John Todd Human Waste

“Waste” is a short essay in which Wendell Berry critically analyzes the growing epidemic of trash that is polluting the nation’s land, waterways, and the air. Berry explains to the readers how the remnants of floods and litter that leave farmlands scattered with trash, makes more work for the farmers who have to rid their land of the trash before they can use it. Along with the floods, roads and highways also lead to a barrage of garbage from people who are too lazy or ignorant to take proper care of their garbage, which Berry claims leads to “. . . a constant precipitation of cans, bottles, the plastic-ware containers of fast food joints, soiled plastic diapers, and sometimes whole bags of garbage,” (Waste 1) along the edges of their fields. The garbage of the country continues to be a burden for everyone, whether it impacts them directly or not. Although it would be impossible to eliminate garbage completely from the country, the waste could be greatly reduced. Most of today’s trash is a consequence of the laziness of American society.

I will be addressing how Jeff Wilson took on an extreme project to enlighten people about what it without a doubt means to live deliberately. I will be explaining how Jeff Wilson took on this intense project that also had an environmental educational aspect to it as well. Another point of view on this outlandish project is that it progressively alters a dumpster in to something way more than a person would ever expect.

Carson’s next argument is that the volume of new chemicals coming on the market each year, the universal use of these chemicals on farms, gardens, forests, and homes, and the lack of information on the short or long-term effect of these

Paul Taylor also mentions about his attitude of respect for natural. He basically breaks it down into 4 components. Firstly, organisms have a relationship called interdependence; it means that organisms are mutually dependent on the relation to other organisms. For example, while animals inhale oxygen gas for aerobic respiration and exhale carbon dioxide as a metabolic waste, plants absorb carbon dioxide to form carbohydrates and release oxygen as an end product. The interdependence is very important for maintaining a healthy eco-system, since every organism has their own unique biological functions.

One of the environmental groups in the area, No Waste Louisiana, partners with local businesses and organizations to coordinate actions to minimize the environmental impacts in the region. No Waste Louisiana representative Catherine Schoeffler Comeaux writes, "Cleaning up the mostly plastic litter on our Gulf Coast and in our bayous will not be accomplished by a few do-gooders picking up trash. Recycling will not take care of the excessive and egregious amount of single use disposable plastics produced worldwide every day. No matter how much you pick up, no matter how many litter bugs you reform, no matter what you recycle — unless we reduce our waste on the front end as individuals while demanding changes in industry, we will continue to see our landscape, our food chain, our very genetic code contaminated.” Here, the representative identifies the high amounts of waste found in the area. While the representative recognizes that recycling, on its own, will not solve the problem, recycling is part of the solution.

Did Lorman’s wastewater emissions play any role in this tragic outcome?” Although these are Ben’s thoughts, this is not definitely the case; there is no definite proof that there is a link between the chemicals in the wastewater emissions and health problems. Ben must put aside his our pre-conceived notions and work objectively on the data. This is another good example of his responsibility to use integrity when making a decision to avoid conflicts of interest. 4. To the board of directors: o “Although collected with meticulous care, the data Ben had painstakingly gathered was composed only of educated estimates, leaving him with an uneasy feeling.” Although Ben may want to present his data in a way that supports his decision, it is important that his audiences know the legitimacy of his data. It is his responsibility to communicate information fairly and objectively and to disclose any deficiencies in the data. 5. To shareholders of Lorman Lumber Co: o “Company and shareholder profitability would certainly be affected.” In order to support Ben’s credibility, it is important that he disclose all relevant information to the investors of Lorman Lumber Co. Although shareholder equity would most certainly be affected by such a significant capital investment and reduction of revenue in the short run, Ben could be ensuring shareholder value over the long run by improving productivity, lowering negative

Eighner wants to confront his audience about how wasteful we actually are. The three main ideas; what is safe to eat, scavengers vs. scroungers, and the stories told by items, all tie into Eighner’s overall theme of trying to open everyone’s eyes to how wasteful we are. Many people do not realize what they are actually throwing away because most of us have more than we need. We don’t have room in our fridge so we just throw good items away that are perfectly good. We also throw away more than just good food. Many people in America throw away practically brand new clothes instead of taking the time to go donate them at a shelter. Even I as a college student do this. You need more room so it just easier to toss it into the trash. Although it may help someone who

To address the issue of unregulated fertilizer pollution in water supplies, Glennon quantitatively analyzes the amount of fertilizer that is used in the United States: “According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agricultural industry annually applies 110 billion pounds of fertilizer to one-eighth of the landmass of the continental United States” (69). With this statistic, Glennon creates opportunities in his piece to include new and compelling evidence that demonstrates the dangers of water pollution and its impacts on the nation. Along with this statistic concerning fertilizers, Glennon further expands his claim to describe the issue of runoff from other chemicals, such as perchlorate, in water supplies: “…the contamination plume from the Kerr-McGee plant contains 20 million pounds of perchlorate dissolved in more than 9 billion gallons of water” (69). By including the words “million” and “billion” in his data about chemical runoff, Glennon intimidates the reader into believing that these contamination issues affect populations on an enormous scale. He also frequently uses authoritative figures to strengthen his claim: “[A 2004 EPA report] alarmingly predicted that as many as 355,000 hazardous waste sites would require cleanup over the next thirty years, costing $250 billion” (75). Glennon attempts to alarm the reader and expose the detrimental costs of water pollution and its widespread consequences. However, while Glennon usually cites his evidence, he also includes information from unknown sources, which causes the reader to question the validity of some of his claims. In one argument concerning TCE, another industrial chemical, Glennon declares the dangers of the chemical without

The book begins at the source of the original problem; Boston Harbor having raw sewage dumped into it causing it to be “the dirtiest harbor in America” or as it was called “The Harbor of Shame”. Therefore, came a solution the second largest state of the art sewage plant would be built so the treated remains would go through the 9.8-mile tunnel under the sea floor and be discharged out into Massachusetts Bay. Well, as the book explains in great detail it was not that simple neither was the content of the book. As I explained above, it starts with the contaminated Boston Harbor and with an astounding

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin explores the history of one town’s struggle and analyzed the epidemiology in Toms River, New Jersey. The drama and conflicts between public health, large chemical companies, and actors in this book present real scenarios that occurs in an environmental dilemma. Toxic chemicals, acid-laced wastewater, and private dumping grounds that impacted the community’s health is essential to acknowledge for improvements of waste management and prevention. Indeed, Toms River becomes a lesson for future studies and relevant to the study of environmental

Most human waste in the United States flows down the pipes to a facility such as DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world. Blue Plains receives an average of 370 million gallons of urine. This includes what washes down the kitchen drain, fills up washing machines, and flushes down toilets.

In 1854 the city London was the most populated in the world. In just ninety square miles there was over two million currently living there. During this time period having so many people in such a tight place was unknown. With the constant population growth it caused a number of problems. The main problem that was faced was the mass amount of waste and where to put it. Families used water closets, but even with the water closets their waste was emptied into cesspools. It wasn’t uncommon for these cesspools to over fill often, even with night- soil men continuously emptying them. The streets of London were fifthly. With the constant mass amounts of waste the London government came to a decision to dump of the

This book was focused on the concern of pesticides that industries, along with us as individuals, have been dumping (both knowingly and unknowingly) into water. Carson was concerned that the chemicals which the farmers spread on their fields, and even the chemicals we use in our homes (among others), in the end, might come back around and harm us. The beginning of the book tells a story of a place, that was once so beautiful, turned dead and ugly due to a “strange blight that crept over the area” and destroyed everything. Later in the book, she goes on to explain that chemicals, particularly one known as DDT, are the major cause of environmental damage and the near extinction of

Human wastes were one of the most challenging issues that people had to deal with. For a long time, it was common that dwellings hadn’t had the feature of the privy or systems that could dispose of human wastes. Even after at least one privy placed in ordinary dwellings, the collection system of night soil had not perfectly worked so many places were remained smelly. The corpses were also the cause of odors in middle ages. The failure of the proper management of corpses in middle ages caused miasma, not only producing odors but also releasing the intolerable aura and harming the health of living people. They became increasingly concerned about it and demanded a counterplan. The dead became either excluded from the city or their bodies were

Tom Szaky is an entrepreneur, known for starting TerraCycle, a company that makes consumer products out of waste. Although the environment and the venture itself changed a lot throughout the development, Szaky always remained true to himself. He believed that a waste management business could make a profit and promote environmental protection at the same time. However, gut instincts and being in the right place at the right time was also an important issue for the former success - commencing with the idea for the startup business when he visited his friends and discovered the fertilizer which they had developed. Shortage