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Sources Reduction And The Recycling Of Waste

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Unsustainable patterns for the production and consumption of waste exist throughout economies across the world. The issue that we currently face is taking a real initiative to reduce the amount of waste we dump into landfills every day. As the population in urban areas continue to rise, we will see dramatic increases in the amount of municipal solid waste being dumped into these landfills. This article discussed the topics of source reduction and the recycling of waste. Source reduction is the riddance of waste before it is created. Recycling is the conversion of waste into reusable materials. In 2012 the total amount of municipal solid waste generated in just one year worldwide totaled up to 1.3 billion tons. This figure is projected to …show more content…

However, they do sell reusable shopping bags to customers who forget to bring their own for an affordable price. Another city that is doing their part to work towards lessening their generation of waste is Portland, Oregon. Portland prohibits the use of polystyrene foam containers in restaurants and other retail vendors. This is to help them achieve waste production close to “Zero Waste”. They want to be able to reach their goal of producing no more than 10% of waste that will go into landfills. They have also given their residents guidance to purchase eco-friendly products by making sure they are durable, recyclable, reusable, and biodegradable. There is the waste to energy system that was mentioned in the article as well. Several cities have taken initiative to reduce waste by converting it to energy. This has allowed some districts to be able to provide energy to power school buildings or heating systems for an entire community. City governments are trying to seek financial incentives too. They are trying out higher landfill charges to encourage people to recycle or compost instead of throwing all of their waste away. This is similar to the “Pay As You Throw” system. Recycling of materials such as plastics or aluminum in exchange for money is a form of refund system that cities also offer as an alternative to throwing these materials into the trash. There was even a section about “Empowering

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