Consumption and waste

The enormous amount of energy and resources that society consumes results in so much garbage that the resulting air pollution, water pollution and acid rain have become serious threats to the global environment. Humans have accumulated more waste than they can properly manage, and may soon be drowning it.

In modern society 80 percent of all waste comes from agricultural, industrial or mining activities. The remaining 20 percent comes from households. A large part of what we throw away at home (plastics, metals, paper, glass and organic materials) can be recycled.

Concerns about the growing quantities of waste have become even more serious due to the fact that more and more materials have short life cycles . This is especially true of the packaging for everyday products.