Plastic Continent: What is the North Pacific Garbage Patch

The Plastic Continent is also referred to as the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Nicknamed “the seventh continent” or “the trash continent”, the gigantic plastic dump that evolves between Hawaii and California was discovered in 1997. Since then, this ocean of plastic has been observed, analyzed but above all feared by the scientific community, because it just gets bigger.

Northeast of the Pacific, a mask and a snorkel are enough to contemplate the tragedy better known as the “seventh continent”. Those who have seen it during expeditions or studies evoke with disgust a soup of waste. An impressive underwater snowstorm where the flakes, micro-particles of plastic, bottles, packaging, fishing nets… do not melt.

How big is the 7th plastic continent

The trash vortex does not look like a floating island made of compacted garbage as one might imagine. It is more diffuse, moving, perverse. But one thing is certain, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is scientifically named, is currently the most polluted ocean area on the planet. And the largest because according to the latest figures, it would indeed extend over more than 1.6 million km2!

Who discovered the continent of plastic

The first explorer of this continent-trash was Charles J. Moore. In 1997, this American oceanographer was returning on a sailboat from a sea race with his team when he came across miles and miles of waste in the open sea, a sad sight. Day after day I saw no dolphins, no whales, no fish, I only saw plastic, he recalls.

This question then arises: why does all the rubbish seem to be concentrated there, and not near the coast or even further offshore? The answer will be quickly found: it is due to what are called oceanic gyres.

What is an ocean gyre

Imagine an underwater cyclone and you have the idea of the monster. Ocean gyres are areas where different ocean currents converge on each other and where huge permanent eddies form. By continually turning on themselves, these whirlpools trap in their center all that is brought back by the different currents. This creates an uncontrollable waste management issue

On the globe, there are five main gyres: two in the Atlantic, two in the Pacific and one in the Indian Ocean. That of the North Pacific is the most important. In 2018, it contained an estimated 80,000 tons of waste, a pile of more than 1.8 billion pieces of plastic. But since then, everything suggests that the 7th continent has grown exponentially, fueled by the continuous flows of waste dumped mainly by rivers.

Where does the plastic in the ocean garbage vortices come from

Similar plastic whirlpools are found in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. There are also point eddies in the Mediterranean Sea.

Globally, scientists estimate the amount of plastic floating in the oceans at 7 million tons. 80% of this waste would be transported from the land by the wind or waterways. The remaining 20% would be waste discarded or fallen from merchant ships.

What is the impact of these whirlwinds of garbage on marine fauna

Plastic vortices pose a major threat to marine biodiversity: plastic, which takes hundreds of years to degrade, is fragmented by solar radiation and can thus be easily ingested by fish, birds, and mammals sailors, like dolphins.

How to protect the oceans from these plastic vortices

The cleaning of existing vortices is a colossal undertaking that no State is ready to take on, as these vortices are often outside their territorial waters. Even though a lot of this waste could be recycled, it is a hard task to take on. To prevent the appearance of new vortices, or at least control the size of the vortices already formed, it would be necessary to reduce the production and use of plastic, promote recycling, and use biodegradable plastic.

Plastic continent: a solution that is slow in coming

Trash vortices are disastrous for the planet and biodiversity. Confused with plankton, microplastics are ingested by fish, turtles, crustaceans… The entire marine world is impacted.

If the awareness is there, if waste management and dumpster rental companies (check this website), foundations, NGOs are committed to cleaning the gyres with boats, nets or any other innovation, the results are not yet up to the challenge. Apart from a global upsurge of governments and citizens, a change in consumption patterns and the end of single-use plastics, we wonder what could stop the machine.

In any case, if nothing changes, according to Peter Thomson, the current United Nations special envoy for the oceans, there will be as much plastic as fish in the seas of the globe by 2050.

Garbage management in the USA is a complicated problem right now, with different ways of transporting and processing waste in different cities like Greenville, countries, and states like South Carolina.

It has also been tried to break down the problem and build a structure that puts all the different types of waste management into a hierarchy. In this strategy, you want to look at the whole lifecycle of a product and try to get as much value out of any garbage as possible.

Waste management methods

As a result, waste management is usually broken down into three groups: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Each of these groups is based on the now-famous “3Rs”: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

This concept focuses on the best waste management systems. It gives advice on how to reuse waste while causing the least amount of damage to the environment. A lot of waste can’t be handled by this program, and some waste types often get stuck.

People should think about these things when they decide about expanding the waste management hierarchy to include the following ideas.

Some people call this process “solid waste management.” It’s when people pick up their trash and throw away their old things. A lot of things that don’t belong in the junk or trash can also be recycled through this service.

Garbage, or “solid waste,” has been a problem for a long time in Greenville and elsewhere in the USA, it’s been a problem for as long as people have lived in towns and cities. Waste management is about either how to treat waste or how to turn waste into something that can be used.

Solid waste managemment

Every family, as well as every business in the USA, should keep their waste under control. Industrialization has had both good and bad effects on the world. One of the downsides of industrialization is the growth of solid waste. The good news is people can use services like
Greenville junk disposal to remove their junk in bulk and conventiently get it hauled away to the nearest landfill.

In any case, proper new waste management solutions will be required sooner or later. Renting a dumpster is one of the most advantageous options you can make if you have a lot of junk to discard. Dumpster rentals are often a safer, more convenient, and less expensive solutions than other alternatives.

When it comes to planning, there isn’t a lot of time or money. Preparation against a future environmental accident can be done in stages.

There are some waste management planning measures that may be best for a community that doesn’t have a lot of money or time to think about them. Before an accident happens to nature, small but important efforts can have a big impact on how quickly and effectively waste management decisions are made after the event.

Consequences of not managing waste well

As a result of people not properly disposing of their solid waste, both the environment and the community are affected by the waste that has built up over time.

There are a lot of big garbage dumps, and biodegradable materials are pushed to decompose and break down in unnatural, uncontrolled, and dirty ways. There are many disease-causing insects and other harmful organisms that can live there after it decomposes for a few days. A bad smell comes from such a place, which makes it less appealing to get near it.

Many businesses in Greenville throw away toxic metals, chemicals, and other dangerous pollutants in their trash. They might have a negative effect on the environment when these wastes end up in nature. Chemicals can get into the soil, get into the groundwater, and make the soil less productive in that area.

In some cases, hazardous wastes and other flammable trash are mixed with normal garbage and other domestic waste. This makes disposing of them much more difficult and dangerous.

There are many health problems that can happen when paper and other waste is burned with hazardous wastes, such as chronic illness, infections on the skin and cancer.

The United Nations Environment Program and the International Waste Management Association collaborated on the Worldwide Waste Management Outlook.

It is a fresh scientific assessment of waste management practices throughout the world, as well as a worldwide call to action. This publication discusses why and how to take a whole-system approach to waste management as a follow-up to the Rio+20 Summit and in response to UNEP Governing Council resolution GC 27/12.

It also acknowledges waste management as a critical component of sustainable development and climate change mitigation. When it comes to governance, the Outlook discusses regulatory and other rules, collaborations, and funding mechanisms that must be developed in order to arrive at a long-term solution.

The Outlook contains a plethora of topic sheets and case studies that address specific concerns and demonstrate how well people have performed in this regard.

It has worldwide coverage and may be utilized for a variety of purposes, like recycling and dumpster rentals. It investigates the future of trash management, draws conclusions, and gives recommendations to legislators and waste management workers to assist them in developing solutions for their respective communities.

Outcome: it includes Global Waste Management Goals and a Global Call to Action that correspond to Post-2015 Development Goals. These objectives are accompanied by a call to action.

Sorters and waste storage in Texas

One category of recyclers corresponds to micro-enterprises, still informal, larger in size than that of collectors: sorting and stock micro-enterprises. They buy recyclable waste that has already been pre-sorted from collectors.

The price per kg of plastic, metal, glass or other waste is set according to the local market price of raw materials. Some sorters sometimes buy their waste directly from municipal garbage collectors. On the road to controlled landfills, municipal trucks stop directly at sorting and stock micro-enterprises to sell the fruit of their collection.

There are several types of sorters, depending on their size and location in the city. A large part of them are located in the pericenter districts, close to the historic center of Houston, the main market and shopping areas, as well as modern districts.

These are neighborhoods that have been used as waste receptors since the founding of the city. These districts have now specialized in the temporary storage of waste, which is then shipped to the outskirts of the city or resold to industries. The recyclers then work in a family room, which also serves as accommodation.

The concentration of recyclers is very important there. They generally perform a precise sorting of waste (differentiating between types of plastics, for example), clean them and store them, until they have a sufficient quantity to resell them to a wholesale waste trader or directly to the industry which will transform it. into a new raw material.

Other sorters are located in the extreme outskirts of the city like The Woodlands, in newer, not yet consolidated neighborhoods, often near rivers. These are companies working on a large family land adjoining the home, which can therefore store larger quantities of waste.

They are usually located on the route of controlled landfills using roll-off dumpsters in order to intercept waste in their path. Micro-enterprises working in an uncontrolled landfill have very similar characteristics. However, they are working on an even larger area, with much greater waste flows.

Other recycling players operate in the same sorting category: pig farmers. In all the popular districts of Houston, a number of residents keep pigs, which they feed with the organic waste (food scraps) of the population. This technique makes it possible to reuse a large part of the waste, since organic waste represents more than 30% of household waste at Houston.

The conditions of rearing and reuse of waste, however, pose a very great health risk to pig farmers and consumers. Local authorities are therefore much more severe with this type of recycling, which is still very widespread among the poorest families.

Marketing and processing of waste

Following the collection and sorting of waste, come the stages of marketing and processing. This is the buyback of waste by wholesalers, generally specialized in a single type of waste.

Sorting and stockpiling micro-enterprises sometimes perform this marketing task. In other cases they are specific companies. It is from this level that formal enterprises grow in number, due to the larger size of such structures.

Marketing companies, formal or not, then resell their waste to industries that transform it into secondary raw materials. Legal waste management companies often only have permission to work with industrial waste. In fact, the differentiation with household waste is more complex.

Eco-responsible lifestyle recommendations are the main topic of many publications and web pages created in the last years.

The aim of this article is not to cover the whole subject of environmentally conscious living, giving all the tips you’ve probably heard before. Today we would like to consider the three very common things which people from the industrialized countries usually take for granted: food, water and electricity.

Groceries

Suppose that the majority of people are used to better recycling part of their litter – at least paper, glass and metal, then we can say that most of the remaining household rubbish is comprised of food.

The majority of the groceries that we throw away is in most cases in flawless condition and in some cases even in the original wrapper or box.

The sad reality is that on average most families in Canada throw away 20 to 30% of food bought in shops. If we include all the food that is thrown out in stores and restaurants, we come to the conclusion that some 7 to 14 billion tons of groceries is thrown away every year. Speaking in money language, it means annual waste of $3 to 5 billion in Canadian dollars).

Now you are probably surprised by these societies directed at fighting hunger, and on the other side so much food being wasted right at our homes and neighbourhoods.

But wait before you start packing the groceries you are not going to eat and sending it to places full of hungry people. There are some other methods you might want to try instead of throwing the food away.

1. Do you have any food left from yesterday? Try to incorporate it into today’s lunch. For example you can stuff some peppers with some leftover rice.

2. In your larder or food cabinet, try to stick to a simple habit: the groceries closest to the expiration date is always stored in front of the fresher ones.

3. It may happen that you know beforehand that there is some food you are not going to be able to eat before its expiration date.

Instead of throwing it away, try to find a local charity or soup kitchen and bring your food there when it’s still serviceable. Let some people eat it – hunger isn’t only to Africa. 4. Have you thought about mulching the leftovers instead of dumping them? Maybe you will oppose that you don’t own a garden. But your neighbour might own one and may be able to help you to get rid of your leftovers.

Water

There are plenty of ways to avoid wasting water and you can probably name most of them yourself. One problem that comes to me when thinking about sensible water usage is the way we handle human waste: toilets.

We got used to using toilets so much that we no more think of them – as long as they operate the way the are supposed to. But try to calculate the amount of water your household uses every month just for flushing the toilet.

Big number, isn’t it?

But it doesn’t have to be that much, there are some methods of reducing the amount of water necessary for every flushing.

Basically, we can mention two useful recommendations:

1. Substitute your old toilet by a new type that has been designed to use as little water as possible. Just check out your local store – you might be amazed what choices regarding toilets there are today!

2. Another way of decreasing the amount of water for flushing is to place some plastic bottles filled with water into the tank of your toilet. Keep testing to find how little water is enough for the toilet to work properly.

Electric current

Here the situation is similar to the one with water and wasting it – there are a lot of tips on how to save electric energy to be found in books, magazines and on the Internet.

But one of the machines that needs vast amounts of energy is one that you might be using daily: a tumble dryer. We got used to having anything we like or need immediately, that we no longer care how much superfluous resources are wasted just because we don’t want to wait.

It’s a fact that no one has time today to wash clothes by hands and dishwashers actually save water. But tumble dryer?

Would it be such a great obstacle if we just waited 1 – 2 days for our laundry to get dry? If you really want to “live green”, use your tumble dryer only in crisis situations or get rid of it (sell it) completely. In addition to the environment, you will save some money on your electricity bills as well.

The social and economic impacts of plastic waste at sea amount to millions of dollars, and waste management solutions are difficult to implement (dams on rivers, nets at sea, cleaning trawls, beaches, collection operations, volunteering … ). Zoom on the laws and action programs.

What are the laws and action programs to combat the plastic in our oceans?

Local waste monitoring

Most ports do not yet have the infrastructure to recover waste and some fishing equipment is obsolete. Local waste monitoring programs have been put in place, but monitoring the world’s oceans is complicated and even more costly. Satellite techniques are currently being studied to follow the fate of macro-waste at sea (microplastics cannot be affected by this method).

Plastic waste at sea: laws, conventions and commitments

Much of the waste is in international areas, so the problem needs to be addressed globally. Several laws, conventions and commitments have already been put in place:

• law on waste in France of July 15, 1975 (completed in 1992);
• water law of 3 January 1992, policy for implementing the Habitats directive Natura 2000 network;
• Grenelle of the environment and Grenelle of the sea;
• the London and Basel Marpol conventions (which prohibit the dumping at sea of ​​any waste, in particular plastic);
• European Marine Strategy directive (2008);
• Honolulu and Berlin commitments;
• Environmental conference of 2013.

The 2011 International Conference on Marine Debris, in Honolulu, Hawaii, helped to understand the problem of plastic waste better.

Plastic manufacturers have organized themselves to react together and are engaged in awareness-raising actions. On the initiative of European industrialists, in March 2011 they signed a global commitment, the Hawaii Declaration, with the aim of better understanding and dealing with the issue.

To date, 58 members, 34 countries have signed up and more than 140 projects are underway. Actions are organized in three zones (Americas, 35%; Europe-Middle East-Africa, 40%; Asia-Pacific, 25%).

Support for research efforts includes the global microplastics research program, GESAMP GT 40, funded to the tune of 320,000 euros by PlasticsEurope and the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Launched in February 2012, GESAMP GT 40 (working group of the Group of Experts on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection) should allow an assessment of the sources of waste, the behavior and the effects of microplastics in the ocean, with a plan of action carried out in three phases. After the workshops in Paris (2012), London (2013) and Seoul (2014), a report was presented in Barcelona in November 2014 (CIO-Unesco).

Several projects of this type exist around the world, providing precise information on the inventory. According to PlasticsEurope, the current balance sheet is not so catastrophic because despite an increase in production, the quantity of waste does not increase.

Since most of the waste should not arrive at sea, it is therefore essential to collect it on land. Plastic waste, which is practically 100% recoverable, either by recycling or by energy recovery, constitutes a renewable resource that has been poorly exploited to date.

Recall that in Europe, manufacturers in the sector have launched the challenge of achieving “zero plastic waste in landfill in 2020”. The recovery of plastic waste in Europe and France is still a progress in the making.

In France, there is a real political awareness reflected in the roadmap for the 2013 Environmental Conference, which includes:

• the deployment for household packaging of the collection of all plastics (including films and trays) in order to allow recycling;
• the possibility for the State to limit landfill only to non-recoverable flows (which amounts to prohibiting the landfilling of plastics);
• the development of sustainable waste management dumpster chains capable of using recycled plastic materials.

Clean holidays: fighting litter

European plastic manufacturers are also involved in awareness-raising and educational activities, such as “Clean Holidays”, a program created in 1971 on the initiative of companies to combat litter and incivility. It benefits from support from local authorities, and of course from citizens who have adopted their own actions, responding to the slogan: “Our environment is not a dustbin”.

If it is estimated that 4 million people have been sensitized, there are still still more than 33,000 tonnes of litter in France (waste collected by hand). Nearly 20,000 tonnes on the roads (especially just after leaving the stations -service!), 10,000 tonnes in rivers (banks and waterline), 3,000 tonnes on beaches, 350 tonnes in the mountains …

And these figures are probably below reality. Among these wastes: 41% cigarette butts, 12% chewing gum, 9% packaging for beverages (plastic, 3.6%; cans, 3.6%).

Besides, the operation “I sail, I sort”, ie “Nothing overboard, all my waste at the port! ”, sponsored by the navigator Catherine Chabaud, noted in 2013 an increase in sorting by 80% in the 25 ports concerned. In 2014, 100% of the ports registered in the program were motivated to renew the operation.

A final action concerns the fight against the dispersion of plastic granules. Launched in 1992 by the Americans, followed by Canada in 1999 and then by the British in 2009, the Clean Sweep® operation has the objective of “zero loss of granules” at all stages of the chain (production, transport, processing). In Europe, in factories and workshops, the broom is there to replace water cleaning!

Does the recovery and recycling of metals really constitute an environmental benefit today, and under what conditions?

Modern electronic products can contain up to 60 different elements (in the sense of the elements of the Mendeleev table) and it is precisely the products that are the most demanding of precious metals!

Globally, 80% of indium is intended for electronic products (LCD), more than 80% of ruthenium is used in hard disks. Some of these metals are essential for renewable energy technologies: selenium, tellurium, indium, platinum and ruthenium. For some of these metals (indium, ruthenium, bismut, tin), the market for electronic products has been a driving force in the increase in the prices of these raw materials.

Below is a list of important factors to consider regarding recycling metals.

• toxic and harmful substances are generally concentrated in electronic circuits
• the recoverable value of electronic waste is strongly correlated with metal prices
• mixing different categories of WEEE during collection and pre-treatment processes can have a negative impact on recycling yields
• legislation (RoHS) impacts the composition of materials (and therefore the equipment necessary for recycling) (for example, the restriction of the use of lead has caused an increase in the use of tin, copper, bismuth and money in solders)
• miniaturization and technical progress generate changes in the composition of materials. There is a trend towards a decrease in the absolute quantity of the weight of precious metals in the new models, but their relative quantity and diversity are rather increasing.
• new products or new generations of products introduce technological breakthroughs in recycling processes (ex CRT LCD)

There is another thing to consider, negative impacts related to optimized recycling and metal recovery. The CO2 emissions generated by the incineration of plastics are equivalent to those saved by the recovery of metals. Given the small number of factories, waste must travel a long distance to be treated, which considerably reduces the ecological benefits and in any case would create transfers of pollution or environmental impact.

What are the technologies currently used? Valuable metals can be recovered by various metallurgical processes (pyro, hydro or organic). Pyro-metallurgical processes include incineration of the assembly and extraction by fusion of the target metals.
The hydro-metallurgical processes include the dissolution and then the recovery of the target metals using acids, cyanide, halides, thiourea and thiosulphate.

The effectiveness of these methods depends on technological investments with very high risks of emission of dangerous components into the environment in poor quality installations. Waste management companies have to include heavy metal recycling within the highly regulated hazardous materials category. Services like dumpster rental in Fort Lauderdale or waste management offerings in Dallas may or may not allow you to recycle these metals, and you may need to contact your local government for advice.

In rich countries, bio-organic technologies make it possible to recover certain very specific metals at low cost: gold, lead and copper for example. In fact, although industrialists at the cutting edge of technology for extracting and refining metals can extract up to 95% of precious metals and copper and a good level of non-ferrous metals, the overall recovery rate precious metal never exceeds 50% due to the ineffectiveness of other stages of recycling. The case of mobile phones is particularly emblematic, with a recycling rate that did not exceed 1% in 2008! and which did not exceed 20% in 2012.

Definition and challenges of green technologies

Clean energy or green energy is a source of energy whose exploitation produces only negligible amounts of pollutants compared to other more widespread sources considered to be more polluting. The concept of clean energy is distinct from that of renewable energy: the fact that energy is being reconstituted does not imply that the waste of exploitation of this energy disappears, nor the opposite.

The following energy sources are generally cited as clean energy:

• Geothermal energy, high or low energy
• Wind power
• Hydroelectric power
• Solar energy
• Biomass
• Tidal energy, wave energy, tidal turbines, etc
• Animal traction (towing, etc.)
• Human propulsion

A heat pump is sometimes considered as producing clean energy, but depending on their performance and use (air conditioning, swimming pool, …), heat pumps can consume far too much electrical energy (compared to an alternative solution) to be considered a source of clean energy.

The status of nuclear energy as clean energy remains subject to debate. Indeed, if it has one of the lowest greenhouse gas emission rates, it generates nuclear waste whose disposal is not resolved. According to the current definition of waste, it is not a clean energy. But an electric car is considered clean even though the battery recharging can be done with nuclear power.

The cleanest energy being the one that is not consumed, negawatts are clean energy that produces no waste. Negawatt production is made possible through the development of energy efficiency and energy efficiency. That is why waste management services and clean energy goes hand in hand, as we want not just to reduce gas emissions, but also minimize waste creation and the pollution that comes with it.

The need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies is written on every site that talks about ecology and in the program of every politician who listens to whistleblowers. The term generally refers to giant wind turbines that sometimes line the roadside, solar panels or for some more knowledgeable people, the use of geothermal energy. But what are renewable energies really, and why are they preferable to fossil fuels?

Renewable energies are virtually inexhaustible energies. They come from natural elements, such as the sun, the wind, waterfalls, the heat of the Earth or even the growth of plants, among others. These renewable energies are qualified as flux energies as opposed to stock energies, those that are in limited quantities, namely fossil energies (oil, natural gas, coal).

Renewable energies are by definition preferable to fossil fuels since they are inexhaustible. They are also preferable since they are mostly clean, or at least cleaner than the combustion of fossil fuels.

The argument most often advanced is the cleanliness of these energies. Indeed, where fossil fuels are extremely polluting and dangerous both for the planet and for the health of its inhabitants, renewable energies often only serve in an almost inexhaustible reservoir of energy. The heat of the sun, the breath of the wind, the natural movement of the rivers …

In itself, these energies would be ideal, if they were properly mastered and already exploited. Today they represent only 20% of global energy consumption worldwide, so we live in a society much more adapted to the use of fossil fuels. As a result, they are much more complicated to exploit for the average citizen, and it has only been a few years since electric cars, to name a few, have their own charging stations. As the world has begun a slow, but safe transition to clean energy use, it will take more time to see them become easier to use.

How often do you use the word “busy” in your daily conversations?

Living a hectic schedule and a busy career is often demonized as it may lead to a failed social life, broken relationships, a poor state of your health or sometimes emotional breakdown.

Though stress is also correlated to an imbalance of the hormone cortisol, there are effective and natural ways to face such a modern stress or burnout with a positive approach and beat them to the finish.

According to research from the University of Chicago, people who live busy lives are generally more grateful and happy compared to those who live an idle life. The reason behind this is human beings are wired to crave for purpose. A packed schedule makes us feel more useful and needed than living a live without much commitment.

There is no need to feel bad about yourself if you are stressed out. You just need to manage the situation well and try your best to keep a healthy life. So if you are a real estate broker working in Chicago, a business partner at a waste management company or a trader on the CBOT, chill out. Stress is healthy.

Unchecked stress can lead to burnout, so there is a need for you to quickly manage your busy lifestyle more effectively. Below are stress and burnout preventing hacks that every busy-bee should incorporate into their lives for more enjoyment of your days.

Change The Way You Speak

If you find yourself constantly telling your friends and family how busy your days have been and that you can’t make plans or even cook dinner, you might consider changing the language you use. Research suggests that the words you utter to other people can literally affect your brain pathways and how you understand any given situation.

Neuroscientists Mark Waldman and Andrew Newberg both stated that the fear center of the brain can be stimulated by the mere use of a single negative word. When this happens, your brain could send stress hormones in large quantities. But eliminating the use of negative language helps you reframe your mind set and positively change the way you see your life.

Forget About Time And Focus On Your Energy

Paula Davis-Laack, a resilience and stress expert states that the key to prevent and avoid burnout is to change the way you manage your day. Instead of focusing on time, pay more attention to what kind of energy you bring about on your tasks.

According to Davis-Laack, a day will always be comprised of 24 hours and therefore it is a fixed commodity. She explains that people who allocate their tasks based on time can get a feeling of anxiety. This leads to a rushed work that often doesn’t produce a quality output. On the other hand focusing on the kind of energy you deploy helps you better address the important tasks of that day.

This goes the same for busy professionals who try to keep a healthy and active lifestyle. Often times, they give up on eating healthy or exercising daily because they think that it is too time consuming. But if you have a positive outlook and focus on the positive aspects, you are more likely to stick to a healthy and active lifestyle even if it takes a while to see the kind of results you so desire.

Plan Out A Recovery Ritual

Living a busy career requires you to sustain your energy all throughout the day. Most people will feel most productive when they feel good about themselves. This exudes positive energy which also helps the people around you perform at their best.

Simple recovery rituals such as taking short and constant breaks will help you breathe better. A simple 10 to 15 minutes break after every 2 to 3 hours of work is perfect. With regularity, this process will help reset your mind when too much stress is building up. It will help refresh your mind and encourage you to work more pleasantly later on.

Another recovery ritual you can use is making sure your health is at its top. Stress can sometimes lead to weight gain, poor eating habits, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even coronary diseases.

By simply choosing healthier meal options, you can help your body physically recover from the toll brought about by too much stress. The goal here is to prevent burnout, and you can’t fight that unless you start from within your body.

Set A Reward System

According to Davis-Laack, consistent pressure to stay busy for the sake of being busy rather than intentionally working with a purpose will drive some people crazy. This eventually leads to burnout.

Instead you can set monthly goals and associated rewards to build a framework. A reward system is essentially helpful to most employees including yourself, as it should drive them to provide better quality output. This eliminates the need for you and the rest of your employees to work extra hours.

Free Your Mind Of Clutter

According to Davis-Laack, mental clutter will tether you to the thought of being extremely busy.

Usually individuals with pessimistic thoughts struggle most when dealing with stressful situations. What it does is fill up your head of the “what ifs” and ultimately prevents you from seeing the big picture of your goals. Reframing negative thoughts will help alleviate stress and exude positivity towards your outlook in your work and in life.

You look forward to going to sleep as this is the time that you can truly relax and let go of the stress of the day. Getting into a warm bed and settling into sleep is as comforting as it gets. Unfortunately, your relaxing night of sleep can be ruined by indigestion or insomnia if you eat the wrong food before bed. If you want to get a good night’s sleep it is important that you avoid certain foods before you go to sleep and buy a good mattress from laylamattresscoupons.com/. Read on to learn the top 5 foods to avoid before bed.

Coffee

While a hot cup of coffee might seem like just the thing to drink before bed, it is actually one of the worst things to drink at night. The caffeine in the coffee is going to prevent you from sleeping and the effects can last all night. You might find that you can’t sleep at all at night and there is nothing you can do to stop your insomnia. If you have to drink coffee, stick with decaf so you are not awake all night. Coffee is one of the worst things you can drink before bed so just stay away from it.

Pizza

Pizza tastes amazing and the combination of savory cheese, tomato sauce, and meat is intoxicating. Pizza comes in so many different flavors and it tastes so good that it is hard to stop eating it. Just knowing that you have pizza in the refrigerator can tempt you into having a huge slice before bed. Before you dig into the pizza, stop yourself because you are unlikely to get any sleep if you have that pizza.

Pizza is full of fat and calories and the combination can give you nightmares at night and make it impossible to sleep. The tomato sauce and cheese is hard to digest and you are likely to end up with indigestion. Pizza can also give you acid reflux or heartburn and you are going to wake up in pain.

Spicy Foods

If you are considering having a spicy snack or meal before bed you are going to want to switch to a safer snack if you want to get some sleep. Spicy foods irritate the stomach lining and digestive tract which can leave you running to the bathroom all night long. You might end up with stomach cramps and acid reflux if you consume a big spicy meal before bed. Acid reflux makes it impossible to sleep and it can lead to a lot of problems.

Burgers

A thick slab of meat sandwiched between a tasty bun sounds like the perfect thing at night. Hamburgers are so filling and each bite fills your taste buds with the rich flavors of the meat and condiments. Eating a juicy hamburger is very satisfying, but the burger is packed with fat that can leave you feeling sick to your stomach. Your body has to work extra hard to process fat and protein and you won’t be able to sleep when your body is working so hard to digest the burger.

Wine

Wine seems like it would be relaxing, but alcohol will disrupt your sleep. You will keep waking up when you drink wine. Just one glass of wine can result in a reduced quality of sleep.

The things you put in your body can have a huge impact on the quality of your sleep. It is important to avoid foods that might keep you up at night if you want to feel rested the next day. Think about what you eat at night and only have easy to digest snacks at night.

Choosing the right mattress is a bit of an art form. You not only need to find a mattress that is supportive but also comfortable to lay on. If you choose the wrong bed for your sleeping habits or your body type, it could wind up causing back pain. The same goes for old, worn-out mattresses.

If you want to wake up feeling great, it is important to carefully evaluate your sleeping conditions, including the quality of your mattress. The following section highlights several reasons why your bed may be causing back pain. If any of these reasons apply to your situation, it is important to correct them as quickly as possible so that you can start living a pain-free life.

1. Your mattress is too firm

Do you usually sleep on your side? If so, your back pain may be the result of sleeping on a mattress that is too firm. If the bed is extremely firm and doesn’t have a lot of give, it won’t conform to your body when you lay on your side. Not only can this cause uncomfortable pressure points on your shoulders and hips but it can also throw your spine out of alignment, which can result in back pain.

There are a couple of ways that you can tell whether or not your mattress is too firm. First, if you frequently wake up with arms or legs that have fallen asleep, you probably need a softer mattress like http://sleeponlatexcoupon.org.

Another sign that your mattress is too firm is if you experience a lot of pain in the areas where your hips and shoulders come in contact with the mattress. Check your spinal alignment when you lay down. Your spine should be straight while you are in a lying position.

2. Your mattress is too soft

If you sleep on your back, a mattress that is too soft can also result in back pain. When you lay on your back on a soft mattress, your hips have a tendency to sink down into the bed. Again, this throws your spine out of alignment, often resulting in lower back pain.

Typically, people who sleep primarily on their backs do best with firm mattresses since they do a better job of keeping the body properly aligned. If you frequently wake up with lower back pain, it is probably because your mattress is too soft. Again, try laying on the mattress and checking the alignment of your body to make sure that your spine is nice and straight.

3. Your mattress is too old

If you have an older mattress that you have been using for a long time, it may start to cause back pain as it begins to break down. Even if you invested in a high-end mattress that provided the right level of support a few years ago, that support can fade over time, resulting in back pain. Typically, mattresses need to be replaced every 7 to 10 years.

These are some of the primary reasons why your mattress may be causing back pain.