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Everyday we consume enormous quantities of materials in our lives. The problem that we have is that once something is consumed, more often than not, it must be disposed of. Some items might give us a large amount of useful time, while on the other hand; other items have an extremely limited life expectancy. As an example, let us consider newspaper. Most people do not build a library consisting of newspaper.

How do we dispose of the products that we use? Most often, these items are sent into the countryside and they are buried. The resources used in creating these products might be immense, yet our disposal methods are Spartan and completely wasteful. Not only are we wasting valuable natural resources, we also have a larger problem on our hands.

Every time you read a newspaper, do you consider what happens to it after you read it? More often than not, you don't know and you don't care. Millions of newspapers are discarded into landfills every day and the average person never considers the amount of resources that went into making the paper, the ink and the actual production of the newspaper. Not only do we have the original consumption of the trees that were cut down, we also have the energy that was required to make the newspaper. The second half of the problem is that once we do toss the waste into the landfill, we have inks and chemicals leaching into the ground and in our water supply.

When we dispose of something in a landfill, this is one item that will never have the opportunity of being recycled. If there is any possibility given, recycling is always the better choice of disposal than landfills. Every scrap of material that enters a landfill is an item that represents 100 percent waste.

Recycling is always the best answer as far as the disposal of an item. If an item has no practical way of being recycled, the there should be serious discussion as to the reason of why that product should have ever been manufactured. If something has no value as being recycled, this is something that should never have been created.

Every product that we consume was created from a certain amount of natural resources and energy. If we dispose of this item in a landfill, then every bit of resources that was used to create this item is ultimately lost. On the other hand, if we recycle, than at the bare minimum, we will recover at least a portion of the energy and resources needed to create a product.

Some products require a much larger initial investment than others. The manufacturing process always requires some degree of waste. The only real solution to the reduction of landfills is to consider how we can reconsider what we can do to create less wasteful products.

It might appear easy to be a consumer with no regard for what happens next. The reality is that everything that we consume must be accounted for. Newspaper and food packaging are two enormous wasters of natural resources.

The problem is not one that will correct itself. We will either pay now, or we will pay later. If we don't answer immediately for our problems, or children and there children will answer for our carelessness.

The bottom line is that landfills do not work. As humans we need to develop methods where we do not create wasteful products in the first place. We should never create products that we do not intend to be around for a considerable mount of time. We are stewards of the planet and it is our responsibility to take care of the resources that we have been given.

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