How to avoid environmental pollution

How to avoid environmental pollution and how to reduce it – measures

There are different ways to avoid environmental pollution depending on when and where we are. We must bear in mind that, although governments and large companies and institutions play a fundamental role in this task, ordinary citizens can also influence environmental pollution through their individual actions. Here are some ideas on how to avoid and reduce environmental pollution:

Use public transportation.

One of the main measures to avoid environmental pollution is to bear in mind that the transport sector is one of the most polluting sectors of all. Its effects are particularly noticeable in air pollution, as it is responsible for the emission of huge quantities of greenhouse gases and gases that are harmful to health (e.g. nitrogen oxides). The best option we can choose when it comes to minimizing the impact of this pollution is to opt for public transport. Public transport allows large numbers of people to be transported at the same time, which keeps the impact of air pollution to a minimum. Therefore, dispensing with one’s own vehicle and opting for public transport is one of the best options when it comes to minimizing the impact of pollution produced by transport.

This is one of the main measures to make air pollution solutions work and is also one of the recommendations on How to avoid noise pollution.

Consumption of environmentally friendly products

What else can we do to avoid environmental pollution? Well, switch to organic products. The ecological products are all those that are produced respecting the environment. That is to say, without introducing chemical elements in the products themselves or in the environment where they are produced. We can find from food products to cosmetics, household cleaning products, fashion or footwear. By choosing this type of products we manage to reduce the impact that our consumption has on the environment.

Consumption of local products

On the other hand, it is very important to choose local products. The transportation of products involves large emissions of greenhouse gases. Thus, by opting for local products, we avoid that these products have had to travel long distances until they reach the consumer.

Vegetable-based diet

Another of the sectors that can produce the most environmental pollution is livestock farming, which requires the use of large areas of land to feed livestock. If our diet replaces animal products with others such as legumes or nuts (rich in protein), we will considerably reduce the environmental pollution caused by livestock farming. It is not necessary to opt for an entirely vegan diet. Although the impact would be even greater, if we simply reduce meat consumption to two days a week we will already be making a very important impact on the environment.

Reduce, reuse and recycle

Of course, another way to reduce and avoid environmental pollution is to implement the 3Rs of ecology: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, both by governments and in schools, workplaces and everyone at home. The three aspects are pillars to control and reduce the pollution problem in the world. But, as recycling is one of the pillars to take into account to reduce and avoid the pollution of the planet, in EcologíaVerde we want to inform you in depth about it. For that reason, here below you can consult a very visual, simple and enlightening infographic and in this other article you can find more information and data of this Infographic about recycling.

According to experts, there are several ways to avoid emissions that may seem surprising but are effective and create jobs:

1. Lighting homes with garbage

It is estimated that if Brazil were to produce electricity with the methane or biogas emitted by all the garbage it produces, 44 thousand jobs would be created and 13.3 billion dollars would be contributed to the Gross Domestic Product in 20 years. In addition, the emission of between 158 and 315 million tons of CO2 would be avoided in two decades. For example, in Monterrey, Mexico, the energy produced by a landfill is used to power the city’s subway and street lighting.

2. Machines that run on manure and sunshine

If 90% of Mexico’s pig and cow farms used biodigesters – tanks where animal feces are stored to capture methane and transform it into electricity – and if nine out of 10 cattle farms used solar energy, 11% of agricultural electricity demand could be saved. It would also stop emitting 103 million tons of polluting gases such as methane by 2030. There are already more than 300 farms in Mexico that have a biodigester.

3. Saving crops by using fast-track buses

If India were to build an additional 1,000 kilometers of bus rapid transit lanes, more than 27,000 lives could be saved, thanks to fewer accidents and less air pollution, and 128,000 jobs could be created. Emissions reductions would also save about 28,000 tons of food over 20 years.

More than 50 cities in Latin America already have bus rapid transit systems, such as Metrobus in Mexico or Transmilenio in Bogota. Some systems even run on compressed natural gas, which is less polluting than diesel. It is also the region with the highest number of passengers using this system: 6 out of 10 people choose this means of transport, with a total of 19 million passengers per day.

4. Making food without losing your life

Many people around the world still use charcoal or wood for cooking, which contributes to air pollution and harms the health of those near the stove. In China, if the country distributed 70 million cleaner cookstoves, the economic benefit would be US$11 billion, and over 20 years more than 1 million lives would be saved by reducing indoor pollution. More efficient and less polluting stoves can also considerably prevent premature deaths, the report warns.

In Guatemala, where a lot of cooking is still done over open fires, smoke in homes kills more than 5,000 people each year, a figure that rises to almost 37,000 in Central America as a whole, according to data from the World Health Organization. An initiative in this region, supported by the World Bank, seeks to encourage the use of stoves that use less wood and also have a chimney to channel smoke out of the home.