{"id":18750,"date":"2015-07-01T14:01:31","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T18:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?page_id=18750"},"modified":"2015-07-01T14:01:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T18:01:31","slug":"the-story-of-our-waste","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/the-story-of-our-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Of Our Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day we create an excess of waste that builds up in landfills, in our oceans, and in our bodies. Here is the story of our waste.<\/span><\/h3>\n

We create a ton of waste everyday, there is no denying that fact. This is especially true if you live in the United States\u2013 we would need FOUR planets<\/a> if everyone on the planet consumed the same amount of resources as Americans. We live in a society that puts a lot of value in consumerism and immediacy\u2013 we want WHAT we want, WHENEVER we want it. This insistence on having everything accessible, cheap, and NOW has put a lot of pressure on our natural systems and creates an excessive amount of waste.
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How much waste? In the US, residents create about 4.4 pounds of trash<\/a> per person per day. Our physical trash is made of paper, plastic, food and metals. When it gets tossed into the trash bin, where does it go? As you might imagine, there is no magical ‘away’ and our trash eventually comes back to haunt us. Landfills leak toxins<\/a> into groundwater, rubbish builds up in the middle of the ocean<\/a>, and plastics leech chemicals back into the environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How do we deal with our garbage?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As we wrote about in in this post about how our trash affects the whole planet<\/a>, our trash never disappears.<\/p>\n

Most municipalities have few ways to deal with trash, and often it’s a landfill on the outskirts of town. All modern landfills have linings to deal with rainwater collection and leeching, but older landfills may not have a liner, or the liner may be cracked, which means that all the chemicals, hazardous waste, mercury, and other toxins leak through the liner and into the ground. Landfills also leak toxins into the air<\/a>, most notably methane, a greenhouse gas much\u00a0more potent<\/a> than carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

\"landfill<\/a>
a landfill in the forest: a perfect example of how our waste is everywhere<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some municipalities burn their trash for energy. This is the common practice on Oahu, an island in the American state of Hawaii. The city’s waste management office<\/a> has a contract with the electric utility to provide a set amount of waste to the incinerator to keep the trash burning to fuel the electricity needs of the island. Though this process is controlled by scrubbers and other high-tech ways to keep the gases and fumes out of the air at the incinerator, other places burn their trash regularly without such regulations, leading to release of carbon dioxide and a toxic stew of chemicals from charred plastics and electronics. And though the EPA has created laws to regulate incinerators<\/a>, new facilities are still allowed to release chemicals into the air. At a proposed incinerator in Baltimore<\/a>, rulings allow 240 pounds of mercury<\/a> and 1,000 pounds of lead<\/a> annually. Both mercury and lead are potent neurotoxins<\/a> that bioaccumulate in the body over time.<\/p>\n

What about recycling?<\/h3>\n

Recycling is an option in most municipalities, and it does have the potential to divert a significant amount of trash from landfills. But after big pushes in the 1990s, recycling efforts<\/a> have not gained much traction in recent years, with the exception of larger, super progressive cities like San Francisco<\/a> and Vancouver<\/a>, Canada. Both of these cities recycle almost all trash items and food waste in city-wide programs.<\/p>\n

\"recycling<\/a>
is recycling really that good for the environment?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But we’re kinda failing at this. Plastics production is INCREASING, but recycling efforts are not. According to Worldwatch Institute<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“For more than 50 years, global production of plastic has continued to rise. Some 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012. Recovery and recycling, however, remain insufficient, and millions of tons of plastics end up in landfills and oceans each year.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Why do recycling efforts fall short for most cities? Most cities that offer recycling do so for aluminum, paper, glass, various numbers of plastics, newspaper, magazines and more, but each city’s different in what they will accept into recycling programs, and often it’s very confusing for residents. In the UK a report said that residents feel ‘green fatigue<\/a>‘\u2013 a surge of indifference or disinterest in learning more about green initiatives. Some residents don’t care to read the recycling numbers of plastic on their item and just find it easier to toss it into the trash.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> from 2012 shows that Sweden, Austria and Germany lead worldwide recycling efforts; in North America,\u00a0San Francisco<\/a> and\u00a0Vancouver<\/a> are considered the greenest cities. More recent research<\/a> gives Washington top honors for recycling, but even at the highest ranking, it is still only recycling about 49% of its trash; by contrast, the national average is only 34.5%, with parts of Long Island<\/a> coming in as low as 20% for recent years. The EPA graph<\/a> below shows that waste rates are increasing rapidly, while recycling efforts are not keeping pace. But it’s not really clear that recycling is the best option for the environment after all. But it’s arguable whether or not recycling is really the solution.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/a><\/p>\n

However, it’s important to look at reuse options for trash with potentially toxic components like batteries and electronics, which can be recycled at participating retail locations. You can recycle Brita filters<\/a>, and can donate your clothes and eyeglasses, giving them new life. But recycling is not going to save us.<\/p>\n

What makes our garbage so trashy?<\/h3>\n

What does our trash really look like, and what are the solutions to reduce it? This chart from the EPA (data from 2012) shows what constitutes our trash and shows us some great room for making change:<\/p>\n

\"EPA<\/a><\/p>\n

This chart explains many things quickly: which items create the bulk of our trash, but also huge opportunities for us to change our habits.<\/p>\n

Yard waste and food waste are easy starting points for waste diversion. Our food supply chain leaves farmers with excess, unsaleable product which rots in the fields, and grocery stores have overstocked displays and requirement for perfect produce (meaning a perfectly edible but imperfect looking tomato may simply get chucked), leading to an excess of waste before it even reaches our homes. And once it gets there, we throw away 30-50% of our total food purchases.<\/a> Food waste and yard waste are the easiest of these waste options to divert, and one that requires minimal effort at the personal or municipal level. Food waste efforts can include:<\/p>\n