Trash Problems

 Now picture looking back at the beach and instead of seeing water, you see a dump. It is around 10 feet high, filled with trash. All the water is a dark shade of brown. The stench is horrifying. Any fish that used to live in the water are long dead. This could be the future of the world, a planet of overflowing trash. People have been carelessly throwing things away. All of this garbage has been piling and piling. Most have been sent to landfills, but they’re now overflowing.

Picture the government out of places to put the trash. They must put it anywhere they can find. People keep throwing things away, trash keeps piling. People start throwing their trash in the ocean because garbage trucks are charging a ridiculous amount of money to take trash in to landfills. Everywhere you look is pollution. People find it hard just to catch a breath. Is this the future you would like to have? Or would you try to put a stop to what is already in the process.

Our trash is not only taking up land but its also destroying resources, animals, and their way of life (Garrett). According to The Environmental Crisis, Landfills in the US close at a rate of ten per week. (Bea Quirk) The fees of landfills are going to increase regardless because the land is getting scarcer. “Landfills are getting full, land is getting harder to find, and so they are doing things so people will divert waste elsewhere,” says Courtney Lorenz, environmental manager for the Skanska USA Building Inc. According to Garrett, landfills use the natural process of decomposition to rot away trash. Many landfills accept household hazardous waste, but it takes more money and time to treat them. Since more and more trash is generated over time, newer landfills are needed created. In 2001, Americans generated around 225 million tons of trash (ASME). Only about one-third of America’s trash is recycled; the rest is either incinerated or dumped in landfills.

Incinerators are another way of reducing trash (Garrett). Incinerators “toast” trash by burning them and reducing them in the process. Burning trash can cause many emissions harmful to the environment, as well as to human beings. All of these places, by law, must be regulated by the EPA and Radiation Department. Incinerators usually take from three to five years to construct (The Environmental Crisis). The ash of incinerators contains a host of dangerous toxic chemicals. Incinerators in America have suffered frequent breakdowns and repairs.