Waste is on the rise globally in tandem with population growth and increased consumption. Plastics, landfills and the single-use standard further an overabundance of waste. Trash contributes to climate change through the production of original materials, transport for their usage, and the final processing as garbage.
In 1900, the world produced 550,000 tons of trash daily. Today, we’ve reached 3.3 million tons, according to author Tony Jupiter. Our waste includes food, wood, metals, construction materials, plastics, textiles, hazardous chemicals and "techno trash" like TVs, cars, computers and phones.
Due to its durability, plastic is one of the worst offenders in global trash. A plastic bottle takes 700 years to break down, writes author Paul Hawkins in Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. The world produces over 400 million tons of plastics annually, 30% more than the weight of humanity. Plastic is "the second most ominous threat to the global environment after climate change," according to the United Nations. American companies export over 1 billion pounds of plastic waste per year, much of which ends up in the ocean. The patterns of the ocean currents move trash into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch off Alaskan shores, along with other places that shift from tides and wind.
All images copyright John Moore (https://mooreonmontana.com/)
Plastics are everywhere and hard to avoid, from single-serve containers to disposable products to car parts and fragile furniture. Their chemical makeup poses the main challenge. Plastics are constructed from components not naturally occurring, which prohibits decomposition. Instead, plastics disintegrate into smaller pieces that pose problems in oceans and for human health, says Hawkins. For the oceans, plastic pieces impact plankton – the keystone food source for marine life – by starving them of oxygen. As far as human health is concerned, they contain carcinogens, neurotoxins and other chemicals which can cause infertility, birth defects and hormonal disruption, Hawkins writes.
Ninety percent of global seabirds swallow plastic. As per Hawkins, over 200 marine species, like turtles, penguins, whales and dolphins, suffer from plastic entanglement. "Plastics will continue to despoil the oceans for centuries," author Ed Wong writes in An Immense World, "even if plastic production halts tomorrow."
On a global scale, companies process trash by burying it in landfills, burning it in incinerators or diverting it through recycling and composting. Jupiter highlights that we recycle less than 25% of applicable materials in the U.S., despite the fact that 80% of total trash could be diverted. Composting food and yard waste is a relatively inexpensive alternative, yet the U.S. only composts 8% of such materials.
The manufacturing and incineration of plastics contributed more than 2 billion tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere in 2020, equal to the emissions from nearly 500 large coal-fired power plants, Hawkins asserts.
The original concept of recycling remains relevant, as it takes manufacturing companies less energy to reuse materials than to create them from scratch. Hawkins states that recycling aluminum uses 95% less energy than creating new. Ironically, what we throw away often has value. Paper waste, for example, can be processed into recycled pulp. Landfills impact a lot of crucial resources, especially groundwater.
"As waste breaks down in landfills, water filters through it, forming a toxic liquid called leachate that can seep into soil and groundwater," Jupiter says.
What we discard has global consequence. A lack of consumer choice is often at the core, so becoming aware of the problem can help. If we embrace the Great Depression’s "use it up" mindset, we might find immense innovation potential in our global trash problem.
In forthcoming articles, we’ll focus on themes of mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Climate Change Q/A is a series by Heidi Harting-Rex, an avid climate change reader.
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