Modern society generates an enormous amount of trash, and the volume of trash increases as people become more affluent. The average person in the U.S. throws away their body weight in trash each month. Urban residents throw out more stuff than rural residents of the same income.
In the next few decades, trash is likely to increase dramatically as affluence increases and more of the world’s population is concentrated in urban environments. A couple of years ago, the weight of urban trash exceeded 3 million tons per day, and the volume of trash is predicted to double globally in the next decade.
Recycling programs return a significant percentage of today’s waste stream for reuse, especially flat paper, cans, and bottles. A surprising amount of electronics, computers, and cell phones—which contain expensive specialty metals—should be candidates for a 100% recycling effort.
But we have much work to do. In some areas, trash is burned for energy, reducing its overall volume, but creating problems in air pollution and ash disposal. Construction debris, plastics, and packaging materials dominate what gets delivered to landfills.
Homo sapiens is probably the most efficient species that turns resources from the environment into waste products that are disposed. We expect the waste to be removed immediately and disappear without further notice.
If we are to reduce our impact on natural environments and not bury ourselves in our own waste, we must create a waste-free society, in which the materials in every product are recovered and reused, rather than simply buried for posterity.
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Web Links
See Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata. 2012. What a waste: a global review of solid waste management. World Bank, Washington, DC.
Photo, taken on January 11, 2007, courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.