The Problem:Garbage is everywhereNorth America’s landfills are overflowing. They stink, attract rodents, spread pathogens and leach toxins into our soil, contaminating underground water. Each of us produces over a ton of garbage every year. Forty percent of that garbage is organic waste sent to rot in landfills and in turn creating approximately one third of the harmful methane gas that is produced. In terms of heat that is trapped and damage to our atmosphere, this methane is over twenty times more harmful than carbon dioxide. Why do we continue to do this? This truly is waste. And, there is a solution. Check out “The End of Waste” video |
The Solution:Every single thing we currently throw out MUST be recycled.We recycle about 30% of the current waste stream. This number grows every year. Some businesses are far ahead of consumers and the government in waste reduction. Some major corporations, for example Wal-Mart, have reduced their waste stream by 90%. The time when every product is recyclable is not far away, it is simply a matter of product design and the appropriate government incentives and regulations (for example, higher landfill fees, or carbon trading). Plastics are one of the major recycling problems, but the field of bio-plastics is expanding, and consumer demand is expanding even faster. With bio-plastics, that is plastic made from organic material rather than petroleum, products can be composted or used as energy feedstock. Some plastics, particularly those that contain chlorine like PVC, will need to be redesigned to eliminate the deadly chlorine molecule. Products that contain some plastic and some organic material, like my friend Bill McDonough’s famous shoe example need to be one thing or the other, i.e. either compostable organics or re-usable plastics. |
