What is Light Pollution?

When the word “pollution” is uttered, it brings about visions of litter on highways, green or littered waterways, or even clouds of noxious smoke billowing into the air. Does light enter your thoughts when discussing pollution?

Light pollution is a far more prevalent problem than in past decades. “Light pollution is inappropriate artificial light.” There are four components of light pollution: 

Stormwater Runoff

Storm drains are drainage systems that collect rain water and melted snow that doesn't soak into the ground. Their main function is to  keep streets and roadways from flooding.

Rain, melted snow, and any other water that is allowed to go down a storm drain flows directly into nearby streams, creeks, and lakes, eventually ending up in the ocean. 

Unlike water that goes down the drain in your house to the sewer or your city's waste water treatment plant, water that flows into storm drains is not treated or filtered for pollutants. 

Industrial Waste and Pollution

Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity and includes any material that is rendered
useless during any manufacturing process. Factories, mills, and mining operations contribute to industrial waste.

The world was introduced to industrial waste during the Industrial Revolution which happened between about 1760 and 1830. Some examples of industrial waste are chemical solvents, paints, sandpaper, paper products, industrial by-products, metals, and other general wastes.

Container Deposit Laws

Container deposit laws, also popularly termed "Bottle Bills", were created by the beverage industry as a means of guaranteeing the return of their containers to be processed, refilled and resold. The deposit-refund system is a proven, sustainable method of capturing beverage bottles and cans for recycling and is a very simple process.

When a retailer buys beverages from a distributor, a deposit is paid for each can or bottle purchased. The consumer then pays the deposit to the retailer when they buy the beverage. When the consumer returns the empty beverage container to the retail store, a redemption center, or to a reverse vending machine, the deposit is refunded. The retailer recoups the deposit from the distributor, plus an additional handling fee generally ranging from $0.01 to $0.03 to cover costs incurred by the retailer.

Electronics and E-Waste Recycling

Electronic waste, or more well-known as e-waste, is a popular and fairly informal name for electronic
products that are near the end of their useful life. Every day non-working or unwanted electronics end up in the landfill. The detriment to our environment with respect to the air, soil, and drinking water was not known or understood until more recently.  The definition of Electronic Waste was not specifically understood either.

Generally, the agreed-upon definition of e-waste is usually more of a theory and a list of examples rather than a hard and fast specific definition.

How Do I Dispose Of Unwanted Medication?

It seems that there's a medication for everything nowadays. Allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, depression. The list goes on and on. But what happens if this medication is out of date, unwanted, no longer needed or ? You could do what thousands, if not millions, of people think is best....flush it. 

Unmanaged Landfills Can Pollute Groundwater

Water, the most abundant compound in the universe, is also the most widely recognized and used. We rely on this precious commodity for several different things including transportation, washing, cooking, helping things grow and, of course, drinking. Basically speaking, if we ran out of water, all living things on Earth would eventually die.

Trickle-Down Effects of Disposable Water Bottles Run Deep

“Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours”.* Imagine how much energy Americans could save if every one of the estimated 30 to 50 billion water bottles that are thrown away each year were recycled! Although it seems impractical to think that every one of them would be recycled, if even half of them wound up in the recycling bin instead of the landfill, it would impact the United States greatly.