Why has this
happened?
With our current Throw Away Economy (Lester Brown, Auther of Plan B 3.0, and his take on a Throw Away Economy), we as consumers are forced to buy products that are made to be used only a few times or even one time only. Some of these producs include Plastic or Styrofoam dining ware, plastic water bottles, paper plates, and paper napkins. We are not only quickly running out of space to put these used products, we are also running out of the resources like lead, tin, copper, iron ore, or bauxite that are used to make these products. Not to mention the fossil fuels that it takes to produce and transport these products is also becoming scarce. An even bigger problem than the products of our throw away economy would be the issue of packaging.
Corporate production companies use excessive and often times unneeded packaging to house there products that we as consumers are then forced to buy. Elements of packaging like bottles, boxes, wrappers, and cans take up more than a third of all US landfill space. Heather Rogers, the author of Gone Tomorrow said, “Packaging is garbage waiting to happen.”
Solid waste disposal has obvious and not so obvious negative impacts on the environment. Landfills are often unattractive scars on the earth and can leach harmful gas and chemicals into our air and drinking water. Garbage disposal also has an effect on the issue of climate change. Decreased trash production will; save countless acres of vegetated land which helps in sequestering carbon, decreases the amount of methane that is emitted by land fills, and decrees the amount of fossil fuels that are needed the transport the waste and maintain the landfill. The link between solid wasted management and climate change is one of many example of how landfills effect our environment (here is a more comprehensive list of issues).
It is up to us as consumers to be mindful of our buying choices and how they can affect the planet as a whole. It is also up to us to try and change the way company’s package the products we buy. We should also be moving away from single use produces and focus on the more durable reusable ones. If we can follow these simple suggestions the trash that we as individuals produce will be greatly reduced, which is good for every one.
I think one important thing to look at when considering the issue of trash is the responsibility of companies in this issue. If we forced companies producing wasteful one time use products to employ cradle to grave practices in which they are responsible for the trash created from their products many companies would likely improve their practices. Not only that, but these companies could pass the cost of employing responsible practices that reduce trash production onto consumers who would likely then consume less. Another way in which landfills can actually be beneficial is in their production of methane which can be removed and used for energy and thus is not necessarily a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteColleen-
ReplyDeleteI would defiantly have to agree that the companies should be responsible for reducing the amount of packaging they use for their products. In some cases corporations are actually improving in this issue. Take Walmart for example, they have switched to using small and highly concentrated laundry detergent bottles. This alone (according to Walmart) saves 400 million gallons of water, 95 million pounds of plastic resin and 125 million pounds of cardboard. It is up to us as consumers to not buy products with excessive packaging. If we stop buying these products companies will be forced to change the way they do things so that they will continue to make profits.
I think you make an excellent point. People in the United States and much of the developed world produce entirely too much solid waste, leading to both increased land use and increased GHG emissions. One strategy on the local level that is becoming increasingly popular in communities all over the U.S. is known as pay as you throw (PAYT) trash collection services. In PAYT programs, residents of a community are billed for their trash collection services based on the amount of solid waste they set out for pickup, be it in weight or bag size. Because all households do not equally share the costs of trash services as in communities implementing one flat rate for service, residents are likely to see the financial incentive in recycling and composting--by reducing the amount of trash households send to the landfill, they can simultaneously reduce their collection service bills. PAYT systems are an ideal market tool because they put the real cost of the environmental degradation due to solid waste production on those that deserve it and reward people for reducing their impact on the environment.
ReplyDeleteThis is a harsh statement and it is heard all too often but, Americans, in general, have just gotten lazy. Some houses these days are built without ovens or dishwashers. Even when eating a meal at home, many families use paper and plastic products because its easy to clean up. I think that landfill issues are something that need to be dealt with very soon. But like mentioned above, they really do need to start happening from the producer. Another thing that I'd like to point out though are the companies that are trying to do something. Take Sunchips for example. They have developed a new biodegradable chip bag, which is great(other than how loud it is). The problem is though, that if not composted like it says, then it still is accumulating in the landfills because it doesn't get the air to properly decompose.
ReplyDelete