Glossary

Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use.

Conservation of water refers to the preservation, control, development and management of water and its resources. For example, turn off the tap when you don’t use the water, or do not throw garbage into natural waters.

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This is important to reducing trash in the world’s landfills, which pollute Earth’s soil, water, and air.

Composting is a form of waste disposal where organic waste decomposes naturally under oxygen-rich conditions. Only certain waste items are considered compostable and should be added to compost containers. Food waste (see Food waste), such as banana peels, coffee grinds and eggshells, are great items to compost.

Climate describes the weather averages of one bigger region for a at least 30 years period.

Climate is the state of the atmosphere with regard to temperature, cloudiness, rainfall, wind and other meteorological conditions. However, climate is the average weather over a much longer period.

Reuse means to use things again instead of throwing them away.

To find a new way to use a certain object. Usually, repurposing is done using items considered to be junk, garbage, or obsolete by finding alternative purpose for them.

Up-cycling represents a variety of processes by which “old” products get to be modified and get a second life as they are turned into a “new” product. In this way, waste can be turned into something valuable.

The Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection and raising awareness of the importance of long-term ecological sustainability.

It’s a power source which helps us live our life. There are different energy sources, like the Sun, which powers the plants and the solar panel, fuels, which are power of our machines. But we also using our own energy when we lift up something from the ground.

Energy efficiency simply means using less energy to perform the same task – that is, eliminating energy waste.

Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.

Food waste is food intended for consumption that is discarded along the food supply chain and cannot be used.

Or marine pollution. Marine pollution occurs when harmful effects result from the entry into the ocean of any type of waste, where it affects the existence of the sea organisms.

Climate change is the global phenomenon of climate transformation characterized by the changes in the usual climate of the planet (regarding temperature, precipitation, and wind) that are especially caused by human activities.

The main greenhouse gases are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Water vapor is the most plentiful at about one percent. The next most plentiful is carbon dioxide at 0.04 percent. The effect of human activity on global water vapor concentrations is too small to be important. The effects of human activity on the other greenhouse gases, however, is large and very important. These gases are increasing faster than they are removed from the atmosphere.

A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, or product

Consumerism refers to the theory that spending money and consuming goods is good for the economy. Opponents of consumerism suggest simple living is a more sustainable lifestyle and better for the environment.

Disposal of waste refers to waste elimination techniques comprising for example landfills, containment, underground disposal, incineration without energy recovery.

Eco-design considers environmental aspects at all stages of the product development process, striving for products which make the lowest possible environmental impact throughout the product life cycle.

Landfill is a place where we collect our trash and garbage, where the waste is buried between layers of soil to build up low-lying land.

Sustainable fashion can be defined as clothing, shoes and accessories that are manufactured, marketed and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic aspects.

The continuous stream of new cheap, accessible and on-trend fashion items onto the global market is popularly called “fast fashion”. The “fast” aspect of consumption is primarily a problem to the environment when done on a massive scale. Thus, slow fashion can be seen as an alternative approach against it based on the principles of sustainability (see sustainable fashion).

Fossil energy sources, including oil, coal and natural gas containing hydrocarbons. These fuels are formed in the Earth over millions of years and produce carbon dioxide when burnt.

Carbon dioxide is a gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. It occurs naturally and is also a by-product of human activities such as burning fossil fuels. It is the principal greenhouse gas produced by human activity

A method for manufacturing that minimises waste and reduces the environmental impact.

Sharing economy is a model, where we don’t own the things what we need, we just use them whenever we need (it’s some kind of rental).

The effect that a person, company, activity, etc. has on the environment, for example the amount of natural resources that they use and the amount of harmful gases that they produce (see also Carbon footprint).