Hazardous Waste Landfill In America

Environmental ethics has widely circled around human interactions with biotic ecosystems. Little voice has been given to city residents who are overexposed to environmental hazards. It is a subject rarely touched upon by mainstream environmentalist. Though conservation efforts receive much media attention and advocacy, environmental pollution in urban areas inhabited by minorities and the impoverished receive less attention despite it clearly being a grave injustice. It fact, it can be argued that minority and impoverished neighborhoods are deliberately targeted by corporations and governmental agencies because of the inherit vulnerability of the inhabitants. It is no secret that the impoverished in this country frequently live in areas characterized

Environmental racism is the targeting of minorities and low-income communities to bear a disproportionate share of environmental costs. It refers to any policy or practice that differently affects or disadvantages individuals, groups or communities based on race or color (Hurley 2016). Each year, America produces 275 million metric tons of hazardous waste. Environmental regulations only regulate 40 million tons of the waste leaving the rest to be sent to landfill and waste sites (Hines 2007). One of the largest dumping grounds is located in Emelle, Sumter County, Alabama. Sumter County

Environmental Racism can be described as, the intentional or unintentional placement of hazardous waste sites, landfills, or industries that are polluting communities mainly those inhabited by African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and Asians, as well as the working poor. In the broadest sense, Environmental Racism, is a process where environmental decisions, actions, and policies results in racial discrimination. Environmental racism is important to know about because it effects almost every low-income or impoverished area across the world. Some notable areas that are dealing with environmental racism are: Flint Michigan-where thousands of residents have

When thinking about the most polluted states in our country, California and New York instantly pop into our mind. What most people don't know, however, is that Texas now ranks number one in most categories of pollution. Whether it be increased emissions from refineries in Beaumont, large pits filled with contamination at Kelley Air Force Base, or polluted water at Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas has more than its fair share of toxic waste.

In “Disproportionate Siting” author Dorcetta Taylor discusses the common claims of unequal exposure to environmental hazards being due to racial and class discrimination (33). Taylor states, “Proponents of this thesis argue that hazardous facilities are disproportionally located in minority and low-income areas and that these patterns are the result of discrimination” (33). In regards to racial and social class discrimination, she argues that the claim of racism is the more controversial of the two with many scholars arguing on both sides (Taylor, 34). She then delves into different studies that argued that race was a factor in explaining location of and exposure to environmental hazards (Taylor, 35). Taylor then discusses the studies that

One of the first influences on the deliberation on Environmental Justice was The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought hard to ensure that social transformation and power be established for African Americans, especially those in the southern states as well as those in the northern inner-city parts. Activists like King altered the philosophy on Environmental Justice arguing that there was a lopsided effect that proved that environmental hazards were not accidental. What environmentalists advocated instead was that environmental dangers resulted from racial segregation that placed power plants, nuclear plants, and other potential ecological hazards in areas with a high concentration of minority and low income groups. Several activists defined this as “environmental racism.”

Here the authors address an important solution; allow residents to hire their own experts from the community who are well versed in delivering the proponents message to the residents in a manner that does not exclude anyone from the process. The landfill began operating in 2006, as the proponents deemed there was not any substantive opposition to the project through official Environmental Impact Assessment (Deacon & Baxter, 2013). Deacon and Baxter in this case set out to understand the role and relation between power and participation as it relates to procedural environmental justice in order to challenge understanding of environmental justice and cease production and reproduction of environmental injustice. The residents protested as they felt they were being sacrificed for economic growth, “the landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of the community of Lincolnville” (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia, 2006). They call this environmental racism, which is the racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, targeting minority communities for the siting of polluting industries or the exclusion of people of color from public and private boards, commissions and regulatory bodies (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia,

Environmental inequality, contrary to what we may imagine, is a social and political problem rather than a simple environmental problem. Environmental inequalities are deeply tangled with political, economic structures and institutions; adding more problems to the social inequalities that already affect our daily lives (Brehm, 2013). So, what exactly is environmental inequality? It refers to the fact that low-income people and people of color are disproportionately likely to experience various environmental problems by living in high risk and polluted areas. If we look at this problem closely we realize “that black, white, and Hispanic households with similar incomes live in neighborhoods of dissimilar environmental quality” (Downey, 2008) and that most people who suffer the consequences of living in neighborhoods with high hazard levels are racial minorities. This allows us to conclude that environmental inequality it is also linked to racism.

“Environmental racism is real…so real that even having the facts, having the documentation and having the information has never been enough to provide equal protection for people of color and poor people” “It takes longer for the response and it takes longer for the recovery in communities of color and low-income communities.” (Bullard, 1994:36)

In the Brullard reading, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007, Brullard discusses racial and socioeconomic disparities in relation to environmental issues from 1987 to 2007. 1987 is significant because it is the year when a report about environmental racism entitled Toxic Wastes and Race was published. This report raised awareness about the idea of environmental injustice and spurred further research on the subject. In Chapter 3, Brullard outlines two different methods used in this research: analysis of census data and “distance-based” methods. Brullard explains that using different research methods leads to slightly varying results, but studies using both methods still show racial disparities in relation to environmental hazards. In Chapter 4, Brullard argues that these disparities still exist in 2007, and that they exist all over the United States. In Chapter 7, he provides a contemporary example: the Holt family. The Holt family’s well water was contaminated because it was located near a landfill. The government, while

When one discusses acts of racism, slander or the stereotyping of a group of people may come to mind. However, the concept of environmental racism is rarely considered. This form of racism positions dominant environmental framing as racially driven, in which people of color (i.e. minorities) are affected disproportionately by poor environmental practices. Communities of color throughout the United States have become the dumping grounds for our nation’s waste disposal, as well as home to agricultural and/or manufacturing industries that pollute the land. Government regulations and cultural practices have all contributed to environmental racism. The government’s policies have also negatively impacted low income groups as well as people of

As stated in the thesis, environmental injustice mostly affects minority communities. In a map presented by the Los Angeles Times, in Southeast LA there are 26 communities- which 83.9% of the inhabitants are of minority groups (Southeast, n.d.). Similarly, another map released by EPA from the 1990 U.S. Census illustrates that in places where there is 80 to 100% of people of color there is at least 2

Ecological prejudice has likewise been brought on by the way that a few races are more prone to be in close vicinity to ranges of contamination than others. African American neighborhoods have generally been focused for the transfer of earth debasing waste. One helping variable to ecological bigotry is the way that numerous African Americans have low livelihoods and poor training and fail to offer the political force and association to oppose the acquaintance of risky material with nature 's domain. Minority races are likewise more averse to look for money related remuneration for wellbeing and ecological issues connected with the dumping of dangerous material in their neighborhoods. Also, whites have a tendency to live in more affluent neighborhoods that are far from mechanical territories. Due to racial segregation in urban regions, poisonous offices, for example, incinerators, landfills, and contaminating modern buildings, are basically put in close vicinity to dark neighborhoods (General Accounting Office, 1983, p. 1). Also, atomic waste dumps are likewise found in Native American reservations as Native Americans are yet an alternate race that is regularly focused for segregation. Minority races don 't have full get to the assets and apparatuses required to battle the arrangement of such offices. Additionally, they may pick not to battle for trepidation of losing occupations in the region. General Accounting Office (1983) contends that

While driving by Interstate Waste Services facility at 375 US Highway 1 and 9 in Jersey city, New Jersey, I immediately noticed the poverty surrounding the facility. From my observation I would say the yearly median income in that neighborhood is anywhere between eighteen and twenty-five thousand dollars. With such a low income, it is quickly identified that this was a lower class neighborhood. I also noticed many Hispanics or African Americans outside their homes. In my opinion, I believe the facility is located in a lower class neighborhood because with not much money coming from the people who live near the facility, they know that they wouldn’t be able to do much even if they did not want it there. It also allows them to rent/sell the houses for much lower prices so families who are limited with their spending to buy or rent a house will be able to do so on a budget.

Ecology is a scientific study and analyses of the interaction between organisms and their immediate environment. Therefore, ecological crisis has been considered as the misunderstanding that exists between the environment and living organism particularly, the human race. The major ecological crisis has been associated with the environmental pollution (Westra 122). Notably, race and ethnicity have been considered to be significant contributing factors to the ecological crisis than the economic income and class. Ecological crisis has since led to racism particularly in regions occupied by different races. For instance, the affluent black communities have been associated with high toxic environmental waste sites than the poorer whites. This notion was pegged on the fact that more than 60% of the black American communities had at least a toxic waste site in their boundaries (Westra 97). The statistic explains the poor health nature and lower life expectancies among the affected black Americans.