Waste is any material that is not needed by the owner, producer, or processor. Humans, animals, other organisms, and all processes of production and consumption produce waste. It has always been a part of the earth’s ecosystem, but its nature and scale were such that the ecosystem could use waste in its many cycles. There is no real waste in nature. The apparent waste from one process becomes an input to another.
It is the exponential growth of human activities that has made waste a problem to be managed. We are simply producing much more waste than the amount nature can handle.
It is far better to prevent a generation of waste than to produce waste and then try to ‘manage’ it. We cannot simply throw away waste. ‘There is no away in throw away.’ What we throw away often comes back to us in a different form. What we dispose of remains in the ecosystem and causes some form of pollution. This pollution can have an impact far away from the point of generation and far removed in time too.
The composition, quantity, and disposal of waste determine the environmental problems it creates. To minimize the adverse effects of any waste, it has to be recycled, isolated permanently in storage, allowed to decompose and degrade into a harmless state, or treated to remove any toxicity it may have.
We need to inform ourselves about the harmful effects of waste production and improper waste management. Many social activists and individuals are lending their voices to raise awareness of waste recycling.
In this article, I have provided 45 inspiring, effective, unique, and powerful relevant waste quotes that we should all know.
Waste Quotes- Stop Littering and Start Recycle
- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
- “All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.” - Ronald Reagan
- “ We had two rules growing up in my house: If you’re going to take a shower, do it with whomever you’re dating so you don’t waste water; and if you buy one for yourself, buy six, because everybody’s going to want one. - Moon Unit Zappa
- “ Clean communities, healthy citizens.” - Lailah Gifty Akita
- “For me, Green is more about cycling than recycling.” - Giles Deacon
- “ I have witnessed the takeover of my world by plastic.” - Helen Caldicott.
- “While cheap products are exported to western countries, the waste is dumped mostly in China’s back yard, contaminating its air, water, soil and seas.” - Ma Jun
- “ A big part of green tech will be organisms that eat waste.” - Steve Jurvetson
- “ As the pace of technology increases, the amount of toxic electronic waste is piling up at home and abroad.” - Gene Green
- “ My obsession is plastic packaging. It makes me sick, all the waste. Everything about it disappoints me.” - Theo James
- “ I wrapped my Christmas presents early this year, but I used the wrong paper. See, the paper I used said ‘Happy Birthday’ on it. I didn’t want to waste it so I just wrote ‘Jesus’ on it.” - Demetri Martin
- “ Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will constantly keep the question of waste before him. The scope of thrift is limitless.” - Thomas A. Edison
- “With a little more tweaking, we could make orange juice in the orange without any packaging or processing.” - Homaro Cantu
- “ I don’t want to be an apologist for poverty, but I can’t stand waste, useless spending, wasted energy and having to live squandering stuff.” - Jose Mujica
- “We only get one planet humankind must become accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home. Protecting our future on this planet depends on the conscious evolution of our species.” - Leonardo DiCaprio
- “E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the united states and can pose serious environmental and health problems here and around the world when not handled properly.” - Gene Green
- “The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who clears up the river.” - Ross Perot
- “ We need to address our nation’s mounting garbage problem by generating less garbage, particularly paper waste.” - Wendell H. Ford
- “If we destroy the biosphere, then mankind will die. We all waste our time worrying about stupid wars and petty jealousy and greed, and all the time, we’re sitting n a time bomb.” - Ron moody
- “ I hate the hand that comes out of a car and just drops litter in the street. I hate that! For some reason, it just fills me with fury .” - Joanna Lumley
- “I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.” - Mother Teresa
- “The whole world is our dining room, but be careful: it is also our garbage can.” - Ashleigh Brilliant
- “There are a lot of irritating aspects about supermarkets for the wannabe eco-warrior, but the one that gets most of us hottest under the collar is the packaging.” - Sheherazade Goldsmith
- “ Waste is a design flaw.” - Kata Kreba
- “My mother was my biggest role model. She taught me to hate waste. We never wasted anything.” - W. Edwards Deming
- “Trash is something you get rid of- or disease. I’m not something you get rid of.” - Lana Turner
- “This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources but also a serious economic and public health problem.” - Jimmy Carter
- “There is no such as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.” - Annie Leonard
- “Being green means Preventing waste.” - Kevin Plank
- “I have become quite good at repurposing and reusing much of what comes into the house. The goal is to generate as little waste as possible.” - Anna Getty
- “Single-use plastic is a ticking time bomb for the environment. Avoid it wherever and whenever possible.” - Jennifer Nini
- “Tearing down an old house and building a new one is the most wasteful thing we do as humans.” - Grace Potter
- “The trash and litter of nature disappear into the ground with the passing of each year, but man’s litter has more permanence.” - John Steinbeck
- “It’s a national concern, I mean how we safely dispose of nuclear waste, how we deal with this incredible amount of nuclear waste we have created over the years.” -Tom Udall
- “Littering is a crime, but they are not enforcing the law. We need to educate the youths on why littering is bad and the effect litter has on neighbourhoods.” - Johnnise Downs
- “Mostly, I spend my time being a mother to my two children, working in my organic garden, raising masses of sweet peas, and being passionately involved in conservation, recycling and solar energy.” - Blythe Danner
- “The waste products in Earth’s crust are also the human in this expanded, spectral sense. One’s garbage doesn’t go ‘away’ - it just goes somewhere else.” - Timothy Morton
- “If you want grown-ups to recycle. Just tell their kids the importance of recycling, and they’ll be all over it.” - Bill Nye
- “Environmental damage such as graffiti, fly-posting and general littering is a menace that is becoming all too prevalent, not just in inner cities but in many communities - urban and rural.” - Margaret Beckett
- “No matter how inured you get to atrocities, you’re still always stunned and shocked by how cruel and wasteful homo sapiens can be.” - Steven Pinker
- “We live in a disposable, ‘cast off and throw-away’ society that has largely lost any real sense of permanence. Ours is a world of expiration dates, limited shelf life, and planned obsolescence. Nothing is absolute.” - Myles Munroe
- “If you care about the environment and how it will affect mankind, then recycling shouldn’t take a second thought.” - Jeffrey Sanderson
- “Does what we create justify what we destroy?” - Tony Fry
- “Solid Wastes” are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society.” - Jimmy Carter
