The best way to solve environmental problems caused by consumer generated waste is for towns and cities to impose strict limits on the amount of trash they will accept from each household Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree

The pressure of human-being-generated waste putting on the natural environment has become a graver and graver issue around the world. Governments everywhere have gradually felt the seriousness of this issue. Some worry about the lack of landfills for increasing amount of domestic waste; others are plagued by the air quality problems caused by the waste incinerators. As a result, many governments start to take steps to deal with the matter. One of the seemingly effective solutions is to have local governments impose a strict restriction of the limit of waste allowed for each household. After all, it sounds quite reasonable that when the ceiling amount of household trash is set, the amount of total waste is controlled. However, this author has to point out that since such policy proposal fails to deal with the root problems, it is not able to solve the environmental issue concerning us.

First of all, strict regulations backfire. This tendency has been proved with many failed policies in many countries, from alcohol regulations to abortion bans, and severe restrictions on household waste are doomed to be a failure without a doubt. When people are strictly prohibited from a certain activity, and they have, for some reason, violated the law anyway, they will then try to find some illegal approaches to circumvent the punishment from the judicial body. Such results are generally worse for the well-being of both the individual breaching the law and the society as a whole. Take the case discussed here as an instance, this author can well imagine that under such a strict waste regulation, illegal dumping would become rampant because now that every household are finding ways to deal with the “surplus waste” in their houses.

Moreover, the strict regulations fail to face the causes of excessive household waste and thus their potency are cut from the root. Considering the environmental issue at hand, the root cause of excessive waste may well link to the excessive consumption and is then directly related to the government’s economy-boosting policy. It will never be workable for a government to reprimand its citizens for creating too much waste on the one hand, and encourage them to make more purchases in order to rise the GDP per capita for the country on the other hand. Sadly, we have actually seen many contradictory public policies like this in the real world. No wonder even though many governments have started noticing this severe environmental problem, domestic waste around the world just keep climbing regardless of the warnings.

This author would like to suggest that some degree of waste amount restriction could be effective, and yet related adjustments of governmental policies and related public awareness education would be even more potent regarding this issue. It is governments’ responsibility to find a balance between economic growth and environmental protection and thus enacting corresponding national and local policies. It is every human being’s responsibility to leave a sustainable environment to our future generation instead of making consumption just to grant our selfish desires. Either approach could be supported by a reasonable waste control policy but not a rigid, harsh one.

In a nutshell, this author believes that instead of focusing on the established environmental problem of waste disposal, our environment will be benefited more when we collaboratively eradicate the causes of waste production from a macro, governmental level as well as a micro, individual level.