Environmental Issues In The United States

Statistics show that over 1.5 billion more tons of garbage ends up in the ocean each year than is actually thrown away. Not only does this contribute to the amount to fish reported dead every day, but it takes around 11.5 billion dollars every year to help treat the mess. Even so, the litter is building up at such a fast rate we can not even begin to make progress. People of ages 18-34 tend to litter much more than others. If a method is found to target this crowd and make it more convenient to recycle, a large part of the problem could be

Garbage in the Great Lakes are harming the Earth and making it unhealthy. Garbage is especially harming the animals and the Garbage is polluting the water. How should we prevent people from littering. Also how can we make the Earth more healthy?

Water pollution has become a major problem in our water sources. People think that when they litter or dump in our waters that their little contribution will not hurt anything, but everyone’s little contributions add up to some major problems. Our water ecosystems and the species that reside in them are being destroyed and we need to take the steps necessary to stop this. Why would anyone use the source of most of the world’s food as a dumping ground for garbage? People need to start realizing what it is they are doing when they do not take the proper steps to dispose of their garbage and the problems they are making for the future.

Imagine someone tossing a cigarette out of their window. That cigarette gets blown onto someone’s yard and is eaten by their pet. That pet could become seriously sick because of someone else's laziness. According to www.kab.org, over 51 billion pieces of litter land on U.S. roadways each year. That is just roadways. For that cleanup, America spends 11.5 billion dollars each year. 9.1 billion of those dollars are paid by businesses, with the other 2.4 billion being paid between schools, government, and other organizations. Another reason why if all this littering could be disposed of properly, America would have much more money put toward other important

A controversy issue in the United States is whether or not we should be involved in the controlling international pollution. Pollution is problem world-wide. Many would like to be involved in pollution while others would not. I believe that the United States should not be involved in the controlling of international pollution.

As many might know, over the past decades littering has become a Global issue. In recent years, littering has gotten so bad, it’s costing the U.S. about 11.5 billion dollars a year to clean. It’s people's intentions to litter all day, every day.

One of the main reasons why littering is a big issue is the effects trash causes to the environment. "The U.S. is the world leader in solid waste, producing 236 million tons of garbage in 2003." (Rea, K. 2005) "As an environmental problem, litter is a substantial

The inception of U.S. Environmental policy most notably began under the Presidency of Richard Nixon; Nixon oversaw the passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Clean Water Act of 1972, in particular, enacted stringent laws to prevent pollutants from entering navigable waters, outlawing open sewers from dumping crud into a local stream and the law also protects land that filters and purifies water as it flows by. The Landmark law passed in 1972, however, has not impeded the pending water crisis facing the U.S. today. The United States must take immediate measures in order to combat the problem; given that the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence now ranks water scarcity as a top threat to national security; right next to Terrorism (Sullivan). The United States should reform the Clean Water Act of 1972 to look for any deficiencies in the law.

Environmental issues has been trying to make its way to the top of the US’ agenda for quite some time now. Although aggregate environmental issues are significantly vast, Environmental Injustice has been a problematic ongoing issue for many years. On February 16, 1994, Bill Clinton signed the Executive Order 12898, which stands for “ Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations”. Executive Orders are legally binding orders given by the President to Federal Administrative Agencies and they do not require Congressional approval to take effect but they have the same legal weight as laws passed by Congress. Also, the President's source of authority to issue Executive Orders can be found in

Within regions of the U.S. that are home to heavy snowfall, it is a common practice to pour salt on the roads. The reason for this is because a property of salt allows it to lower the melting point of water, which makes it much easier to clear the streets of snow and ice that would otherwise leave the roads dangerous, unusable and slippery. It is a simple way to reduce car accidents, and it is also much cheaper compared to the alternative chemicals that can be used for the same purpose. However, the salt that most cities use doesn’t simply disappear after it has done its job. It typically gets washed away into reservoirs, watersheds, lakes and streams. In fact, researchers in Minnesota found that 70% of the salt used on roads in the twin

It may seem harmless and innocent, but littering is an unhealthy habit people of all ages in each country do every day. Littering is a second nature to some people; after doing it for so long and often, they do not realize they do it. As more and more people continue to litter, environments, animals, and humans are being harmed by people’s carless actions. Americans, as well as all humans, need to be more aware of how hazardous and costly littering is to the world and the creatures living in it. Littering shows lack of respect for the world, and needs to be prevented in order for future generations to live in a clean and healthy environment.

Our pollution rates are at a staggering amount. As stated before, the United States contributes to 30% of the world’s waste (“Pollution Facts”). If that amount isn't scary enough, then read this next quote, “Each year 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater, and industrial waste are dumped into U.S. water”(“11 Facts About Pollution”). Factories, corporations, and even us humans tend to overlook throwing things away that could be recycled or overlook littering into bodies of water like it's no big deal. However, these facts prove it is a big deal.

On average, Americans generate about 4 pounds of trash per person per day. (3) As Americans, we produce twice the amount of garbage than other countries and three times as much as we did in the past. Over half of the amount of trash we produce gets sent to landfills. The people who create the most trash are those that live in cities and wealthy individuals. When you live in a city, you consume more packaged goods and when you become more wealthy, you consume more products overall. (2) Unless we reduce the amount of trash we produce or find other ways to get

According to data collected during a short trial period the week of December 22nd, 2014 the average American family would produce a minimum of four bags of recyclable waste during a given week. The average weight of each bag was approximately 7 pounds. The town of Amelia, Ohio has a population of 5,100 and the city of Cincinnati, Ohio has a population of 297,314 (Sperlings Best Places, 2014). If the data is applied to each member of the community Amelia would have 20,400 bags of recyclable waste with a combined weight of 153,000 pounds each week. The city of Cincinnati would have 1,189,256 bags of recyclable waste with a combined weight of 8,919,420 pounds weekly. Annually this equates to 530,400 bags with a total of 3,978,000 pounds for Amelia. Cincinnati would have 30,920,656 bags at 231,904,920 pounds annually. The combined total of recyclable waste that could be kept out of landfills just from these two sister cities is 235,882.920 pounds annually. These are staggering numbers yet they pale in comparison to county, state, and national levels.

There are some reasons for the problem. The first reason is that the effects of the thrown rubbish are very dangerous and extremely harmful. According to Miller (1987), global industrial organizations produce over 80,000 different chemicals (para. 5). Basically, garbage is old, dirty and wet, so that it is a perfect place for bacteria and other viruses to stay in. Rubbish growth in cities has been a problem all over the world for centuries. Landfills have always been regarded as sources of illnesses and unpleasant smells. The harmful wastes from the garbage spread through the ground from paint, chemicals, petrol, batteries, and other toxic materials that have been thrown away into the garbage. The toxic chemicals get into the water pipes and spread through the people’s drinking water. Another reason of that problem is that people have created all these disasters, which are connected with environmental pollution. The more modern technologies are created, the more unbelievable become wastes and remains of what is produced. From this, man is responsible for what he or she created and for the following consequences. Anxieties about the environment have made people more aware of their environmental footprints or the kind of waste they leave behind during their existence. The difficulty is that an average person leaves an incredible amount of wastes in his or her lifetime. According to Lovejoy (1912), all biodegradable substances, contained in