Waste Management 101
Wait, don't throw that away
Too much trash
The average American throws away 4.5 lbs of trash every day, and it adds up: In total we throw away about 250 million tons per year — that's the weight of about 2,500 aircraft carriers or almost 700 Empire State Buildings!
Where is "away," exactly?
Our trash has to go somewhere. Usually, our solid waste is incinerated or heads to a landfill, and both have health and environmental implications. There are no pretty or easy solutions here.
Just shove it under the rug
Landfills cause pollution of the local environment when they leak and contaminate groundwater and soil, and on top of that they emit harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. And they don't just disappear — they take lifetimes to biodegrade and take up lots of room. Landfills are not just bad news for the environment but for our health as well. Leakage of harmful chemicals can contaminate the soil where our food grows and our drinking water comes from, and who wants to eat or drink that?
Burn it
Incinerating trash can release dangerous toxins into the air that we breathe. Ever smelled plastic burning? Imagine that on larger scale. When it rains, these toxic chemicals ultimately end up in water bodies and in our bodies.
