Recycling: What Environmentalist Leave Out

Recycling. It is one great movement that is sweeping the entire world off of its feet. It is a good cause but many people over exaggerate facts and such other things about recycling. If you would like to learn more please go to the following sites:

• Perc
• Times Delphic

I’d like to thank the writers of those two reports because they were very helpful in the writing of this paper. Now getting back to the real stuff. Many organizations around the world (even Conservation Club) can sometimes over exaggerate facts about recycling. Everyone always wants to recycle after being persuaded that if we don’t recycle that we will be buried in our own trash. EHHHH! Wrong Answer. Here is Myth 1: Our Graves Will Be In A Pile Of Garbage. Since the 1980s, many people have been very concerned about the “landfill crisis.” Al Gore has said, “(we are) running out of ways to dispose of our waste in a manner that keeps it out of either sight or mind.” This is true and untrue. During the 1980s, there were fewer landfills but they were very larger. So as some people would say, you just killed two birds with one stone. EPA only observed the number of landfills that were being produced not the actual capacity of them. As a fact, today the U.S. has more landfill capacity than ever before. We are actually improving our rate of losing landfill area. In 2001, we could last for about 18 more years of the landfills of that time, 25% greater than the capacity the decade before. No that does not mean we have only 11 years to live. Number of landfill capacities are becoming greater while still keeping it on the land it belongs on. There are even a few places where capacity has shrunk. The total land space needed to hold all the trash for about one century would be about 10 square miles.

Now Myth #2: OUR TRASH CAN KILL US. Your answer is not exact so we can’t give it to you. People in the U.S. are very alarmed when hearing of deaths due to poison in products. But trash? Many people think so but it is not as serious as everyone thinks. Landfills as of today cause about 5.7 cancer- related deaths with in 300 years. That’s less deaths than the death rate in New York City. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0DE2DE173EE233A25754C2A9669D946697D6CF) “One person is killed every fifteen hours by the street, Subway, or elevated cars of New York City. That is the story of a report made to the Public Service Commission last month. In twenty-six days of the month of August forty-two persons were killed, and the grim total of killed and injured was 5,500.” There is a larger death rate of getting killed by an accidental terrorist bombing than there is of dying from landfills. Let’s see if I were to put that to unit rate, then .019 people every year die of landfill causes. Wait? I don’t think you can have .019 of a person. That’s like a finger or a foot.