Garbology Essay

we’re wasteful. In order to find solutions for our trash problem, we must first admit that we are

Take a moment to imagine the realization that a young boy came to when two of his favorite movies had a large plotline that was somewhat based on the problems of trash. Wall-E, the famous Pixar movie, was based on a small robot that was left behind on Earth’s surface alone. His job was to clean the garbage that the human population left behind when they went into space to escape their problems. Toy Story 3, another Pixar movie, contained a scene with garbage that was vital to the plot, in which the characters are rescued from a trash furnace that was consuming literally tons of trash a minute. These two movies tried to make the American population aware of the ever growing trash situation, however, Americans quickly forgot about the Earth shattering situation that they are causing. The solution to the world’s trash problem is easy; people need to be educated on the problems of trash and given an easy way to fix it. People should be required to visit a landfill, educated on the severity of the trash problem, and should be rewarded for changing their habits to improve the problem.

Heather Roger claims our current garbage disposal methods are short term and etiquette. Rogers’s position is clear that we need to minimize the use of landfills and create better means to discard trash. In supporting Rogers’s environment views I think that we need to create a more economic and environmental friendly garbage disposal system. Heather Rogers and Lars Eighner both acknowledge the issue with society’s throwaway mentality. Eighner proves that we throw away perfectly working stuff, having survived off others discarded materials. Eighner argues against excessive waste we create but does not have any prospected solutions. Whereas Rogers acknowledges the obvious need to minimize our consumption of waste but argues the need

“Waste” is a short essay in which Wendell Berry critically analyzes the growing epidemic of trash that is polluting the nation’s land, waterways, and the air. Berry explains to the readers how the remnants of floods and litter that leave farmlands scattered with trash, makes more work for the farmers who have to rid their land of the trash before they can use it. Along with the floods, roads and highways also lead to a barrage of garbage from people who are too lazy or ignorant to take proper care of their garbage, which Berry claims leads to “. . . a constant precipitation of cans, bottles, the plastic-ware containers of fast food joints, soiled plastic diapers, and sometimes whole bags of garbage,” (Waste 1) along the edges of their fields. The garbage of the country continues to be a burden for everyone, whether it impacts them directly or not. Although it would be impossible to eliminate garbage completely from the country, the waste could be greatly reduced. Most of today’s trash is a consequence of the laziness of American society.

In today’s society, there is an abundance of waste. This is clear in observing how people live, we often throw out items because we want something better. Lars Eighner, author of "On Dumpster Diving," writes about his experiences being homeless and how he survived on the waste of others. This provides insight on how the phrase "one man's trash is another man's treasure," is true. Jeremy Seifert, who directed the documentary Dive!, also talks about how he survives off of other people's waste, but this was a decision he made. As they tell of their experiences, Seifert and Eighner both come to the conclusion that society is wasteful. While both individuals provided good information, I believe Seifert presented the better argument. Both of

Lars Eighner once found himself homeless, scavenging dumpsters for his next meal and looking for possessions that could benefit him in this difficult time. While on this journey, Eighner discovered how wasteful today’s society is when it comes to vital materials in life. In his article, “Dumpster Diving”, Eighner uses an informative tone to emphasize the fact that people take things for granted by wasting valuable items they could still benefit from. Eighner establishes his use of logos by emphasizing his view on wastefulness in today’s society.

The society we live in is disposable we feel more than comfortable throwing away or removing things we use from cans, to shoes, and even plastic bottles because we feel as though it’s easier to throw them out then to fix them then reuse them. This process of renewal then reusing has been given a name; its name is “recycling”. The base word of recycle is cycle which according to Webster’s dictionary means to “a set of events or actions that happen again and again in the same order: a repeating series of events or actions.” While reading Garbology I learned the real reason why so much trash exists on our planet which is affecting our living conditions. Our planet is so “trashed” as a result undereducated people not pondering over where their trash ends up, allowing them to

Reading Garbology by: Edward Humes has surprised me in many ways possible. For example, I never knew Puente Hills ever existed until reading this book. Puente Hills is a garbage hill that exists in San Francisco, where the big boulders come pile trash over trash that has no limits. This type of facility has been existing for decades due to small business financial and environmental concerns. Also, Puente hill received almost 130 million tons of garbage and five hundred feet higher than the original ground level.

The United States produces roughly 250 million tons of solid waste, or garbage, on an annual basis. This number equates to 4.4 pounds of solid waste created by every American on a daily basis (Miller, Meindl, & Caradine, 2016). The recycling rate in the U.S. is around 35%, meaning over 165 million tons of waste is placed in the nation’s landfills or incinerated each year (Mozo-Reyes, Jambeck, Reeves, & Johnsen, 2015). Landfilling recyclables contributes to a greater strain on global resources because materials that may have been reused must now be replaced (Miller, et.al. 2016). Landfilling waste also contributes to air pollution through the release of methane (Delkash, Zhou, and Singh, 2016) and poses threats to groundwater near landfills (Talalaj & Biedka, 2016). As the population of the nation (and the world) increases, strategies must be found to reuse resources rather than simply disposing of them.

Despite info campaigns, recycling programs, and inundation with horrifying stats - leaking landfills, islands of garbage in the ocean, vast quantities of food discarded rather than feeding the hungry - we humans are still rampant wasters. Systemic change is needed. But could the redesign of that simple household object could help us rethink the flawed concept of “throwing things away”? The power of design means a simple object can help redirect the way we think or act. I would choose to redesign the waste bin with the idea that it has the potential to effect change from an the individual household to the global

Americans alone produce 250 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, tripling from 1960 (Weeks). That cannot continue because there is not enough natural resources to be consuming and dumping into landfills. There are many consequences of not becoming concerned for the environment. The depletion of resources and supposedly safe methods of recycling or burying waste are not working. Many engineers and the US EPA acknowledge that the landfills will leak eventually and pollute groundwater (Sheehan). Eliminating forests and other sources are leaving a very fragile eco system. The more humans contribute to global warming; the more natural disasters will be seen. American consumption and lack of reducing and reusing every item not only affects the environment negatively, it also affects the workers of those behind the “Made in China” label. American consumption needs to slow down and readjust the way waste and the environment is handled, and there is a way called zero waste. Success has been seen in individuals and companies that participate and make differences ethically, cites have experienced great success with a zero waste lifestyle.

People Need to Recycle In the United Sates, where the population is inflated every year. The amount of space for landfills decreases every day. The need for recycling should not be asked, it should just be done out of habit. Everyone in America needs to recycle, to help the lamdfill problem, help the environment, and help produce new products from recycled goods. In America there is about two-hundred and eight tons of residential and commercial trash generated a year, 4.3 pounds per person a day (Prichard 1A). This is an overwhelming amount of trashed produced yearly. When people recycle this number can be drastically cut. But many people do not practice and use

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled about 87 million tons, equivalent to a 34.3 % recycling rate. However, on average, we only recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day. And even so some might argue the cost effectiveness of recycling I find this EPA statistic along with the obvious alleviation on global warming and all its effects reason enough to take a closer look at our recycling mentality. Waste prevention is possible in every life situation: in the home, at the office or at work, at school or on the road yet we are reluctant to engage in recycling and waste reduction. We need to avoid waste instead of causing it.

To begin with an overall image of how trash is handled in China. Generally, people do not classify their trash at home; recyclable and regular waste are disposed of in the same bins. Also, levels of waste collection services vary across the country. In some areas, waste is collected up to three times per day, but in other undeveloped areas, there is no regular collection at all. The trash collectors come around to take the trash away, and what the citizens need to do are to place the trash bag at a specific place close to their resident buildings. The collected trash were shipped to garbage transfer station by specialized trucks. After the trash is arrived, the first step was to classify into organics, inorganics, recyclable and unrecyclable. Then these classified trash are handled with three methods. First of all, some of unrecyclable and inorganics are transported to landfills, then are filled into the pits. Second of all, some organics were transported to a composting plant, which are used a plant fertilizer after composting treatment. Third of all, the recyclable waste will be recycled.

American citizens throw away millions of tons of garbage each year, and this trash has to go somewhere. While there are projects underway to clean and reuse this refuse most of it gets dumped into huge landfills. These landfills are disgusting festering blisters on our country's landscape. But people continue to consume and throw away more and more in the name of convenience. As they see it, when things get old, throw it away and get a new one. They blame the government for the trash problem, but the truth blame should be placed on themselves.