Our consumption makes the earth warmer It is easy to buy new in a rich country like Norway. But our consumption is about to have severe consequences. According to the UN, overconsumption is the main cause of three major crises we are facing: It contributes to a warmer climate, to loss of nature and to pollution. Why is it happening, and what can we do? Swipe to read more. Snorre Tønset / news Why is our consumption harmful? Everything we buy, from flights to small electronics and food, uses resources from nature. Today, we use these resources much faster than the earth can regenerate them. If consumption does not decrease, or if we find better ways to use resources, the extraction of natural resources will increase by 60 percent in the next 35 years, according to the UN. yr.no Can overconsumption really make the earth warmer? Yes. The world is today 1.2 degrees warmer than before the industrial revolution, due to human greenhouse gas emissions. About 60 percent of this warming is due to the extraction of the earth’s resources, according to the UN’s resource panel. This is because both the production and transport of goods, in addition to the burning of fossil energy such as oil and gas, lead to large emissions. news What about the food we throw away? Around a third of all the food the world makes is thrown away. The food we never eat alone accounts for around 10 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Here in Norway, the authorities and the food industry have come together on an agreement to halve Norwegian food waste by 2030. Already by next year, food waste should have been reduced by 30 per cent. Leif Dalen What can we do? Both producers and we as customers must take action if consumption is to be reduced to a sustainable level, according to the resource panel. As a society, we can become better at reusing the materials we have extracted from nature, before they are thrown away .Each of us can also help by buying products that last longer, can be repaired and can be recycled when they are used up. Last year, each of us threw away 375 kilos of waste. This is the lowest since 2009, according to recent figures from Statistics Norway (external link). But Ida Thomassen, deputy chairperson of Framtiden i våre hands, is not happy about the numbers. – If everyone were to have a consumption as high as Norwegians, we would still need 3.5 more globes. So we are far from a sustainable level, says Thomassen. She believes that development is going in the right direction – but too slowly. – It is good that the amount of waste is decreasing, but it must be faster if we are to reach the targets to which we have committed ourselves, also through the EU. Deputy chairperson of Framtiden i våre hands, Ida Thomassen. Photo: Knut Neerland / The future in our hands 75 per cent of everything usable is thrown away Head of recycling Tord Tjelflaat has worked at the waste disposal company Ivar for 25 years. Never before has he participated in a year with less waste than 2023. In Rogaland, 372 kilograms of waste per inhabitant was thrown away in 2023. This is three kilograms below the average. – It is very gratifying to see that we are in a trend where the amount of waste is decreasing, says Tjelflaat. But Ivar was still not satisfied. Tjelflaat picks up a teddy bear. A Barbie doll. And an unopened packet of toilet paper. – Don’t tell me that these cannot be used again, he says. 75 percent of the usable items still end up in the rubbish containers. This is shown by internal investigations that Ivar has carried out. They want more people to become better at recycling. Recycling manager in Ivar, Tord Tjelflaat, was not as positive about the figures either. He believes that we have a way to go, also on recycling. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news ROGALAND The government also wants that. State Secretary in the Ministry of Climate and the Environment, Kjersti Bjørnstad, says that the government is working on both measures and tools to make things last longer. At the same time, she points to you and me. – Here, all consumers can contribute by taking good care of the things we have, so that they last as long as possible. State Secretary Kjersti Bjørnstad in the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Photo: TROND ISAKSEN / © PHOTO TROND ISAKSEN Food waste is increasing Despite the fact that waste has decreased, food waste continues to increase. Between 2022 and 2023, food waste increased by 8 per cent, i.e. 16,000 tonnes. Bjørnstad tells news that they will study the recent Statistics Norway figures to find effective measures to reduce the amount of waste. – We are working to reduce food waste by 50 per cent by 2030, which was the reason why we set up the Food Waste Committee. They submitted a good and comprehensive report, with 35 recommended measures. We are working to follow up on the many pieces of advice from the committee, she says. The fact that we throw away more food waste causes food blogger Mart Hult to react. – It is absolutely terrible with everything that goes wrong. It is not sustainable if everyone has to live like Norwegians. The least we can do is eat what we buy. In the past year, she has changed a lot in her lifestyle, and tried to buy as little food as possible. Last summer she decided not to buy a single food item for a month. For over thirty days, she used goods she already had from before and raw materials from her own kitchen garden. Food blogger Mari Hult has long tried to limit food waste. Photo: Willem Leendertse – Eventually I noticed that a kind of addiction to going to shops disappeared. It made me happy. It sounds a bit strange, maybe, but there was just something liberating about not going to the store. Now she is doing it for the third time. – Going to shops has become a bit troublesome. Shops are designed to give you a rush of happiness with the sweets at the exit, good offers and fresh vegetable counters. Now it doesn’t work for me anymore. Hult has several tips on how you can throw away less food: Get an overview of what you have – Food is money. When you throw away food, you throw away money. There is a lot you can avoid buying because you already have it. Substitute ingredients if you are missing something – I learned last summer to think; Do I really need the ingredient? Or can I replace it with something I already have? – I was supposed to have dates in a dish, but I didn’t have them. But I had raisins, so I used them instead of buying new dates. Lower the Ambition Level – I did a lot by lowering the ambition level to what counts as a proper meal. – Too often we are so determined about what a dinner should be, what a breakfast should be, what we should have, we want perhaps a little too many elements, and then a little more is needed before we are satisfied. Instead, I tried to think: If I get enough nutrition and feel full, then this is a good enough meal for me. Limit what you bring into the house – It’s one thing to reduce the food waste you throw away at home, but if you can reduce what you bring into the house, then you’re well on your way. Learn how to best store vegetables – Store things correctly, so that they don’t go bad. When I get lettuce in, I wash and shred it. And then I leave it in a bowl with a wet towel on top. Then it holds up well. What are your best tips for throwing away less? Feel free to comment below. Hello! Welcome to dialogue at news. Since you are logged in to other news services, you do not have to log in again here, but we need your consent to our terms of use for online dialogue Published 18.06.2024, at 21.07
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We haven’t thrown away so little waste since 2009 – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
