It Goes Into A Landfill

Have you ever wondered where all the trash goes that you throw out? Most of it ends up in landfills, gets burned or ends up on the street. Landfills are the most cost-efficient ways to get rid of trash for places like the United States but at what price. When waste disintegrates in landfills and water passes through the waste, the resulting liquid is called leachate. When leachate run off encounter local rivers and lakes it can contaminate the water and destroy whole eco systems that live in these areas. Landfill gas consists of naturally occurring methane and carbon dioxide, which form inside the landfill as the waste decomposes. As the gases form, pressure builds up inside a landfill, forcing the gases to move. Some of the gases escape through

Many things that all biodegradable and up in landfills the things that take years to decompose. Such as plastic, glass, metals! etc. This problem can be solved by me, with help, using $1000. When people throw away certain things, they don't know that many of those items are organic matter that can be decomposed. When you gather these organic and biodegradable items into a band, they decompose. This is called composting. The mixture inside the bin is called compost.this compost can be used as fertilizer and can help condition land. Things like fresh grass clippings, flowers, vegetable and fruit feelings such as potatoes and orange peelings, vegetable crop residue such as potatoes and tomato plants, herbivore manure, such as horse, cow, and rabbit,

In a 48-hour period, I produced close to 4 5-gallon trash bags full of both recyclable and non-recyclable items. My recyclables such as paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum items are likely to end up being recycled. And my non-recyclables are more likely to end up in a landfill. However, the food scraps I threw into a compost bin are likely to end up as fertilizer for soil at the Dartmouth Organic Farm. In addition, although I did not record any trash to be de facto, I am sure that I most likely abandoned bits of paper, which are probably left at the site of abandonment.

All of this trash means one thing: the current rate of waste generation in the United States is unsustainable; something must be done. The consequences of the throw-away society mindset are already visible, not only on the environment, but on the economy as well. Excessive waste leads to waste management fees, in addition to the cost of reproducing the disposed of products, the cost of the fuel to transport American garbage overseas, etc. All of this extra expense adds up to a substantial amount of wasted money that negatively impacts the American economy.

America is one of the largest countries along with being one of the largest waste producers in the world. In 2013 Americans generated about 254 million tons of ("Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2013 Fact Sheet"). So where does all of this trash go? Approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the over 3500 landfills ("Center for Sustainability & Commerce"). This trash that ends up in the landfill consist of metals, steel and aluminum can, plastic bottles, and paper along with other miscellaneous items. The issue with this is that the majority of these items will never decompose and just sit in the ground forever. While other items like paper will eventually decompose there is still a better alternative than putting it into a landfill. This alternative is known as recycling. What can we recycle? What can the average family do to recycle more? Where does trash end up if it is not properly thrown away or recycled? What is the impact of the improperly disposed trash on our environment? What can the government do to help?

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.

A recent study by Nature Climate Change shows this ongoing problem is caused by “224 million more pounds being thrown out than previously thought,” suggesting too much recyclable items are being thrown out: “For every 100 pounds of trash we throw away, 35 pounds is paper” and although about 80% of goods and materials can be recycled, only 32% are actually being reused (Powell, EPA, McKinney). As reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash, and recycled and composted [only] 87 million tons of this material” (EPA). This again shows that a good amount of materials that can be recycled are more often being thrown into the trash. The EPA estimates that “we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day ” in 2012 (EPA). That’s less than 30% of individually generated trash being

Recycling is one of the most common ways to keep America clean. The recycling bins are one of the most recognizable logos across the world. People all across the U.S. have recycling bins, inside of their household. The sad thing is most people do not use them, they most of the time just throw stuff in the regular trash that could be recycled. For example, plastic, paper, cans, glass, cardboard, and even computer hardware (www.recycleacrossamerica.org). People don’t realize that they could be doing the world a big favor, just by recycling these everyday items.

Historically, the state of garbage in California has not been that pleasing. Most of the landfills in the State are currently overused as some continues to get worse with time. This probably is the case because by the year 2013, only 36.6% of the entire waste products in United States were actually recycled. Moreover, according to the findings presented from CalRecycle study, the existing organic wastes constitute 32.4% of all the waste product. Sadly, these organic wastes pose a significant threat to the surrounding environment (Donovan). The common practice of burying solid wastes in a landfill is confirm dangerous to the environment because of the chemicals that later build up beneath the earth surface hence producing Leachate, a poisonous

Has it ever crossed your mind when you are tossing out that food that has been sitting in the fridge for weeks, where exactly that food goes once it is thrown out? When waste is thrown out, it is often taken to a place known as a landfill. A landfill is an area of land where waste is brought and accumulates over time (“Landfill Problems”). Landfills are a simple and low-cost solution to the copious amount of trash that people accumulate, but they are not healthy for people or the environment. In fact, living too close to a landfill and inhaling the toxic gases that landfills are known to release has proven cases of various forms of cancer.

Landfills are getting bigger and are becoming more of a problem in the U.S because they are hazardous to our health and our environment, but there is a way to stop the villain known as a landfill.

Most of the food that ends up in landfill is fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables. Most people will probably never realize how much food they throw away. Landfills just keep getting bigger because of this issue. With the effective ways to help store food properly or donate uneaten food should help the amount of food going into your garbage can and a landfill. With how much we throw away puts all the hard work the workers did to make the food and transport to waste. It’s a good thing they have food banks that are willing to take food donations and give them to people who really need

The United States of America has come a long way since its inception. The development of homes, cars, technologies, goods, and services has evolved. Also, the way in which Americans consume has drastically changed. And with all these great things, came solid waste generation, and unfortunately not methods for disposing of it in an environmentally friendly manner. The United States is the top trash-producing country in the world at over 1,600 pounds per person per year. Although the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world’s population, it generates 40% of the world’s waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2010 “Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of materials, resulting in 34.1 percent recycling rate. On average, each American generates about 4.43 pounds of waste each day. Only 1.51 pounds of that material were recycled and composed” (EPA, 2010).

As our global population continues on a steady rise so does our product consumption, which naturally leads to an increase in waste production. The vast amount of waste that we are manufacturing ultimately lands up in our oceans, lakes, rivers, alley ways, backyards and parks creating what are known as garbage towns. This would introduce health risks to individuals and the community as a whole. These risks could also include exposure to dangerous chemicals that poses detrimental effects on the environment. To avoid this from happening governments have created landfills. Landfills are a “place to dispose of refuse and other waste material by burying it and covering it over with soil, especially as a method of filling in or extending usable land.” (Webster Dictionary). In an even more extravagant attempt to keep waste material out of the streets and non biodegradable products out of the ground and keeping organic material together governments have added recycling and composting plants to landfills to make waste management centres. In waste management centres they may separate the material there and transport it to its respective plant, or have the respective plants built in.

When trash ends up in a landfill it does not decompose like compost it just sits there because there is lack of oxygen and low amounts of moisture, so it does not break down very rapidly. Because the trash just sits there, it starts to release gases like sulfur dioxide, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen oxide. All of those are very toxic for the environment. The gases in a landfill can move thought soil and collect inside building or homes that are nearby.