Burning Issue : Waste Management

Many immigrants shaped the U.S today because of all the things they achieved and accomplished. They invented many things that are very important to America today. Immigrants improved our country in many ways including music, filming, and science. The United States would be very different if it weren’t for these immigrants in a good way. Immigrants impacted the way we see movies, music, religion, and science.

A very important issue tied to Canada’s future sustainability is that of recycling. There is currently a shortage of suitable landfill spaces in Canada, and the current landfills produce harmful emissions (Statistics Canada, 2008). Using methods to divert as many of these wastes away from landfills will help to slow their growth and improve Canada’s future outlook. Recycling is one such method.

The central focus of Geoff Colvin’s article, “What it Takes to be Great”, published in Fortune magazine, October 30, 2006 is research on things that makes a person great. Colvin notes that researchers were firstly curious why some people are able to go on improving while others can’t, that led to them to study elite performers. While many believe that having “innate” ability is the only key to achieving actually greatness in their field, the researches and Colvin conclude that greatness is achieved through “deliberate practice”. Deliberate practice involves: hours of consistent practice; the right way of course, continuously observing results, making changes, and having the right mindset. To support this argument Colvin shares information

Have you ever wondered where all the trash goes that you throw out? Most of it ends up in landfills, gets burned or ends up on the street. Landfills are the most cost-efficient ways to get rid of trash for places like the United States but at what price. When waste disintegrates in landfills and water passes through the waste, the resulting liquid is called leachate. When leachate run off encounter local rivers and lakes it can contaminate the water and destroy whole eco systems that live in these areas. Landfill gas consists of naturally occurring methane and carbon dioxide, which form inside the landfill as the waste decomposes. As the gases form, pressure builds up inside a landfill, forcing the gases to move. Some of the gases escape through

The slow release from the landfill entails a dilution in time, which is hazardous. Landfills are disposal sites for waste which cannot be reused, recycled and recovered. “Waste is typically burnt at factories, but the waste which cannot be reused is taken to landfills where it is dumped”, (Spokas and Bogner, 2006: 516). Waste is taken to landfills to prevent pest infections, odour and litter. Once the waste is dumped and the landfill is to its full capacity, trained engineers build a cap out of clay and other solid materials. This is then covered with soil and other materials so that the site can be used for other things in the future such as nature conservation and agricultures. This is repeated for all sites.” Accordingly landfills are the most common form of waste disposal. “Landfills, being relatively cheaper than other treatment/disposal alternatives, are used not only by developing but also by industrialized countries, such as US, Australia, UK and Finland (Laner et al., 2012, cited in Diamantis et al., 2013:

The United States has tried to solve the garbage problems for a long time. Ted Steinberg says “at first [the garbage wars] may have seemed like a simple problem, nothing that could not be solved by a fleet of tractor-trailers carrying garbage to open spaces further south and west” when New York City has faced the lack of the room for trash in the 1990s in the chapter 14 of his book Down to Earth (225). Unfortunately, the garbage has kept causing problems since around the 1940s, the postwar period. It is uneasy to solve this serious problem because several factors, such as consumerism and some relationships on the Earth, are related to each other and make the issue complicated.

There is room for a lot of improvement in Quebec’s waste management: currently, about half of household waste is eliminated (MDDELCC, 10) which is not economically viable. To reach its sustainability goal, the province drafted the Quebec policy for waste management 2011-2015. By the end date, it aims to reduce household waste to 700kg/person and to increase the diversion rate of paper, plastic, glass and metal scraps to 70%, and of organic waste to 60% (MDDELCC, 11). An additional benefit of these propositions is the creation of hundreds of jobs (MDDELCC, 2011). The plan, albeit optimistic, is still unclear about how to effectively implement waste recovery. In 2012, 6 years after the start of the City of Montreal’s composting initiative, only 12% of organic waste was being recovered (Bruemmer, 2014). Montreal plans on building two biomethanization plants (where compost is converted into biogas), along with two composting facilities (Bruemmer, 2014). Four proposed sites have been rejected due to public opposition while an existing one closed this summer. Situated in Montreal’s Southwest borough, the latter estimates that its yearly methane offset equals 800 000m3, “which represents about 35 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is worth nearly 500 000$ in the Quebec cap-and-trade system” (Compost Montreal,

There are different ways Americans can dispose of the 200 million tons of garbage they generate each year. In the 1930’s people started to use landfills, as opposed to open dumps, which drew insects and vermin, causing disease. Landfills are made by digging holes in the in the ground and filling it with waste products and then capped. The government safeguards landfills, and each landfill is exclusive to the kind of waste it has. This method is controlled and monitored, as is the method of incineration. Incineration is the burning of solid waste products at a temperature of 850 degrees. There are pros and cons to each method.

Studies have shown that there is a real concern relating to the health risks associated with incineration but there have been no conclusive epidemiological studies to confirm this. (41), (18), (28),(31),(33)

Now this had several problems such as producing rodents which could spread diseases. Dumps also smell very bad and leak toxic substances into the water supply. The dump had very negative impacts on ecosystems. Now people are using more landfills. At landfills, bulldozers dig holes or a trench and the garbage poured in. Each day the garbage is covered in a layer of soil. Landfills is a way to prevent odors and problems with animals. The downfall on using landfills is that their is no waterproof protection so chemicals seeping out is still a problem. Did you know that more than 20% of garbage thrown out by average Ontario households is

Landfills are made up of 6 different parts. Each of these parts are designed to address issues that may occur in a landfill. These parts include the bottom liner system, which separates trash and subsequent leachate from groundwater. The next part is the cells, which is where the trash is stored within the landfill. The storm water drainage system collects rain water that falls on the landfill. Leachate collection system is the next part which makes the landfill up. This system collects water that has percolated through the landfill itself and contains some contaminating substances. The

Landfills are a growing problem yet statistics claim that landfills have gone down from 8,000 landfills in the 80’s to 3,000 landfills today. While this is true, it is misleading as it failed to mention that as the years have passed, many have switched from small, local landfills to mega-landfills. Facts like these often understate the issue as landfills are a vague topic for most, needing more public attention and discussion. Landfills will take 450 years at minimum to degrade and when decomposed, turns into many toxic products. It takes up so much space while simultaneously ruining the soil for future farming use. This is important for the ever growing population where space is getting more valuable and early precautions will definitely help.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Municipal Solid Waste web site they describe a four tier Solid Waste Management Hierarchy. They use a pyramid to represent the four tiers. The preferred method of waste management is listed at the bottom. From bottom to top it lists best practices in the following order: (1st tier) source reduction or waste prevention, (2nd tier) recycling, (3rd tier) waste that cannot be prevented or recycled that can be combusted with energy recovery, and (4th tier) landfill or incineration without energy recovery. (EPA-1) This hierocracy was

The goal of chapter seventeen, “Waste Management” (p. 393), is to familiarize the reader with different approaches towards handling of wastes in the world.

Open burning of plastics has some very serious effects on the environment. This is a common unregulated practice for disposal in many developing countries. A recent study done by Wiedinmyer, Yokelson and Gullett (2014) found that 41 percent of world’s waste is disposed through open burning. Open burning of waste releases harmful pollutants into the air such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and dioxin. Wiedinmyer et al. (2014) also found that open burning emits 5 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. These are poisonous chemicals that not only harm the environment but also our health. Exposure to these poisonous chemicals can contaminate the soil and air. It can also enter into animals and humans.