Household Waste: Managing the Monstrosity
Inside Our Homes ~
Waste…We all produce it. From our kitchens to our bathrooms to our living rooms, garbage piles up and needs to go somewhere. So now that you have it, what do you do with it? Do you toss it all into a single garbage bag and forget about it? This is the easiest solution, after all. Or do you recycle a few things, and then throw the rest away? At least you’re making some effort to be environmentally conscious, right?
Before you simply toss your garbage out the door, take a few minutes to think about where your garbage goes, and how it may affect others. You might find it interesting to learn that most of our trash that is not reused or repurposed, recycled, or composted, makes its way to waste facilities, where it is then either sent to a landfill or off to an incinerator to be burned.
This may not seem that alarming at first, as these places are specifically designed to handle our excess waste, but perhaps it should cause some concern. Consider these facts about our household waste:
According to these statistics, and many more not listed, sending all of our trash heedlessly off to the landfill or the incinerator is an action that could cause harm not only to us, but our planet as well. While the reality is that some of our trash will unavoidably end up in these places, there are a number of things that you can do at home to reduce the amount of waste that gets there.
Waste…We all produce it. From our kitchens to our bathrooms to our living rooms, garbage piles up and needs to go somewhere. So now that you have it, what do you do with it? Do you toss it all into a single garbage bag and forget about it? This is the easiest solution, after all. Or do you recycle a few things, and then throw the rest away? At least you’re making some effort to be environmentally conscious, right?
Before you simply toss your garbage out the door, take a few minutes to think about where your garbage goes, and how it may affect others. You might find it interesting to learn that most of our trash that is not reused or repurposed, recycled, or composted, makes its way to waste facilities, where it is then either sent to a landfill or off to an incinerator to be burned.
This may not seem that alarming at first, as these places are specifically designed to handle our excess waste, but perhaps it should cause some concern. Consider these facts about our household waste:
- The total amount of paper and plastics in the form of cups, forks, and spoons that are thrown out by Americans annually, are nearly enough to loop the earth 300 times (Wills, 2010).
- In 2008 alone, 30,990 tons of food waste was discarded to landfills and incinerators in the U.S., along with 43,230 tons of materials, like bottles and pop cans, considered container and packaging waste (EPA, 2009).
- Landfills are not indefinitely leak proof. Despite the advent of new processes and technologies to reduce or eliminate leakage, a landfill’s lining will eventually break down and allow the seepage of harmful toxins into the ground and water (Stratford, 2011).
- Of all the waste sent to incinerators, 30% ends up as toxic ash, which must be put in landfills. The other 70% enters the atmosphere as emissions (DEW, 2011).
- Ultra-fine particles made up of toxic chemicals can be released into the environment by even the most advanced incinerators (Donnelly, 2010).
According to these statistics, and many more not listed, sending all of our trash heedlessly off to the landfill or the incinerator is an action that could cause harm not only to us, but our planet as well. While the reality is that some of our trash will unavoidably end up in these places, there are a number of things that you can do at home to reduce the amount of waste that gets there.