WK3LabJacksonT

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Apr 3, 2024

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Week 3: Human Population and Pollution Lab Report Form Updated: 2/28/2018 Name: Tiffany Jackson Date: December 16, 2023 Professor: Dr. Omar Clay Important Note! Section 1 of this lab requires that you track your waste production for five days. To complete this lab on time, please begin recording your trash production as soon as possible. In addition to conducting a daily audit of the waste that you produce (either as a household or as an individual), the remaining components of the lab are estimated to take another 45 to 90 minutes to complete. Introduction: The human population first reached 1 billion (i.e. 1,000 million) people in 1804, roughly 5 thousand and a few hundred years from our earliest records of human writing. However it took just over a century for the global human population to gain another 1 billion people to reach a total of 2 billion people in 1927. Only thirty-three years later, the world population had gained yet another one billion people and by 1974 the human population reached 4 billion people. As our population skyrockets, our society has become ever more energy intensive. People everywhere are now using more energy, more material goods, and producing more waste than ever before. The intensity of this resource extraction and waste generation is depleting mineral and energy resources globally, destroying ecosystems, and threatening the livelihood of other species and humans alike. A recent estimate indicates that, on average, a US citizen generates almost 4.4 pounds of trash every day- which is 1.6 pounds (36%) more trash than Americans produced on average in 1960. In this lab you will explore how much the global population has grown since your birth and how much trash you produce daily.

Section 1: Waste Audit Introduction When asked about having a waste processing center (or dump) located in their community, it is common for Americans to respond with the phrase, “Not in my backyard”. Of course no one really wants to be near the areas where we collect the trash and waste produced by our cities and communities. However, waste management may not always be something that we can export to poorer neighborhoods or less populated areas. As you monitor how much waste you produce on a daily basis, consider what it would be like if you could put your waste nowhere other than in your backyard. The resource list below can be useful when you analyze your trash for what can and can’t be recycled or composted. Resources  What can I Recycle? Retrieved from: http://www.wm.com/thinkgreen/what-can-i-recycle.jsp  What is waste recycling? Retrieved from: http://www.eschooltoday.com/waste-recycling/what- is-recycling.html  A simple list of what can and can’t be recycled. Retrieved from: https://www.ecoscraps.com/blogs/sustainable-living/76411652-a-simple-list-of-what-can-and- cannot-be-recycled  California’s list of what can be recycled: http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publiced/earthday/what.htm  What you can and can’t compost: https://www.compostinstructions.com/what-you-can-and- cannot-compost/  Advancing Sustainable Materials Management. Retrieved from: http://www.epa.gov/smm/advancing-sustainable-materials-management-facts-and-figures Directions Log your production of trash for five days using Table 1.1. Catalog all of the waste that you generate within the categories listed below. If you keep a log book or notepaper and pen with you as you go through your day, you will be able to collect your data more accurately. You can then transfer the data at the end of each day to Table 1.1.

Observations Table 1.1 Waste Log Aluminu m and Metal Cloth and Textile Paper and Cardboa rd Glass Plastic Bags and Wrappi ng Plastic Bottles Styrofoa m Organic and Food Other Waste Day 1 1 0 4 0 0 5 0 0 0 Day 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Day 3 2 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 Day 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 Day 5 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 Total 3 0 4 0 6 13 1 0 0 Analysis There are many ways to reduce waste, including reducing consumption of disposable items, reusing items, and recycling materials that we can no longer use. The impact of organic and food waste can also be minimized by composting. Use the references listed above or conduct your own research to estimate what percentage of each category of waste could be recycled. The “ What can I Recycle?” site hosts an interactive tool that allows one to look up various items. Enter your estimates of the percentage of each waste category that was recyclable in Table 1.2, along with your estimate of how much of the waste in each category you actually did recycle, reuse, or compost.

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