Society has been noticing the dimension of the unmeasured use of the natural resources from our planet. The demanding for products that use raw material coming from the environment has been increasing due to the high level of productivity and consumerism. This situation is putting in risk, not only the ecosystems that suffer with this degradation, but also the own destiny of humanity, that has been being compromised by the unbearable patterns of consumerism.
On the other hand, consume in the right amount is one of the comforts conquered by the modern society, whether with home appliances that become the day-by-day more practical, with varied food and creative and useful packaging, with a comfortable car or with technological systems created to facilitate daily life. This way, the severe environmental problem comes from the society habits related to the unrestrained consumerism and the waste generation from this reckless consumerism and that do not understand that the natural resources can have an end.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Changes (Painel Intergovernamental de Mudanças Climáticas – IPCC, in Portuguese), the scenario for the next 100 years is pessimist. The projections about the impacts of the climate changes indicate a loss of biodiversity, a drop in agricultural production, a population displacement, an increasing on the sea level and an intensification of events. Soon, measures must be done so that there are some growing dispositions to reverse these circumstances.
The Solid Waste National Politics (Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos – PNRS, in Portuguese), through the principle of the Shared Responsibility, shows up as a way to organize the sustainable discard of the generated waste by the excessive consumerism. It obligates all the solid waste generators to manage their wastes in an adequate way rewarding those that are available to fight against the waste generation and, with this, to star changing the current scenario of mountains of waste spread in the country and punishing the ones that generate without worrying with the final disposal of their wastes, through service taxes that can be afterwards converted for the treatment of their wastes.
The technology in favor of the conscious consumerism
It is to help on the waste management that the tool MyWaste has to contribute with the environment, facilitating the waste life cycle management by the generator companies, transportation, logistics, environmental agencies, environmental consulting and waste management.
As the solid waste generation is directly linked to the cultural patterns and the habits of society’s consumerism, the concept of generating less quantity of solid waste ends up closely connected to the efficient management of all the waste productive chain.
The use of modern and innovative technologies aggregates productivity and controls the waste management processes generated by companies, helping to eliminate waste. Investing in software that guarantee quality and transparency on the given service on the generation and waste discard sector is an alternative that contributes to the planet’s sustainability. For example: the collection company can incentive the use of correct discard packaging to its customers, avoiding waste. Another positive consequence resulting from the investment in technology by the companies in discard systems and waste destination is the diminishing on the production cost according to the reuse and recycle. What, in a certain way, reduces the final price of the products, increasing the competitiveness on the companies in a national and international level. To avoid a collapse from the natural resources – that are our source of survival – we need to evaluate and rethink our consumerism habits in the personal and business scope. Adopting a responsible posture, as we can live according to the ecological capacity of the planet, is the main step to be thought and pondered about on the companies’ administration and management.
