Development Section Of Southafrica.info : A Survey Essay

Today's generation have been taught to be wasteful. We produce enormous quantities of waste, then try to bury it or burn it and forget it. But it cannot be forgotten. It washes up on our beaches, it reappears as air pollution, it creeps into our water supply; it comes back to haunt us. A throw-away society is not a sustainable society.

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

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

Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day, that’s over 1800 feet! according to Ballparks. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it says Do Something. With the invention of the virtually indestructible material well known as plastic, on top of the rapidly evolving technological world, and the extreme reduction of locations where landfills can be built, it’s hard to believe that 75% of the waste stream in America alone is recyclable, and yet only 30% of it is actually recycled. Recycling is a beneficial solution to many of our increasingly important environmental

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.

Have you seen the Pixar film Wall-E? In the opening scene of Wall-E the camera goes over the mountains of garbage. According to the epa 254 million tons of trash is created and only 167 million tons are ending up in landfills. If we don't act upon recycling that's what our world will look like. Recycling is a sensible way to protect our future.

Ironically, everyone knows the benefits of recycling despite the astonishing amount of pollution created yearly in America. America started recycling in 1970 when recycling centers opened and by 2009 America had 9,000 curbside recycling trash programs plus 3,000 composting communities available (Palliser). According to the Janna Palliser, a 2013 study done by the EPA, deduced annually Americans produced 254 million tons of municipal solid waste while the recycled amount is a measly 87 million tons equaling 34.3%. Moreover, America should aspire to raise yearly recycling percentages considerably higher than “34.3 %”; however, the “34.3 %” concludes recycling prevented “186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide” from being expelled into the air

The United States of America has come a long way since its inception. The development of homes, cars, technologies, goods, and services has evolved. Also, the way in which Americans consume has drastically changed. And with all these great things, came solid waste generation, and unfortunately not methods for disposing of it in an environmentally friendly manner. The United States is the top trash-producing country in the world at over 1,600 pounds per person per year. Although the U.S. accounts for 5% of the world’s population, it generates 40% of the world’s waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2010 “Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of materials, resulting in 34.1 percent recycling rate. On average, each American generates about 4.43 pounds of waste each day. Only 1.51 pounds of that material were recycled and composed” (EPA, 2010).

city’s population find recycle accessible, only 37.2% actually take part in the activity at a normal

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, 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

We should all be living in a clean world and that is why a large part of the society recycles.