HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
No matter what we decide to call it, waste, trash, rubbish, or junk, we still need to remember that we have to dispose of it somehow. With the amount of garbage growing each year, our waste industry has to work double time to keep up. Our ever so popular waste industry has the infamous job of finding an environmentally safe way of managing waste. Besides pleasing the environment, the waste industry also has to consider the consumer, or the common person, why pays them foe their services. It is important that everyone is satisfied and the job is still done effectively.
HUNTERS-GATHERS
Years and years ago when humans were hunters-gathers they followed around animals that they were going to eat. Garbage disposal and wastes were not a problem in these societies. They just left their garbage where it fell and moved on. Later on these hunters-gathers Became more sophisticated, building small cities as they grew. This change is when refuse became a problem.(Bernstein)
FIRST GARBAGE DUMP
As early as 500 BC, Athens, Greece passed laws that resulted in the first garbage dump. Garbage could no longer be left where it fell and the inhabitants of Greece could move on. Instead, all garbage was placed 1.6 km from Athens' cities wall. Despite the example that Greece as Creating for the rest of Europe, Europe just went on their way throwing trash in the streets. (Berstein)
BACK IN THE UNITED STATES (1797-1900)
Benjamin Franklin established the first municipal street-cleaning service in 1757. Back in the U.S.(New York) in 1892 out breaks of typhoid and cholera forced city officials to create better sanitary conditions. In 1900 all garbage was picked up from your house then dumped into the ocean. This method of disposing of waste continued for awhile until residents of Atlantic City and New Jersey complained about the mattresses and dead animals floating by them as they swam(Winkler) INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Then during the 1900's -1920's the Industrial Revolution was going strong. There not only were many more open dumps and urban refuse being burned but there was more of a consumer society which resulted in a throwaway society. People love "things" and when people were done with them they just threw them way because they knew that the industry would just supply them with more. And because no one knew better, every article of trash was dumped, or burnt. Then the depression came and people still desired this stuff, but they could no longer but it. As soon as the depression ended our society went back to their ways. EPA WAS ESTABLISHED
People became concerned about the amount of land used for the disposal of waste resulting in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA. When the EPS was established in the 1970's, its job was to make sure the laws made by the federal government for the environment were carried out. One of the ways government dealt with the waste was building underground ducts, creating a better way to dispose of the trash. In 1976, the United States congress defined solid waste as all garbage, refuse, send sludge products from agriculture, forestry, mining and municipalities.
1980's-1990's
In the 1980's the ways of trash disposal relied heavily on burning ones trash. This industry grew greatly as a result, but it was not the right step because of the risks involved to humans and the environment laws were passed stating that waste has to be dumped or disposed in a much safer manner. In the end of the 1980's and the beginning of the 1990's were marked by a series of meetings in an attempt to discover answers to environmental problems. Waste problems, such as the identification of cleaning up of hazardous landfills and the elimination of nitrates from drinking water, were considered by the national governments. As we came into the 1990's the convince of putting out your trash and never having to deal with it. Even though technological advances were made such as recycling people could not find the time or money to follow through with these new methods.
CAUSES
According to World Bank the Earth is a home to five billion human inhabitants, but it's estimated that by the year 2000 it will grow to be six billion. All of these bodies create their own waste which causes the problem of where we can put the mountain of human waste awaiting disposal and treatment. Our society can no longer just dump waste whenever we please due to the possible risk of disease.
`POPULATION In the 1990's the society we live in is a very wasteful one. The single greatest cause to this problem is over population, or just population in general. We must look at why an increase in population would effect the waste industry. Now, the answer to this question lies very shallow beneaththe surface and only takes a person realizing that there is a problem to discover. This answer being that as people increase, so will the demand for things and the trash that comes from these demanded articles. Because our society loves "things," and has yet to learn how to dispose of these items in a positive way we are left with a lot of trash and extras that will fill a landfill quicker than we will build them. Disposable items make up about one-quarter of all wastes placed in landfills. Also, because the demand is great among all the industries that provide us with these goods, the industry is more concerned with the quantity of things rather than the quality, or what will happen or what can be done when the purpose of this article is done. So instead of being to be recycled or reused the industries greatest concern is to make a mass amount of a product in a cheap fashion.
EXCESS PACKAGING
Excess packaging makes up a great deal of waste materials. As you walk through a landfill today there are many articles that can be recycled or used again but people were never told what to do with the products or why they would want to do anything different than to throw it away. The percentages of wastes in a landfill go as follows, 50% is paper, 20% is miscellaneous, 13% is organic, 10% is plastic, 6% is metal, and one percent is glass.
EFFECTS
With every cause, there are effects. This statement relates to just about anything, especially with the subject of waste. Waste has created more problems socially, economically, and environmentally than we know how to solve or want to put forth the extra effort to . The effects of waste in our everyday lives makes it scary to even think about how we possibly made it this far. Here are some examples of the effects of waste:
AGRICULTURE AND MINING WASTE
Agricultural and mining waste is generally disposed of on the land from which they came. When not adequately contained, however, this waste has caused the contamination of runoff and receiving waters. Agricultural waste, particularly animal waste, contain valuable nutrients that traditionally have been returned to the soil. With more animals being kept in confined areas such as feedlots, however, and with the increased use of concentrated chemical fertilizers on croplands, agricultural waste has come to be seen as a disposal problem rather than as a usable item.
MUNICIPAL WASTE
The residential and commercial waste of municipalities cause ocean contamination, litter, open dumps, leaching of water pollutants, air pollution from burning waste, and wasted resources. More than 400,000 tons of municipal waste is generated each day (Randolph). This waste must use soil ot surround and contain the waste materials. Therefore, many of the landfills are filled nearly to capacity and have to close due to the lack of space. This also effects the cost of disposing waste. Waste disposal fees have been increasing rapidly because landfills are reaching their capacity. Because of the resource potential of urban refuse, simple disposal not only causes aesthetic and pollution problems but is wastefull as well. Discarded materials contain a large number of reusable resources, but because they keep getting thrown away, our resources are limited.
LANDFILLS
The landfills where waste is placed also has a couple problems just in itsesf. The major problems are slope instability, chemical leachates, and soil nutrient deficiencies. In addition to their ugliness, the waste often causes air pollution and water pollution from the landfill's runoff after a hard day of rain. Once this runoff goes into our drinking water it can cause various problems such as diseases and sicknesses.
The effectsd that waste has on us and the land are both disgusting and dangerous to the fragile balance of our environment. If we begin focusing on the solutions we just might be able to solve the problems that come from waste before it is too late.
Waste: Solutions To The Problem
In order to deal with environmental issues that the world is facing today, we have to create solutions that will hopefully solve the problem. The most practical solution that can be adapted into anybodyÕs life is the concept of source reduction. This basically means: donÕt produce waste in the first place and there wonÕt be as much to worry about when it is disposal time. Here are some other solutions to the waste problem.
Corporate Solutions
¥ Create limits on the amount and type of materials used in the packaging process. Excess packaging is one major reason for the amount of waste in our society. ¥ Incinerate the waste in an environmentally safe way to produce energy in the process. This process is performed by burning the waste at very high temperatures, which can create steam or electricity. These particular sources of energy are then distributed to homes and businesses. Ashes left over after the process is finished are collected and recycled. Waste-to-energy facilities produce enough energy each year to give power to one million homes and decreases landfill waste by 90 percent.
¥ Recycle all of the excess packaging or waste generated by an industry.
Grassroots Solutions (interest or lobby groups)
¥ Form groups to specifically address the waste problem such as Greenpeace or SOLV.
¥ Set up numerous recycling sites available to all nearby communities.
¥ Send out flyers to the public, telling them what they can do to help. Keeping the common person informed is an important detail.
Individual Solutions
¥ Recycle anything and everything.
¥ Learn about the best way to dispose of waste and spread the word.
¥ Source reduction: do not produce waste so there is no problem to deal with.
¥ Compost any plant or food waste. This is possible by making a controlled pile of the organic material and turning it over every once in a while. While the waste is sitting, it begins to break down into a soil-like substance that can be used for agricultural purposes. ¥ Fix broken items instead of throwing them away.
Educational Solutions
¥ Teach children, when they are young, about ways to reduce the amount of waste produced. This will give them something to refer to in the future and hopefully instill good habits.
¥ Organize environmental groups or conventions for kids such as the summit we are preparing for.
Governmental Solutions
¥ Pass laws and regulations ensuring that all waste is taken care of properly. These laws may include clean air and water policies or banning a certain kind of waste disposal that is not environmentally safe.
¥ Institute Pay-as-you-throw programs in local areas. This is a program where households pay for the amount of trash that they dispose of. The government would decide whether to base this fee on volume, weight, or the number of trash cans on the curb.
Our own Solutions
¥ Tell other people about our ideas and solutions (stated below).
¥ Recycle all that we can.
¥ Only buy products that can be or are recycled.
¥ Buy only what we absolutely need. One flaw in American society is our tendency to succumb to the materialistic lifestyle. Many items that are bought sit on a shelf and are never used or thrown away shortly after. This is unnecessary of all of us.
¥ Substitute reusable and recyclable items for disposable ones. For instance, using cloth napkins and towels instead of paper or keeping plastic or china plates as opposed to using disposable paper plates.
¥ Support or even join an environmental group and be a part of the solution, not the problem.
Conclusion
Waste has contributed to these problems most hazardously since the Middle Ages. Through the years, humans have struggled with all of the waste we create. During the Industrial Revolution, many solutions were discovered, yet at the same time we were producing more waste than ever. It has become essential to find an affordable and effective way to dispose of our overbearing waste. For years and years mankind has dumped their waste either in a landfill or in the ocean. Dumping garbage in the ocean is now banned because of the water pollution it adds to the natural ecosystem. Landfills are still used all over the country, but lately we have been running out of space. There are also many problems with landfills located near housing settlements.