Drive through any suburb in the US today, and it’s hard to miss the bins that have become companions to America’s trash cans. Recycling has become commonplace, as people recognize the need to care for the environment. Yet most people’s recycling consciousness extends only as far as paper, bottles, and cans. People seldom find themselves facing the growing problem of e-waste.

E-waste rapidly increases as the techno-fashionable frequently upgrade to the most advanced device and the majority of them end up in landfills(垃圾填埋地). Some people who track such waste say that users throw away nearly 2 million tons of TVs, VCRs, computers, cell phones, and other electronics every day. Unless we can find a safe replacement, this e-waste may get into the ground and poison the water with dangerous toxins(毒素), such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Burning the waste also dangerously contaminates the air.

However, e-waste often contains reusable silver, gold, and other electrical materials. Recycling these materials reduces environmental problems by reducing both landfill waste and the need to look for such metals, which can destroy ecosystems.

A growing number of states have adopted laws to ban dumping(倾倒)e-waste. Still, less than a quarter of this waste will reach lawful recycling programs. Some companies advertising safe disposal(处置)in fact merely ship the waste to some developing countries, where it still ends up in landfills. These organizations prevent progress by unsafely disposing of waste in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind location.

However, the small but growing number of cities and corporations that do handle e-waste responsibly represents progress toward making the world a cleaner, better place for us all.

In Thailand, people use about eight plastic bags each day, almost 200 billion bags each year. As for causing ocean plastic pollution, Thailand is in the sixth place in the whole world. Thailand is waking up to the harmful effects of plastic pollution on our environment

A supermarket chain in northern Thailand is returning to natural materials for everyday packaging(包装) use, including banana leaves. At first sight, Rimping supermarket in Chiang Mai looks just like other supermarkets that use banana leaves to wrap (包裹) food across Thailand. However, it is unusual to see this traditional, biodegradable (可生物降解的) way used in a big way. Rimping Supermarket says that it no longer provides plastic bags every Wednesday for customers upon entering the place. In the supermarket, something different can be seen on the goods shelves of fresh vegetables. Instead of plastic, fresh products are wrapped in banana leaves. The leaves are great for packaging and once the customer is done with the packaging, the leaves are biodegradable, greatly reducing the need for plastics.

“We have discussed our environmental programme for a long time in our company,” a manager of Rimping Supermarket said. “We tried other materials before, but banana leaves are our final choice since there are plenty of banana leaves in Thailand. But the difficulty is to find a way to keep the products fresh. Some vegetables are not suitable to be wrapped in banana leaves as it becomes too wet and doesn’t keep its freshness,” the manager said.

Rimping Supermarket’s store programme can be seen as a huge step for a greener, plastic-free earth.

Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases that you produce as you live your life. In order to hold the global temperature rise to 2˚C or less, everyone needs to average an annual carbon footprint of 1.87 tons by 2050. 【小题1】

Eat low on the food chain. This means eating mostly fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans. Meat and dairy is responsible for 14.5 percent of man-made global greenhouse gas emissions. 【小题2】 If you have no meat or dairy every day, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 8 pounds.

【小题3】 Fashionable, cheap items go out of style quickly and get dumped in landfills where they produce methane (甲烷) as they decompose. Currently, the average American gets rid of about 80 pounds of clothing annually. In addition, most fast fashion comes from Asia, so shipping it to the U.S. requires the use of fossil fuels.

Use low energy appliances. Replace traditional light bulbs with LED ones. Though LEDs cost more, they use a quarter of the energy and last up to 25 times longer. Make energy efficiency a primary consideration when choosing a new microwave, air conditioning unit, dishwasher, or refrigerator. 【小题4】

Choose green travel. An average car produces about five tons of carbon each year. 【小题5】Take public buses, carpool, or bike to your destination when possible. This not only reduces CO₂ emissions, it also lessens traffic jams.