Painted with incredibly vivid colours, the sunflower proudly stood straight, taller than me, turned towards the sun.
It was not carefully taken care of. It did not get special attention, and yet I had to stand on my tiptoes to take a proper photograph of its flower.
How much does it need so it could grow so tall and solid? Just as much as it has taken. Only as much water and nutrients from the soil as it has absorbed, as much sun as there has been since it broke its way through the ground. Everything in our nature, including bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, every living creature around us has been using the environment to the same extent – only as much as it needs to live.
There is no harm in using the goods from the environment.
But people differ from the rest of the natural world by taking more than we will ever need, and that is harmful to the environment: not exploiting, but overexploiting. We take for granted every natural resource, every mineral, or plant and animal we use for our purposes, almost as if we thought they existed to fulfill our own needs.
Global production of sunflower oil is the fourth most important among vegetable oils. Besides its culinary use, it is used in the production of biodiesel, oil-based printing inks, and some other oil-based products. Only one plant species has a significant variety of uses. That would not be an issue if we used it for amounts that are sufficient for us, but not only we produce too much and throw away one part of the products, we also continue producing and throwing away more and more.
The same story is with most of the human-made products.
According to EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency), only in the USA, more than 12 million tonnes of furniture and furnishings are wasted annually. The latest results date in 2017, when the most used material was wood, and the second most used materials were ferrous metals. Of those 12 million tonnes, almost 10 million tonnes of furniture ended in landfills. To compare, 2 million tonnes of furniture were wasted in 1960. The rising trend is beyond evident, and it does not stop.
Think about an incredible amount of the woods that were cut down only to become our chairs and tables, that end in a landfill only a couple of years after we buy them. Think of all the mines that were extracted in search of minerals, where huge areas of Earth’s surface were swept out because of the human need for them.
Another example is electronics: computers, televisions, mobile phones and many more. In 2017, only 6% were recycled, mostly due to the magnetic separation of ferrous metals. One part of the waste was combusted, and more than 80% was landfilled.
There are some positive examples, too: 40-50 years ago, only 5-15% of wasted rubber tires in the USA were recycled. In the last several years, that number increased to 40%.
These are the data that refer to only one country. Try to imagine the amount of global waste created every day in every single country in the world. The amounts are impossible to visualize, and these are just the last stage of our exploitation journey – as we throw away, at the same time we take more from nature in order to create new products.
This sunflower takes space, sunlight, water and nutrients from its environment. But it also gives back everything it has taken. The circulation of energy and matter stays intact. It does not produce anything that could stay in the environment and cause problems long after the flower had faded.
Our journey through life should not be against our home. We should leave this world knowing that we took away everything bad from it, and left to this world only the best of us.
Literature
Grompone M. A. (2020): Sunflower and High-Oleic Sunflower Oils. Bailey’s Industrial Oil and Fat Products, Shadidi F. (Ed.)