As we accumulate more and more material goods in our lives, the need arises to dispose of the things that we have no use for. We either recycle or reuse old products, or we simply thrown them in the trash. The trash that we throw away is known as “Municipal Solid Waste,” or MSW. MSW is a general term that encompasses virtually all waste thrown away by humans, including waste from businesses, federal agencies, farms, and construction and demolition. Since the year 1980, MSW generation in the US has increased by 73%, to what it is today, a staggering 262 million tons per year. All of this waste is handled in one of two ways: either it is sent to incineration plants to be burned, or it is sent to landfills to be stored in a relatively stable environment. However, despite it seeming like this waste is handled safely and without harm being caused to the environment, the opposite is true.
When your trash is collected once every week, the garbage truck sometimes takes it to an incineration plant, where MSW is put into an incinerator and burned to ash. This compacts the trash by around 80% of its weight and volume and be allows MSW to be stored more easily. The heat produced by the combustion is also used in electricity generation, which saves fossil fuels. While this is a simple solution to the problem of MSW accumulation, it is not a completely smart or environmentally friendly solution. The types of materials that incinerators burn are mainly synthetic materials, like plastics, and when these plastics are burned, a wide variety of pollutants and contaminants are produced, like carbon dioxide, methane, heavy metals, and micro particles, which can cause cancers and deformities in humans, and contribute to climate change, smog, and acid rain. The ash that is produced from incineration also can spread into the air and contaminate it (called fly ash), or leach dangerous chemicals into the air (bottom ash).
The other major way that MSW is dealt with is through storing it in landfills, which accounts for about half of all MSW generated, including much of the ash produced from incineration. While landfills seem safe and free from potential contamination, they are actually the cause of many environmental problems. To prevent leaching of toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater around the landfill, the law requires landfills to be lined with plastic, clay, or both, as they are relatively impermeable substances. Unfortunately, though, plastic can deteriorate and clay can become increasingly porous over time, allowing dangerous chemicals to leach out of the landfills and potentially harm humans. The environmental consequences of landfills also go beyond just leaching. Because landfills contain so much organic, rotting matter, the bacteria present in the landfill readily decompose the waste and convert it into a gas containing CO2 and methane, known as landfill gas. Due to the landfill gas containing methane in addition to carbon dioxide, it is more effective at trapping the sun’s heat and contributing to global warming. This problem is more imminent than we may think, as Texas is one of the most prominent landfill gas producers in the United States behind California, with a total of 331.8 million cubic feet of methane gas produced every day. The impacts of landfills go even beyond this, with another major issue being the heavy usage of land area to establish landfills on and the subsequent destruction of animal habitats and native species, which decreases an area’s biodiversity and resistance to change.
It is clear that Municipal Solid Waste and its proper disposal is an important topic in today’s society. While the future may look grim, the rate of recycling and improvements in disposal technology are rapidly increasing, with the US recycling around 40% of all the waste produced. Because improvements are constantly being sought out and made, the next step in waste reduction comes from the people who actually throw away so much MSW—us, as human beings—, and if the amount of waste that is thrown away is reduced, it will lessen the impact of MSW on the environment.
Important questions to ask yourself include: What will happen in the future if this process of throwing away and disposing of waste continues to grow? What role do you, as a member of society, play in this environmental crisis? What kinds of measures can you take to reduce the constant stream of MSW into the world’s landfills and incinerators?
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25 comments:
I did not realize the staggering amount of waste and sheer number if landfills in the United States compared to a century ago. I was hot aware that these landfills create greenhouse gasses and contribute to global warming. If this problem continues, then it could quite possibly start to affect the livelihoods of innocent people from global warming and the effects of landfills.
It is crazy to see the amount of trash we have accumulated over the years. Landfills affect the atmosphere and the people who live near them. I think the only way I would know how to help is by using more recyclables and reuse more products when the options arise. Also, the fact that landfills are lined with clay or plastic is also an environmental hazard because the materials may leech waste out into people’s livelihoods.
Landfills are a very controversial topic in the sense that they are seen as very harmful to the environment, which is true. The potential leeching that could occur in a landfill is extremely dangerous to people that live anywhere close to these landfills. Incinerating plastics also hurts the environment, sending tons of Carbon Dioxide into the air and contributing more towards climate change. If we keep using these harmful practices in the future, the world will look grim as we will have to find somewhere else to live.
It’s crazy to read how drastic the MSW generations have increased. Landfills and incineration plants have a severe impact in the environment. Chemicals are just collected and can easily move into actual living areas through leeching.To be able to reduce MSW, people could choose to recycle or reuse instead of throwing it away. If people were more educated on the effects that throwing away waste has, more movement towards environmental health could be made.
Consumer culture is deeply rooted in developed nations, especially the United States, but as the impacts of the climate crisis become more visible, I believe that consumers will become more conscious (if not more active) when it comes to waste disposal. While consumer play an important role in MSW, the biggest impact will come from corporations and manufacturers. By limiting the production of disposable products and cutting down on excess packaging, companies can eliminate much potential MSW before it even reaches the hands of the consumer. Even if MSW is satisfactorily reduced, America will still need to confront the problem of its existing landfills. Because the landfill linings are vulnerable and landfill bacteria are so detrimental to the environment, old landfills which present substantial dangers to the surrounding environment and ecosystems will need to be dug up and dealt with.
MSW is growing way too fast for our population to have it under control. I think we need to find a new acid or some kind of product/machine that can discard the MSW safely and effectively. The way we increase our trash reminds me of Wally and how the earth was filled with boxes of trash and that we had to eventually move to space to survive. This is a serious threat that many scientist and politicians are not looking into and taking seriously.
I did not know how much more trash we began to produce since 1980. To combat this problem, people should try to recycle and reuse more. Landfills and incinerating trash has many negative effect, and should be used as a last resort to get rid of objects. Burning trash leads to air pollution, and it can release chemicals that can contaminate the water source of people living nearby. It is important to get this problem under control to prevent more negative effects on the planet.
It’s saddening to hear how much waste we have produced. There are many simple things we can do to reduce MSW. For starters we can take reusable bags to the grocery store to avoid using their wasteful paper or plastic options and avoid individually wrapped items at the store. Rather than throwing away food and scraps we can consider composting them. Believe it or not, shopping at secondhand stores is a great way to reduce your creation of new garbage.
Lastly, when possible, we should try to buy items packaged in recyclable materials.
The amount of waste produced annually is staggering. As a consumer, every individual can try to reduce his or her own impacts by reusing or recycling whenever possible to reduce the amount of waste headed to landfills. Everyone is responsible to try to stop climate change, as pollution and global warming affects the entire planet. In addition to monitoring future waste, current and previous waste will still need to be dealt with, causing more problems that need to be solved before the waste disposal crisis can truly be contained.
The waste we produce may seem minuscule presently, but as seen throughout history, it is quickly building up. While I knew these landfills contributed to pollution, I was not aware of how much they negatively impacted our environment. Individually, we can try to reuse everything possible, and begin to use more environmentally friendly products. By working to reduce our contribution to landfills now, we can help reduce the issue. However, further steps need to be taken in order to determine how to efficiently dispose of future waste.
As a member of society and a human, it's basically impossible to produce waste. However, the way we use the waste must be thought over. Foremostly, we should consider how we can do more reusing the items that we already have in our homes. The next solution is to how our local businesses can use the recycled material from the locals. These two steps are key to helping to combat the massive issue of municipal solid waste.
Waste production is a huge problem that often gets overlooked in society, but society as a whole should take more action to limit the harmful impacts of certain types of waste disposal. As Nithilan described, incinerating municipal solid waste has adverse effects as it releases toxins into the air that have the potential to harm people on a large scale. I think as a society, we should take more initiative to produce less waste in the first place so we don't need to worry as much about the disposal of it. By tackling the problem from the beginning, we can begin trying to alleviate the issue.
I didn’t know that waste had a name, MSW. Although we always talk about reducing waste and recycling, humans will keep producing waste no matter what. However, at this rate, the future population may be in danger of pollution from all the the waste being produced in the present. As a member of society, I feel like that I should do my best to reduce waste by using things like reusable water bottles and recycling things that I can.
I appreciate the U.S. map graphic, and landfills are evidently too many and too large. As a community, we can focus on using less disposable material that we end up throwing away, reducing per capita contributions to MSW. Furthermore, depending on what ethics decide, we dump material, that takes a long period of time to biodegrade, on inhospitable planets. However, it is preferable to solve the problem at its root at humans' wasteful behavior.
While what we do with the MSW is certainly an issue that needs innovation and investment, the larger issue with American waste is the consumerism that inhabits this country. When products are produced to expire quickly and to be rebought, it is only natural that a large amount of waste products would be produced. Although tackling a cultural issue to this magnitude will take decades, consumers can make smarter choices about reusable products, and companies should be encouraged to develop biodegradable packaging and products.
What concerns me the most when looking at graphs and videos like that is how waste and environmental damage seems to be exponential growth, which is worrying when considering future growth and harm done. In the future if nothing is done, the earth will slowly but surely get poisoned and the ozone layer will get slowly destroyed, leading to an accumulation of environmental damage. I think the role that I play in society as a young individual is to try and raise awareness while also providing help in recycling our mess. Lastly, measures i would take to reduce MSW would be by increasing recycling and using primarily recyclable products. Or send all of our trash into space, which i can't imagine to be practical or even good but it's extreme.
I think the solution to this waste problem lies partly in decisions made by packaging manufacturers. Rather than try to drive costs down with single-use plastics, they should try to invest in making their materials biodegradable so that it does not cause harm when it is sent to a landfill. This will undoubtedly drive up costs so consumers will then have to make the conscious decision to pick biodegradable packaging so that their local landfill does not pile up with harmful waste.
The harsh reality is that it’s only going to get worse. I would like to say that the public will be disgusted by it and that they will try and put a stop to it. However, that’s not the case. Right now the system is going fine and a large majority of the people can’t physically see the environmental setbacks it has, which means we aren’t really going to do anything until it becomes extremely prominent and we are either at or near the point of no return. We play a huge role because a good amount of trash is coming from us. I feel like a good thing we could do is recycle and do it properly. Not only that but we can reuse a lot of stuff. For example, most of my food containers at my house currently are just old boxes from other food items we have bought. This way we are reusing a lot of potential waste for everyone’s benefit.
It's strange think about where your trash goes once you throw it away. For me at least, in the past, I did not pay much attention as I believed it not to be my problem anymore. I was immensely shocked when I learned that Municipal Solid Waste has increased by 73% in the U.S. The pollutants created from the burning of MSW is not only dangerous for humans, but also the environment and other species. If we want to sustain biodiversity, it is important to find a solution to this issue. One way is to increase the usage of biodegradable products and materials.
It’s increasingly scary how much developed action contribute to land waste. I didn’t realize the amount of global warming we also contribute. It’s just like how developed nations have such a higher carbon footprint than developing nation, especially the US. In a few decades there will be more developed nations and even more land full waste. We need to find a way to efficiently get rid of waste otherwise as time goes on the problem just gets worse. We need to understand that climate change is an issue that we all need to have the upmost priority to solve. There has to be a way humans can innovate to make this problem go away.
I have traveled past landfills a few times. There was always a repugnant smell. It must have been the methane. Recycling would help reduce contribution to the growth of these disposal sites but I fear that land waste will still continue for quite some time. Unfortunately the recycling of batteries has not been encouraged for those who use household double AAs and businesses charge consumers for trying to recycle them. This probably contributes to some of the leaching in landfills.
Landfills have always seemed like a constant practice in the US as they've been around for a while. However, as you mentioned the amount of landfills now is staggering compared to what that number was before. The amount of trash and waste in these landfills due have very harmful effects on the environment. Recycling is still not practiced as much as it should be, and if this doesn't change the amount of landfill only stands to increase and this will only lead to more pollution and problems in the environment.
I agree that our current disposal methods are destructive. If this continues in the future, the earth will eventually reach its capacity to hold all of our MSW. This situation is akin to shoving your mess under your bed when your parents tell you to clean your room. In the end we will have larger problems that will be hard to solve. The biggest way to slow down the stream of MSW is to be conscious about methods of waste disposal. Recycling and reusing should become integrated processes in households across the US. Further companies must uphold these practices as well.
I think that if we continue at this rate then the environment will no longer be able to withstand the waste filling up landfills. In order to hopefully slow this process I can recycle objects so less is thrown away to be put into landfills again.
Miss Dixie and I have had the conversation a few times on how to be more environmentally cautious. I’ve noticed that majority of fast food chains like Chick Fil A have products that are not biodegradable/ environmentally friendly in the least. Whenever I think about that, I think of how often I see people going to these places. It’s not like big time corporations are the only reason for landfills being the way they are, however, they are a contributing factor. Maybe they need to stop preaching ambiguity saving the environment, and put their money where their mouth is.
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