Section 4.3.2 - Resource management

Resources are important in today's society therefore it is important to reduce waste in as many ways as possible.

Energy and material use can affect human carrying capacity since the more resources there are the more people can use them, this however is limited by several factors and it is therefore important to manage resources better.

How To Achieve It

recycling, for example in Switzeland there are facilities for each village at the dump where people sort there trash into different parts these are: paper, aluminium, cooking oils, PET (plastic), glass (different colours) and garden waste (decaying vegetation)

Re-use: this part may include second hand products such as cars, clothes and more.

re-manufacturing which is similar to recycling may put products such as aluminium cans, bottles etc. back into the circuit. A way in which this may be done is by melting down the material and using it for a newer product.

Cutting Down On Energy Use

By increasing the use of public transport we may reduce the amount of emissions into the atmosphere, this may be done by increasing transport convenience and lowering the cost. Another method is by using "Green taxes", these would increase the price of petrol, increase the cost for using roads and more.

Within the home we may improve the house's efficiency through double glazing which would reduce heat loss, increase bulb efficiency so that they burn for longer and use less power and reduce the amount of water used daily within the home.

Materials

To reduce the amount of materials used we may reduce the amount of packaged products we buy as the packing is sometimes useless, in other circumstances where it is necessary we may re-use the container for something else, for example certain jars can be used as glasses etc.

Another element is whether we need everything we have, for example by reducing on the amount of objects in our houses which we do not use.