A Chemistry professor had said at his Xavier’s seminar earlier during the year, “Just because we don’t hear about it, doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem.” The amount of trash that is accumulating every day is a problem that is not mention as much on the news or newspaper, but it is big problem that is growing each and every day. On a daily basis, many people throw away many possible recyclables that ends up being buried in landfills. Yet, they do not stop to think twice about that will happen when these trashes are buried underground. Some people do not know that once the trashes are buried underground, they are no longer treated and many of the things that are buried are not biodegradable nor are they good for the environment because of the chemicals they contained. When it rains, the fluids from the trash may be harmful and travel to the nearest lake, rivers or some source of water that may affect the ecosystems, which in turn affects us. If you’re thinking that you’ve never seen anything wrong with the water in the river or the lake, next time look closely because you might see a frog with 5 legs! In an ecosystem, when you see this type of mutation, it tends to means that the environment that these living organisms are living in is either toxic or polluted. This may be due to liquids that have flowed into the river from the landfills. There are many landfills that are located in the United States and the numbers are growing.  According to the Environment Protection Agency; the U.S. has 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 old municipal landfills. Municipal landfills can accept hazardous waste under federal law which would explain why people usually say that it is not safe to drink from the rivers or the lake.
Many Americans every day throw away massive amount of trash without thinking twice to whether or not they should recycle it. According to data taken from www.recycling-revolution.com, the U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world’s people generate 40% of the world’s waste. Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted. What’s even more unbelievable is that the highest point in Hamilton County, Ohio (near Cincinnati) is “Mount Rumpke.” It is actually a mountain of trash at the Rumpke sanitary landfill towering 1045 ft. above sea level. If more people contributed to recycling, the landfills would consist of half the amount of trash and we would need less land for garbage disposal. Imagine how much more space we would have on earth.
Another reason why people should contribute to recycling is because it helps global warming and its energy efficient. Many places such as College Universities, high schools, Hospitals, Officers are places where a large amount of papers, ink, pens, and other materials can be recycled. By recycling these materials, it would save a lot of energy that would be needed to make these same materials from scratch. According to recycling-revolution, it takes more energy to make something from scratch then to use recycled materials. Take paper for instances, to produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees and if all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year! Aluminum is another material that can also be recycled. Producing new aluminum can release up to 95% more of CO2 then if you were to recycle aluminum cans.

Some things that are thrown away are harmful to the environment by causing pollution in the air. Plastics for instance, every day many plastics water bottles are thrown away and when plastics are thrown away, they’re usually burned. Since plastics are made from oil, when it is being incinerated, it releases toxin into the air that may create serious greenhouse gas emission. If a recycling bin for aluminum cans and water bottles was located next to every trash can, imagine how much we would be helping the environment. It would decrease the amount of CO2 that is being produce and it would decrease the amount of greenhouse gas that is emitted into the air.

Now that I’ve have discussed the benefits of recycling, let’s talk about why people don’t to it.
You would think that since recycling would help save the earth that we are currently occupying, many people would want to help preserve it. Recycling is like eating healthy food, many people know it’s what you’re supposed to do but yet they still choose not to eat healthy. Another possible reason could be that recycling is not free! There are services that charge to pick up household recyclables and there are a few that provide it free of charge. In New Orleans before the storm there was a recycling service, but currently there is only a private one that charges $15 a month. In my opinion, the government should fund these services since it would beneficial for everyone. With the economy down right now, people are not going to want to pay for someone to come and pick up their trash. They would rather use that money for food or for their family. Overall, I believe that recycling is really important because it is important not only to the earth and the environment, but for everyone health.

I would also like to share a story; I can recall that after Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans wanted to have a landfill located in New Orleans East very close to my community and my home. At the time, I was still in high school and was not really aware of all the possible dangers of having a landfill located so close to my home. A large part of the community lead by our local church including the elderly, young, and even the priest protested each day near the site that was intended for the landfill. This happened three years ago and today, the community is still going to court trying to convince the city to cease the plan for this project. This story proves that if the community comes together, we can make a difference. Thought it is not over, we are still fighting to keep the landfill from being near our home. As long as we come together and pitch in even just a little bit, we can make a difference.

Overall, I believe that many more people would recycle if they there were more opportunities for them to recycle such as free curbside recycling and having bins that are located near each trashcan when possible. If these options were available, I believe that it would decrease the amount of trash that would accumulate in the landfills and create a better environment. This way, it would be at no cost for the everyday Americans to recycle.

The sources that I have used were taken from:

www.recycling-revolution.com and http://www.americarecyclesday.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.