Did you know that the average person generates about 4.6 pounds of garbage each day? The U.S. alone generates about 230 million tons of trash each year and less than one quarter of it is recycled. Can you think of any ways that you and your community can help stop such waste problems and help to get more things recycled?
Getting rid of garbage is starting to become a pretty big deal, so what can you do with it? Many people believe that you can take it to a landfill but is that possible? Most landfills are either full or shut down because they are contaminating the ground water beneath them. Once the ground water gets contaminated it is very expensive to clean it or sometimes even impossible. People also try to burn it but that also releases toxins into the atmosphere which isn’t good either. Even if people burn garbage they still have to have somewhere to put there ashes once they are done.
So what can people do with the trash and garbage that isn’t so harmful for the environment? A simple and obvious choose would be to cut back on the amount of waste by using and throwing out less in the first place. Some states have even set up laws that set a certain limit on the amount of waste products that are able to go to landfills to help keep the landfills from getting to full. Packaging is one of the major sources of waste paper and plastics. It accounts for one-third of all the garbage Americans send to landfills. To help limit this problem, packaging should be made of things that are able to be reused or recycled repeatedly.
Recycling can be done in many different ways that will help out yourself and the environment. Curbside recycling containers that are provided by the community are places where families can deposit newspaper, glass bottles, aluminum cans, plastic bottles or bags, and used motor oil. These are then taken to a recycling facility arranged by the community. There are also drop-off recycling zones where you are able to drop things off to be recycled along with recycling centers which are places that you can take whatever you want to get it recycled to help out your community.
A downfall to recycling is that people believe that recycled things are more expensive then if you went and bought them new. This is a problem but as more and more people start to buy these items and as the recycling technology improves the cost is said to go down. Even though disposal jobs are being taking away to they are able to be replaced with recycling jobs.
Overall, I believe that recycling is a great thing for the environment and helps eliminate pollution. So the next time that you throw things out that can be recycled maybe you should think about taking them to a recycling center and encourage other people to do the same!