. When we speak of the garbage problem we are facing, our home is defined as Earth.

All over the world, garbage is piling up not just in landfills, but along city streets and in our waterways and oceans. How many of us have actually been to one of these overflowing landfills? What about our children? I have personally experienced a landfill, but my children have not and although we recycle, compost and try to reduce our waste, I’m not sure that they really and truly understand why. Now, I say “experienced a landfill” because when you visit one of these places, you just don’t look at it, you are in awe of it. Most people literally experience some form of emotion when they truly realize the amount of waste being produced in such a small area of our planet and then wonder just how can we continue, as a civilization, to keep living the same way we always have? Where will it all go?

Rainwater Harvesting – Are we facing increasing future water shortages?

The short answer… If human daily living habits around the world don’t change for the better, absolutely.

Now for the longer one… When most of us think of collecting rainwater, we might think of weathered oak barrels with rusty metal bands sitting at the corner of a an old barn – right next to the hitchin’ post. While it’s true that the practice of conserving rainwater dates back to forever ago, it’s not a practice we’ve seen much of in the past few decades in the U.S. Over time, our country’s population has come to take clean water for granted. However, this is proving to be a dangerous stance.