The average American throws out 4.5 pounds of trash per day, that is the weight of roughly a modest sized pumpkin. Across the United States that amounts to 728,000 tons of trash thrown out daily. Trash being “thrown” out, never really goes away. It just gets picked up by a waste management company and heads over to a landfill. Since most of the trash that is “thrown” out is not biodegradable, the trash just sits in these landfills posing problems to our air, water, and land.
Even though landfills are a form of waste management, besides recycling, composting, and incineration, there are many downsides to landfills. The trash in landfills release gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the air which continues to trap heat in our atmosphere. Methane gas is more problematic because it is up to 20 times more effective at trapping heat than caron dioxide. Landfills also release liquids, one being leachate which contaminates underground water sources. The EPA requires that this liquid is captured and disposed of using leachate pumps. There are a number of closed or abandoned landfills that still emit leachate into our water.
Because of the amount of trash thrown out daily across the United States, large amounts of space is needed to build a landfill. When a landfill has reached its capacity, the options are to either make the landfill bigger or build more. When a landfill can no longer be filled or made bigger, the waste is “capped” by a layer of land built over it.
Through the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the federal government has mandated each capped landfill must be monitored and maintained for 30 years after it has become inactive. Fortunately, there have been innovative ideas for the capped landfills such as using the land for solar and wind energy projects, parks, and creating wildlife habitats.
Although, these new uses for capped landfills have benefits, it does not address the amount of garbage ending up in landfills, which most of the garbage is plastic that does not biodegrade such as plastic bottles. Landfill production will continue to grow if we do not actively work on solutions to minimize our trash impact.
Here are a few ideas to minimize your impact on trash:
1. Bring reusable shopping bags and containers when going to the store.
Say goodbye to plastic storage bags with these reusable pouches by 4Ocean:
https://www.4ocean.com/products/4ocean-x-stasher-reusable-storage-bag
2. Buy in bulk to reduce packaging.
3. Stop your junk mail! We receive about 30 pounds of junk mail per year!
4. Compost your food scraps whenever possible.
5. Instead of buying bottled water or ordering a single use disposable coffee cup, buy a reusable tumbler for your water or coffee.
These small and impactful ideas when multiplied can become helpful and preventative ways we minimize our trash impact.
References:
1. https://www.hazardouswasteexperts.com/landfills-an-unsustainable-form-of-waste-management/
2. https://www.saveonenergy.com/land-of-waste/
3. https://www.dumpsters.com/blog/what-happens-when-a-landfill-is-full
