Introduction and Purpose of Study
According to the sustainable-development section of SouthAfrica.Info: a survey done in 2010 showed that only 3.3% of South Africa’s urban settlements would take the initiative to recycle in their households and 27% would claim to recycle a little bit. This was an alarming figure to the ‘Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’ (CSIR), who conducted the survey. More than 42 million cubic meters of waste is produced in South Africa each year. 45% of this waste is generated alone, by the province of Gauteng. Concerned by these figures, the CSIR conducted a landfill test in 2013 whereby they established that 25% of the waste generated by Gauteng is actually recyclable waste such as: glass, paper, cans and other products. On average, every hour 250 000 plastic bottles are dumped into landfills across the country and never used again (the plastic decomposes over 700 years). 100 acres of trees are being felled every minute to produce products for people. A study showed that in every dustbin in an urban settlements home, about 60% of the waste could’ve been recycled or reused and about 50% of the organic waste could’ve been composed. These recyclable products make its way to landfills and then dumped across South Africa because the citizens living in the urban settlements (Gauteng) do not take the initiative to sort their waste at their own households.
This is a major Settlement issue.
Reusing and Recycling will benefit the Environment by
Many people say that recycling is a waste of time or that they just don't have the time.”Yes it’s popular in affluent neighborhoods like Park Slope in Brooklyn and in cities like San Francisco, but residents of Bryon and Houston don't have the same fervor for sorting garbage in their spare time’(“The Reign of Recycling”). The world needs more people to recycle no matter where they live. It seems that even if more people have started recycling things have not changed much.”While it’s true that the recycling message has reached more people than ever, when it come down to the bottom line,both economically and environmentally, not much has changed at all”(“The Reign of Recycling”). People need to work harder to make a change that will account to something. The goals are being set higher and higher but with little success. ”While politicians set higher and higher goals, the national rate of recycling has stagnated in recent years”(“The Reign of Recycling”). This rate has ceased to flow. If something changes how people feel about recycling then the nation may be able to meet its
Landfills are filling up with more and more trash every day and are expanding. Just by separating our trash everyday into plastics, cardboard/paper, cans, etc., we can minimize what we put in the landfills. Even if recycling was mandatory, I think this would help a lot. I spent some time in Germany and was able to participate in recycling more in depth. They recycle almost everything and have strict trash rules. Food that was not consumed goes in one small bin and cans, boxes, paper, etc., were sorted into separate bins as well. If you had something that was not in the proper bin or if your trash bag had something that could be recycled they do not take the trash that day. Some of the food that was not consumed was buried, the cardboard/paper, etc., was sent out to be recycled and reused. All of this helps keep Germany green and clean. Maybe we should follow in Germany’s footsteps to help keep our landfills clean of items that can be recycled and used again. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in 2006, only 32% of the trash that was picked up was recycled in the United States. This leaves 68% of trash that is still going to the landfills and not being recycled. Although this recycling average is low, The Environmental Protection Agency hoped by 2019 the recycle percentage would reach 75%. The amount of trash that one person generates is astonishing. According to the EPA from Green Waste, in a single day 4.5 pounds is thrown out, which is about 1.5 tons of solid waste a year per person. The EPA estimates that 75% of solid waste is recyclable, but 30% is actually being
This is a crucial topic concerning the town of Arkansas City. For example, all waste mainly go to the Ark City landfill which is where all of the city trash is disposed along with at the current rate of waste the landfill has a useful life of fifty years (Broce). Through Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, the trash people, throw away can be reduced. Roughly about half of the garbage that people throw away in their trash cans can be recycling. Then to minimize waste even more in the future a town composed heap can be created in the near future from the food thrown away. Besides, the future of the city's recycling can grow much more. According to Broce, he hopes that someday in the future there will be voluntary curbside recycling. Which is very much similar to modern day trash pickup (Broce). It is always good to have a plan for the future. The idea of curbside recycling in the future is not only a great idea but also a more helpful idea for the people recycling. The more people that start recycling, the sooner this plan will be put into effect. As stated before the three R's are very important in Arkansas City and to the public works director Mr. Broce not to mention that with more time, there will be significant improvements in people's everyday environments like
The United States produces roughly 250 million tons of solid waste, or garbage, on an annual basis. This number equates to 4.4 pounds of solid waste created by every American on a daily basis (Miller, Meindl, & Caradine, 2016). The recycling rate in the U.S. is around 35%, meaning over 165 million tons of waste is placed in the nation’s landfills or incinerated each year (Mozo-Reyes, Jambeck, Reeves, & Johnsen, 2015). Landfilling recyclables contributes to a greater strain on global resources because materials that may have been reused must now be replaced (Miller, et.al. 2016). Landfilling waste also contributes to air pollution through the release of methane (Delkash, Zhou, and Singh, 2016) and poses threats to groundwater near landfills (Talalaj & Biedka, 2016). As the population of the nation (and the world) increases, strategies must be found to reuse resources rather than simply disposing of them.
A recent study by Nature Climate Change shows this ongoing problem is caused by “224 million more pounds being thrown out than previously thought,” suggesting too much recyclable items are being thrown out: “For every 100 pounds of trash we throw away, 35 pounds is paper” and although about 80% of goods and materials can be recycled, only 32% are actually being reused (Powell, EPA, McKinney). As reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash, and recycled and composted [only] 87 million tons of this material” (EPA). This again shows that a good amount of materials that can be recycled are more often being thrown into the trash. The EPA estimates that “we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds of our individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day ” in 2012 (EPA). That’s less than 30% of individually generated trash being
Recycling is known very well to most of the United States. It has been a buzzword since my childhood in the 80's. However, many towns and metropolitans, including my home town of Savannah, have trouble getting their residents to actively participate in the recycling programs. There are many reasons people can site for not participating, some are personal issues, and some are those of the city itself. The first that comes to mind far too often is even though most solid waste can be sorted and recycled, the amount that is picked up is not even half as frequent. From a city stand point, expansion of the program itself may cause a hemorrhaging of money that can't be undone. Landfills have been an environmentally sound option for years, but they all have the same problem of finite space. On the surface it seems simple, but nothing is ever that easy. Both recycling programs and landfills cost large amounts of capital to maintain. With the goal of an environmentally stable city, landfills and their finite space will always be a problem. With vision and drive maybe the tables can be turned.
In Sweden, less than 1% of their trash ends up in landfills. 50% of their trash is incinerated, causing steam that spin generator turbines, creating electricity, which is distributed across the country from their WtE (Waste to Energy) facilities. One way we can reduce our amount of trash is by recycling everyday objects such as plastic water
The people of America throw away more trash than any other society in the world! America consumes 80 percent of our planet's resources, even though we make up only 20 percent of the world's population (Cooper 267). The average person throws away 4.3 pounds of trash each day. That's about 30 pounds per week and 120 pounds per month! (“Reduce and Reuse” 1). Americans throw away too much - that's the bottom line (Cooper 265). There is a garbage crisis in America and “the only part of the anti-waste message that has taken hold to any noticeable degree is the call to recycle” (Cooper 267). Our country's issues on trash and recycling go hand in hand. America produces too much trash, and the environment is suffering. There is some effort
I grew up in South Pomona; CA. Poverty is the social norm. Popular streets like Garey Avenue and Mission Boulevard are our very own skid row with tents lining sidewalks. Homeless people reside in parks while gangsters tag buildings with graffiti or sell drugs out in the open. When we visit these public places, we take precaution in order to avoid assaults.
How many people in the United States recycle and what is considered recycling? Unfortunately, the percentage is low and not enough people in today’s society recycles, while recycling is defined as “to make something new from (something that has been used before)” (Merriam-Webster). With the percentages of recycling being low makes you wonder what is wrong with the people in today’s society. If you ask the people why they don’t recycle, they will give you plenty of excuses. “It doesn’t help in any way,” “I don’t have time,” and/or “It doesn’t benefit my lifestyle.” But, with all of these excuses, does it still give the people the justification not to recycle? Recycling has and will give immediate and long-term effects on our planet, which in the long run is what we want for the future. Recycling should be looked
People in developing countries may not be aware of the consequences of waste disposal in their area, as they only consider whether they can get food to survive. Environmental protection is a luxury for them. This may cause deep-rooted and irreversible effects to the countries. Developed cities should help developing countries, but not to increase their burden and exploit their rights.
People Need to Recycle In the United Sates, where the population is inflated every year. The amount of space for landfills decreases every day. The need for recycling should not be asked, it should just be done out of habit. Everyone in America needs to recycle, to help the lamdfill problem, help the environment, and help produce new products from recycled goods. In America there is about two-hundred and eight tons of residential and commercial trash generated a year, 4.3 pounds per person a day (Prichard 1A). This is an overwhelming amount of trashed produced yearly. When people recycle this number can be drastically cut. But many people do not practice and use
We should all be living in a clean world and that is why a large part of the society recycles.
We, humans, are producing waste every day, polluting and destroying our planet. To save the world, many people believe recycling is the obvious solution. It is the process of converting certain waste into a reusable material. Therefore, the recycle motto is “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”. However, have you ever wondered why the word recycle is placed at the end? Well, it’s because it is not the only way to reduce waste and save the world from global warming. Recycling may have many advantages, but its disadvantages’ list is not a short one either. Recycling may look very simple and easy method, but when there is a need for a new unit of waste recycling, it takes up a lot of space. Not to mention the amount of money the building costs along with paying the staffs, buying new utility vehicles, upgrading the recycling unit and different types of chemical disposals. It is not only expensive but also, unhygienic, unsafe and unsightly with piles of waste materials on every location. These wastes spread infectious diseases putting human health at risk. Aside from recycling
the 2010/2011 period, 338265 tonnes out of a total of 845663 tonnes of glass consumed in South Africa was recycled. Jhetam also noted that although the recycling rates of glass recycling has increased dramatically over the last five years, it is going to be more difficult and expensive to improve these rates going forward.