While companies continue to increase their production of goods to meet the growing needs of people worldwide, the world has seen a worrying rise of environmental destruction as a result. In my opinion, this is mainly caused by the unsustainable manufacturing process involved in the making of these products and the pollution caused by the dumping of finished products and waste in natural areas, which can be solved by pushing the use of sustainable resources in manufacturing processes and regulating industrial waste and finished goods.
The main causes contributing to environmental damage from consumer item productions are unsustainable manufacturing practices that include the use of non-renewable resources and unchecked dumping of production waste and finished products. The mass production of consumer items is a process that requires a high consumption of energy, often in the form of fossil fuels which emit high levels of carbon dioxide. For example, most plastic retail products are made from natural gas, crude oil, and coal; all materials that are infamous for releasing incredible amounts of greenhouse gasses in their use, which causes global warming. Furthermore, the finished products, often unsafe for the environment, are not dumped properly by consumers and companies. Some instances of this phenomenon include the dumping of toxic waste in illegal sites by oil companies such as Shell and the polluting of rivers by single-use plastics made by corporations like Nestle and Coca-Cola. In all of these cases, the livelihood of people is negatively impacted by the pollution that has happened; increased cancer rates and poisoning from the consumption of polluted water being some of the effects.
Regarding these causes, I believe that the best solution is in implementing regulations promoting the use of renewable energy and sustainable materials and effective waste treatment programs. Governments across the globe should create legislations enforcing the use of green energy from sources like biofuels and the sun to reduce industrial carbon emissions. In addition, more energy should be focused on promoting the use of biodegradable materials as a raw material in producing items for public consumption. This can help solve the issue of environmental destruction from materials such as plastic, which is notorious for being difficult to degrade. Moreover, having produced such items, the onus must be on companies to properly sort and treat waste and finished products to prevent them from damaging the environment. This can be done in some concrete ways, namely not dumping industrial waste in natural areas and providing dump sites and recycling centers for consumers to place their used goods in.
In conclusion, non-environmentally friendly production processes and toxic waste and consumer goods pollution have caused significant destruction to the natural world. To resolve this issue, we must advocate for the use of renewable energy and biodegradable materials in the production of consumer goods, and implement regulations forcing companies to initiate safer waste and product dumping and treatment.