EcoTrashSolutions

Reduce Waste, Find Your Old Belongings a New Home

Over the past century America has grown to become an extremely wasteful society.  The portion sizes provided at not only fast food chains, but most American restaurants, are unreal.  Or stop to think of how many times you’ve thrown away old clothes or furniture that could have easily been reused by someone else.  American industries encourage the constant purchase of the newest product and disposal of the old, whether or not this is necessary.  A culture change to incorporate more sparing and less-wasteful behavior should be considered, but encouraging simple habits such as recycling is a much easier change to come about. Read the rest…

Should the US use Waste Incineration for Energy?

It appears that European countries such as Denmark are finding ways to generate clean energy—through trash.  Massive energy plants have been constructed that burn thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste per day. These ‘waste-to-energy’ plants are way cleaner than conventional incinerators. As the plant converts trash into heat, dozens of filters catch pollutants (such as mercury or dioxin) and prevents them from being released into the atmosphere. Now, waste-to-energy plants are the main form of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source in Denmark.  The benefits associated with these plants include reduced energy costs, reduced reliance on oil and gas, and environmental benefits regarding less landfill and CO2 emission. Read the rest…

Don’t Forget the First Two Steps

“Reduce, Re-use, Recycle” is a longstanding, simple mantra to explain the process that protects the health of our planet.  While the campaign to recycle has certainly caught on across the globe over the past 2 decades, the reducing and re-using parts of the three-pronged strategy are often overlooked.  Here are some simple tips and reminders to make sure the first 2 steps are taken care of, before you even recycle your used goods.

1. The process should start at your purchase decision not when you are disposing of old items.  A lot of similar products, both in price and function, are packaged very differently. Unless the packaging itself has some sort of intrinsic value you will want to hold on to as a keepsake, choose the one with the least packaging. Once your purchase is unwrapped, the box or bag it came in is more than likely to end up in the bin anyway.
2. A lot of grocery stores now offer re-usable bags, giving you an environmentally sound option when asked “paper or plastic?”  Both paper and plastic bags require valuable natural resources for their production, so any way you can cut down on their usage is a step in the right direction. Read the rest…

How ‘Trashy’ is the United States

According to the EPA, the US has around 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 old municipal landfills. What’s worse, 82% of surveyed landfill cells had leaks and 41% had a leak area of more than 1 square foot.  The reality is that Americans generate a LOT of trash and this trash is capable generating a LOT of problems. Here are some stats to give you an idea of where we stand today:

• The average person creates 4.39 lbs of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year.
• Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the US gets recycled
• Every year we fill enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch from the earth halfway to the moon (63,000 trucks per day)
• Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

So, we make a lot of trash. What do we do with it all? Here are some disturbing landfill stats:

• Only 2 manmade structures on earth are large enough to be seen from space: the Great Wall of China and the Fresh Kills Landfill (which is now a recreational park)
• Barges deliver over 14,000 tons of NYC trash to landfills every day

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Gross to Gold

Leftovers, rotten banana peels, and weeds may sound like nothing but useless garbage.  However, these unwanted waste products can be composted to create rich soil for growing plants and vegetables, while reducing the amount of trash you send to the landfill.

Compost is created when aerobic microbes such as fungi and bacteria digest and breakdown the wastes that are thrown in a pile.   Some people express concern that a compost pile full of old food and waste will create an undesirable smell.  This is easily avoided by ensuring there are air spaces in your compost so only aerobic microbes do the work and not anaerobic microbes, which produce the horrible stench of rotting trash.  Aerobic microbes also decompose waste faster, another reason to allow plenty of air into your compost.  A successful compost pile must contain the right amount of moisture.  If it becomes too wet or too dry, the composting process can be slowed significantly.  It is very important to combine a good mixture of materials to your compost.  Items such as fruit and vegetables and fresh grass are classifies as “green” materials.  Other wastes such as sawdust and dry leaves are referred to as “brown” materials.  Because green compost items contain more moisture than brown materials, a good balance of these two types helps to create a healthy amount of moisture.  It usually only takes a month or two for your pile of waste to be turned into rich, healthy compost.  When you can no longer see any of the original items from the pile, you have usable compost.

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Think Globally—Act Locally

On a global scale, the earth is facing environmental problems that affect the atmosphere and climate. These problems don’t just arise out of nowhere—evidence suggests the reasons are anthropogenic (manmade).  If we contributed to the slow and steady onset of global warming, it is only logical that we should try our best to reverse it. Unfortunately, you can’t fix the worlds environmental problems by yourself, but you CAN make a difference.

Set your big goals—help reduce global warming, make the world a cleaner and greener place—and act on your goals in your community. In fact, there are many ways to go about making a difference right from your household.  The best way to go green in your home is by following the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle. Cut back on the amount of trash you use (reduce), save things that can be used for later (reuse), and use a separate container for paper, plastic, and glass trash that can be picked up by a local recycler . Then, once your family household has reduced reused and recycled its way to an environmentally friendly level, start spreading the green in your community. Set out recycle bins at local venues lacking them, volunteer with your local recycling company, and bring the three R’s with you to the workplace. Businesses go through tons of paper weekly, and often don’t take the time to properly dispose of it.

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