Chakrabarti 1

Sangeeta Chakrabarti
Professor Lucy Steele
UWRT 1103
9 November 2014
Waste Problem its effects and how do we fix it
Is there a family dwelling in the United States that has not heard the cry, Dont forget
to take out the garbage? (Blatt 51). Although waste problem is a topic most of us may not like
to think about, I think it is an important and a relevant topic to all of us. Simply put we all have
dealt with household waste, hauling the trash can to curbside or put the garbage bag in dumpster.
We then may see the garbage truck coming and pick up the garbage on the collection day. Where
does the garbage truck take all this garbage or household waste? What happens next? I think it is
important for all of us to understand how all this garbage or household waste impacts us. There
are other kinds of wastes which we will not focus here since we do not see them daily. These
other wastes come from farmland and animals, process industries, power plants and other nuclear
industries. My goal in this paper is to discuss waste problems, its effects and opinions from the
source by Blatt. I will then connect with the readers in terms of the significance of the problem
and possible solutions from my own perspective.
My paper is organized in the following order, first discussing household waste, its
destination, its effects on health, next how to fix the waste problem and I conclude with my visit
to the local Recycling Center and my thoughts on the topic in terms of solutions to the waste
problem. Waste problem is a huge problem since the municipal solid waste has grown over the
years as per US EPA to 251 million tons in 2012. Municipal solid waste is the household
garbage. Every American on an average generates 4.38 pounds of waste per day (EPA). The

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problem doesnt go away when the garbage truck takes our garbage on the pickup day. All this
household waste goes into the landfills and the landfills are filling up. Landfills are huge piece of
land where the waste is dumped and then a layer of clay is added, compacted daily by heavy
bulldozers and it has plastic liners, system of pipes to collect rainwater and other liquids.
Landfills are causing damage to human health due to the gases coming out of these landfills. The
liquids from landfill pollute the water source around it under the pile of trash. If our waste
doesnt go to landfill, then it goes to an incinerator where the garbage is all burnt.
I decided to examine the waste problems in the book by Harvey Blatt, Americas
Environmental Report Card, Are we making the grade? MIT press, 2005. This book is on waste
problems, its effect on the environment and human health. The author analyzes some of our
health concerns due to air pollution, water pollution, global warming and ozone layer issues. I
decided on this book since the book discusses waste problem and various other environmental
effects due too much waste and energy consumptions. The author then proposes some solutions
from public policy perspective in terms of changing laws and taxes. I plan to discuss my
thoughts and perspective in terms of dealing with the three Rs Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
The background of my interest is recycling which goes back to my childhood days when I was in
elementary school and I would like to propose my thoughts and perspectives to address the waste
problem.
Now if we ask ourselves the question, what are the things we dump as waste? The
household wastes mainly include paper waste, food scraps, yard trimmings, plastics, metals,
rubber, leather, textiles, wood, and glass. Surprisingly, most of the waste in the modern day
garbage consists of paper, plastics, metals, and glass. All of this add up to more than 61.4 percent
of total household wastes in the cities. One other category of waste that is increasing rapidly, is

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electronic wastes which include TVs, computer monitors, and cellphones. The heavy metal
Lead, in all these TVs and computer monitors is toxic to groundwater in the landfills and can
pollute the air if incinerated. Another item which is increasing rapidly in our waste is the
disposable diapers (Blatt 52).
Why is this a huge problem? What are its effects? As the household waste keeps on
increasing, the landfills are filling up. The landfills mainly contain paper, plastics, metals, and
glass. Additionally, household hazardous wastes which are thrown into the landfill are paint,
motor oil, bug spray, and light bulbs. When rainwater soaks the landfill, the toxic materials such
as mercury, lead, and arsenic can seep into the ground water, which causes serious health effects
including cancer, birth defects, and defect of nervous system (Blatt 55). Thus the landfills are
not the best way of disposing our waste since it can leak. Garbage is more and more transported
to distant landfills as the landfills are filling up. This means more gasoline is consumed to haul
all this waste. Some states like New York and New Jersey transport wastes to distant states as far
as New Mexico. The cost of landfill goes up due to transportation. The states who receive the
trash in the landfills in return get money. Municipal, state, and Federal Government spends
billions of dollars each year on waste disposal. Due to this transport of waste an acronym in
waste disposal came up is NIMBYNot In My Back Yard. New York City has the largest
landfill called Fresh Kills landfill which received garbage from 1948 to 2001. This landfill is
2,200 acres in area and rises 150 feet above sea level. This landfill now has a nature preserve and
park (Blatt 61).
Incineration is the other main method of waste disposal, here waste is burnt at a high
temperature in an incinerator. This method is lot cleaner than landfill but is expensive due to the
cost of building the incinerator. Benefits of incineration include energy generated from waste

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burning in the form of heat. This can then generate electricity. Incinerators do produce some
toxic materials such as lead, mercury, and dioxin which pollutes the air. Due to high cost of
incinerators only 15 percent of waste disposal uses incinerators (Blatt 66).
Now we come to our final question. How can we fix waste problems? Recycling is the
most efficient way for us to treat the waste problem. For example aluminum soda cans can be
recycled 100 percent and U.S.A is focusing on this completely. Recycling paper and plastic in a
similar manner will help us reduce the waste. When we recycle aluminum we not only save
aluminum we also save the energy to produce aluminum, this in turn benefits the environment.
When we consider paper which is the largest type of waste category in the landfill, U.S.A is
doing a lot of recycling of paper almost 49 percent. Recycling a ton of paper saves about 17
trees which also is good for the environment (Blatt 64). Recycling aluminum, steel, paper, and
glass not only preserves our precious resources for future generation but also saves lot of energy
that would have been used to produce these materials. Environmental benefits of recycling
includes less air pollution, less water pollution, less energy use, and less water use. We are doing
lot of recycling of tires which in turn saves energy and reduces waste. We can fix our waste
problems by focusing on reduce, reuse, and recycle, the three Rs which is the message from
EPA and all local and state governments. According to EPA the total recycling rate has increased
to 34 percent in 2012. The waste in landfill has decreased to 54 percent in 2012 from 89 percent
in 1980(EPA Report 530). This is a win-win situation for fixing waste problem. I believe
America is on the right track and doing a lot to fix the waste problem. The author proposes some
environmental taxes to solve the waste problem.
During this project I visited the Cabarrus County Recycling Center on General Services
Drive to interview Mr. Kevin Grant the sustainability manager of the facility. This is a dual

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purpose facility which includes household hazardous waste facility and recycling convenience
center. Residents of the county can bring waste paint, pool chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides,
fluorescent light bulbs, mercury, brake fluid, drain cleaners, and household cleaners on the first
Wednesday and third Saturday of every month. Recyclable materials such as paper, bottles,
cans, used oil, battery, used televisions and electronics are accepted Monday through Friday
from 8am until 5pm. There is another facility on Irish Potato Road which has a landfill and
recycling center. Mr. Grant showed me around the whole facility and explained how the paper,
plastic, glass, and scrap metal are sorted before recycling. This facility is a good example of
what our community is doing to solve the waste problem.
My thoughts are that we need to start early with the 3 Rs, reduce, reuse, and recycle in
that order. I would like to teach the kids in school the benefits of recycling and how it solves the
waste problem. Early education on recycling makes the kid aware of waste problem and its
effects on our health and environment. When I was a kid we had recycle days once a month, this
made me more responsible to recycle. My other thought besides early education is to put more
recycle bins for plastics, paper, and cans in public places such as malls, and shopping centers.
This will make recycling easier for the people in communities. Id like to charge deposit on
bottles and cans to encourage recycling.
In conclusion, we can see that we all generate lots of waste every day. The landfills are
filling up, the health effects can be serious including cancer and birth defects. The government
and communities are all working together to solve the waste problem with the focus on 3Rs
reduce, reuse, and recycle. I believe reducing waste and reusing cloth grocery bags, water bottles
and other things will go a long way to fix the waste problem. Early education on recycling will
keep the momentum high and increase recycling. In terms of recycling, I believe U.S.A is doing

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great in terms of recycling as the recycling rate has increased by a huge margin and reducing the
landfill wastes significantly.

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Appendix

Figure 1: I am interviewing Mr. Kevin Grant, the Sustainability Manager at Cabarrus

County Recycling Center.

Figure 2: I am in front of the Cabarrus County Recycling Center at 246 General Services Drive.

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Works Cited

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the United States: Facts and Figures." EPA.
Environmental Protection Agency, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm>.
Blatt, Harvey. America's Environmental Report Card Are We Making the Grade? Cambridge,
MA: MIT, 2005. Print.
US EPA report. EPA-530-F-14-001, February 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.