Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 14.4% of these emissions in 2022. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that landfills are the third largest source of human-caused methane emissions in the United States, emitting as much CO2 as the oil and gas industry. Landfill waste, responsible for about 11 of the world’s methane emissions, is expected to increase by 70 by 2050 as the global population continues to rise.
Landfills are among the nation’s largest sources of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. Accurately measuring methane is a major concern. In 2018, methane emissions from MSW landfills were approximately equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from over 20.6 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or the CO. Landfills account for more than 17% of human-caused methane pollution, compared to just under 25% for natural gas systems.
Landfill gas (LFG) is a natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic material in landfills, composed of roughly 50% methane. Food waste is the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S., comprising 24 and 22% of methane emissions. Landfill emissions include both methane and carbon dioxide, but methane has a much higher warming potential.
The first estimate for all US landfills was 0.05 t CH4/t MSW, which is about 40 of the complete biodegradation of all biodegradable materials in the US. Methane produced by food decomposing in landfills makes up 1.6 of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
📹 Climate in 2 Minutes – Episode 4 – Sectors contributing to greenhouse gasses emissions
What do you think are the sectors emitting the highest greenhouse gasses? With the enhanced greenhouse effect we are …
How do landfills contribute to the greenhouse effect?
Rising greenhouse gas levels are causing climate change, with solid waste contributing to these emissions through methane generation and nitrous oxide emissions. These gases have high global warming potential, with methane having 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide having 310 times the warming potential. Connecticut residents generate an estimated 5 pounds of garbage daily, and recycling 1 ton of aluminum is equivalent to not releasing 13 tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
How much greenhouse gas do landfills produce?
The Inventory of U. S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks reports that U. S. landfills released an estimated 119. 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO 2 e) of methane into the atmosphere in 2022, representing 17. 1% of total U. S. anthropogenic methane emissions across all sectors. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills contributed 14. 4% of total U. S. methane emissions, while industrial landfills contributed 2. 7%. Additional information about the types and amounts of compounds found in landfill gas can be found on the U.
S. EPA’s Final Emissions Factors for AP-42 Chapter 2, Section 4 – Municipal Solid Waste Landfills. The chapter file and spreadsheet provide typical concentrations for individual compounds from uncontrolled LFG, control efficiencies for several combustion devices, and emission factors for secondary compounds exiting control devices.
How much damage do landfills do to the environment?
Landfill sites often cause soil and water contamination due to the presence of heavy materials like lead and mercury in stored waste. Although waterproofing membranes are not common, they can have devastating effects on the environment. Landfill sites also negatively impact bird migration, as some birds feed on waste, ingesting common materials like plastic, aluminum, and gypsum, which can be fatal. Therefore, proper disposal and management of landfill sites are crucial for maintaining the environment.
What are 3 problems with landfills?
Landfills produce methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases, contributing to climate change and smog. They destroy natural habitats for wildlife, with over 3, 000 active landfills in the US causing 1, 800, 000 acres of habitat loss. The average landfill size is 600 acres, and leaks in plastic or clay liners can result in leachate, contaminating water sources and damaging ecosystems. Federal regulations require landfills to have liners, but leaks can lead to further damage.
Does landfill contribute to climate change?
Food loss and waste account for about one-third of the food intended for human consumption in the United States. This waste not only wastes inputs used in food production, processing, transportation, preparing, and storage but also contributes to the climate change crisis by generating significant greenhouse gas emissions. The production, transportation, and handling of food generate significant CO2 emissions, and when food ends up in landfills, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The connection between food loss and waste and climate change is increasingly recognized, as extreme weather events disrupt agriculture and supply chain resiliency. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that food waste embodies 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. Food waste is the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U. S., comprising 24 and 22 percent of landfilled and combusted municipal solid waste, respectively. Preventing food loss and waste benefits agricultural land, blue water, fertilizer, and energy.
Which greenhouse gas is released from landfill sites?
The majority of methane emissions from the waste sector originate from landfill sites, with the remaining ten emissions emanating from wastewater treatment and incineration facilities.
How much CO2 does 1kg of landfill produce?
The generation of one kilogram of non-recycled waste results in the emission of 700 grams of CO₂ into the atmosphere.
What emits the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions?
CO2 accounts for 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with methane and nitrous oxide contributing 16% and 6% respectively. The rise in carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution has significantly impacted global emissions. The three largest emitters are China, the United States, and the European Union, with per capita emissions highest in the United States and Russia. Most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from a small number of countries.
What percentage of greenhouse gas emissions come from food waste?
Wasted food is not only a social issue but also an environmental concern. It wastes energy, water, and produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. About 6-8 of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced if we stopped wasting food. In the US alone, lost or wasted food generates 32. 6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions. As the world’s population grows, the challenge should be to feed more people while reducing food waste. Consumers can take small steps to curb emissions, such as delivering leftovers, freezing food, shopping smarter, and composting to keep inedible scraps out of landfills.
What is the ratio of waste to landfills?
The country in question generates 160, 038. The quantity of solid waste generated is 9 TPD, with a total of 152, 749. A total of 5 TPD was collected with a 95. 4% efficiency rate, 50 TPD was treated, and 29, 427. A total of 2 TPD is landfilled, representing 0. 13% of the total volume. This equates to 5 TPD.
How much CO2 does 1kg of food waste produce?
Food waste contributes significantly to global warming, with 1. 3 gigatons of edible food releasing 3. 3 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kg of waste. For every 1kg of food waste, just over 2. 5kg of CO2 is emitted. When food ends up in landfills, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2. Food production accounts for around one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as the window to limit climate change to 1.
5°C is narrowing, fewer people realize the significant amounts of emissions come from food waste in the supply chain, restaurants, and homes. An estimated one-third of all food produced in the world goes to waste, equivalent to 1. 3 billion tons of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and grains that either never leave the farm, get lost or spoiled in the supply chain, or are disposed of by the retail and hospitality industries.
📹 We need to fix landfills – here’s how
Almost 40% of all garbage still ends up on places where it should not, mostly landfills. They cause many diseases and are a …
No one is talking about our consumerism. It seems we have evolved into mindless consuming not thinking twice about the garbage we create daily. Garbage created in the fast food industry is astounding. I witness the garbage bagged and going out the door with no concern or cares. A conversation needs to happen surrounding this
I got a problem with recycling here in the US. All my short life so far my family has been recycling. We used to have separate stackable milk crates for plastics, glass, and tin/aluminum. Sometime back in 2015 the city declared them unsightly and all the milk crates were swapped for a recycling bin that could be scooped up by a recycling trunk in a manner similar to the garbage truck. When moving house last October, the last week that we had a regular Wednesday pickup my family gave thank you cards to the guys in the trucks since they’ve been doing the job almost the entire time we’ve been here. You’d think waste/recycling pickup is impersonal since the truck handles everything and no one rides on the back anymore, but we got to know our collection guys and they were pretty cool. We chatted for a minute and as I was leaving when I said ‘thanks for handling the recycling’, he just laughed and said that it goes to the dump along with the rest of the garbage. As the truck drove off, I was kinda taken aback by what I’d just heard. If he’s right, and I don’t think he’d be joking or lying, we were never recycling anything at all. The sorting and the need for a second bin was always meaningless and just a feel good thing for us consumers. Something that I’d always found interesting was that the recycling truck was the same make and model as the garbage truck, just green and blue painted instead of black. Crazy to think that maybe I was looking at the answer the whole time and was tricked by something simple as a coat of paint.
I live in a small town in North Carolina, US that apparently lost its recycling solution within the past few years. It still collects recycling separately, but it is an illusion. They stopped accepting glass years ago for that reason. Now, recycling waste, including cardboard and paper, is dumped into the landfill. I have often wondered why we continue to separate anything and hope it’s because they are actively searching for a solution. However, it feels like we are going backwards.
The ultimate solution is to move to a circular economy model, globally. Instead of the tale-make-waste model, we have the 5 R’s: reduce, re-use, repurpose, refuse and very last, recycle. Container deposit schemes help encourage this. Imagine all the jobs created. The plastics lobby has fought against this paradigm shift for decades. Make the industry bear the cost of cleaning up plastics from our oceans, and fixing our landfills and dump sites.
In my neighborhood in Budapest 8, they started community composting a few years ago. It’s a massive urban center with 10-12 story buildings so I was really happy for the initiative as selective garbage collection is not a thing here. The compost gets reused around the district to plant flowers, shrubs, new trees.
I’m a waste reduction specialist. The solution is to reuse FIRST rather than recycle. WE need refillable food packaging, not disposable. We had this in the recent past. It’s achievable. It’s cheaper. It is the ONLY sustainable solution. Recycling is NOT the only solution. It’s a low priority in terms of sustainable development
I have been perusal articles of dumpster divers in the USA and the amount of consumerism and the resulting waste is heartbreaking especially since i live in a country where hundreds of millions live in such deprivation! To know that so much stuff is sent directly from the store to the landfill while still in its package….it is just beyond comprehension for me
“waste to energy” is more than burning methane. It’s also burning trash, i.e. Sweden burns most of thrash which was not possible to reuse or recycle. Volume of thrash ending in landfills is just a few percent comparing to input. Additionally it is solid and not soluble on water. This should be the way.
We have the Koelliken (Switzerland) Landfill removed about 25 Km east of where I live during the past 25 years. Action completed about 5 years ago. The landfill was covered by a pillar-less roof structure that was at that time I think the largest pillar less structure of the norhern hemisphere. The roof was there to collect emission gases and probably to hold rain water from washing out toxic content and leak it into the ground. I think quite a few such removal projects will follow throughout the country. In general, dumping is illegal here since many years and landfills are less and less active since strong smoke cleaning devices and toxic gas retention systems were developed and furnaces were equipped with these that generate heat and finally electricity from not only the gases coming out from the waste, but from burning the entire waste. In this way, waste is turned into fuel for bio mass power stations. In parallel, we do a lot to increase recycling rates. With metals, glass, paper, cardboard, batteries, textiles and PET recycling we are beyond 90% that flows back countrywide I think. Since recently, other plastic materials are recycled as a blend (different from the pure PET). Since that works, the waste my wife and I are producing is down to 1x 35L waste bag every 3 weeks to a Month.
I’m from Bayawan, a small city in the Philippines. Our city has been sorting trash with the plastics and other non biodegradable going to our landfill while the biodegradable are being used as farm fertilizers. Recently though they allowed other city who aren’t even sorting trash to dump unto ours. Guess what? The landfill that was supposed tp be filled within at least 20 years was filled up instantly in just under 10. Our reaidents are the ones who end up suffering because of money
Recycling is expensive. Reuse is better, for example by putting a deposit on packaging such as bottles. In theory, prevention is quite simple, but the political will is lacking. Individual citizens have little room for maneuver here. Politicians must regulate this through laws. The negative effects of landfills can be minimized by drying the garbage so that it does not ferment and by banning toxic substances in the materials. Organic waste could also be disposed of in the sewage system without causing any ecological harm, but you would need 1) a shredder and 2) enough water. This would actually work with plastic waste too. This would save you having to have garbage trucks on the road and garbage cans in the city and garbage rooms in buildings. Disposal would be much easier and there would be no smell anywhere.
I’ll be willing to bet there’s a lot more landfills in the US. In Southeast Georgia where I’m from there are several superfund sites, several of which are small dumps from old chemical factories where they made their own landfill to dump their own waste. I’d hate to wonder how many small independent landfills popped up like that that aren’t documented.
My home town in Alabama refuses to recycle anymore. The locals mix trash and recycling when they are given a garbage bin and a recycling bin. They restarted and ended the recycling program maybe 5 times in the past 20 years. I believe recycling is not a strong solution but maybe composting is. Here in alabama, our plants overgrow the land quickly, brush piles and food scraps alike can be composted. In fact, there is one town close by, Vestavia, who pick up compost alongside trash. Locals can go to the compost facility to get bags of compost for free, or a truckload if you have a pickup truck.
I grew uo next to a landfill. It only became a problem when Toronto purchased it since Michigan said no more trash will be accepted by you Canadians. Then the dump ballooned! I’ve been on a never ending effort to teach people to reduce, compost (rot), refuse, repair, recycle and many sustainable living initiatives. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but people are slowly catching on.
Thanks, I worked in the recycling industry for 30 years, most wastes can be recycled to some extent, but finding a market for the recycled material and turning a profit are big problems. To make a profit you usually have to charge for accepting the waste, waste producers will pay the minimum possible and will often choose landfill for cost reasons rather than pay for recycling. To be fair, here in the UK some of the larger and better manufacturers have a no landfill policy, and will pay.
I live in San Diego, California. We have a waste to energy landfill and we capture approximately 50% of organic waste which is typically processed to be used as ground cover (Organic material used to cover bare soil in landscaping applications). Perhaps it is not very realistic, but less consumption goes along way to alleviate waste disposal as well as other significant problems. Good story! 🙂
I was hoping this article would be more about getting rid of a need for landfills entirely and not curbing their destructiveness. We live on a finite planet and global warming, while being a large problem, is not the only huge problem we are facing. We consume way too much and we throw away way too much. Unfortunately, everything is so driven by profit motive, I don’t forsee the problems being solved since it is as you said, it’s just cheaper to throw it in a bit pile
Plastic gets all of our recycling attention because the fossil fuel lobby has been marketing it to us for half a century. Ironically, plastic is the one material that is really not a concern at all to landfill. It simply acts as a stable form of carbon storage. Wet waste and paper products are what need to be focused on to get out of the landfill, the best option is anaerobic decomposition into fertilizer and methane. But even just incineration is much better than letting it rot in landfills. The issue is when incinerators start burning plastics.
I asked my mom when we were at the grocery store, I was 5 or 6 years old, “How come we don’t bring our own containers to fill”. A simple question from a simpler time, but very profound. The Product doesn’t have to have Product Branding glued all over the packaging, that just gets thrown away anyway. The Real Problem is the Product Packaging. Western Civilization for the Whole World! It is Glorious!, Isn’t it?!
I’d like more public waste bins in germany to have separated bins like they have in sweden, denmark or norway for waste, recables, including paper, plastics and metals (all in one), as well as a separate bin for biodegrables. We also do have domestic biodegradable waste colelction, where you can throw in processed food, as well as meat and bone, because that then get’s processed in biogas plants into methane for driving or for electricity and heat. But that’s western europe speaking.
In the UK I’m frustrated. We can only recycle certain plastics (nobody really knows which ones), while the rest go in general waste. Yet we are pushed to recycle more – at the dump, they have recycling rates that are just around 56%. The consumer is punished from different sides, yet nobody wants to seriously do anything about it
Although not a perfect solution, we use a Lomi composter for 99% of our wet / organic garbage. This little machine turns our kitchen waste into a dry crumble, which, when produced, we simply scatter into our lawn where it vanishes, as if by magic. 1 gallon of kitchen waste turns into 1 pint of compost. We love it…
You describe waste to energy as an umbrella term. In this case you focus on recovering methane from landfills. But waste to energy is in many countries, incl. Denmark and many other countries, the complete opposite of landfills. Instead of dumping waste at landfills where you just leave waste forever, in Denmark consumers sort the waste at the household level. The residual waste is then incinerated in a controlled environment in a waste to energy facilitity. Here, the incineration of the waste generates heat, which through steam turns a generator that creates heat and electricity. The small amount that is left is sorted in e.g. steel and the residual product(slag) is then used for e.g., asphalt production. The gases released from the incineration process (both environmentally damaging gases and greenhouse gases) are to a large extent collected through a cleaning mechanism in the chimney. Currently, technologies are being developed and tested in Denmark to also capture the emitted CO2 to either utilize or store it. Only a fraction of the total waste generated in Denmark is stored in landfills. Namely materials that cannot easily be incinerated. Through this process, we generate electricity and heat from the waste, while also leaving only a small amount to be stored in landfills, thereby limiting the land needed for landfills and protecting the environment at the same time. Obviously we need to increase recycling rates so only the tiny fraction that cannot be recycled should be incinerated.
A big draw for municipalities to institute recycling programs is less being “green” or whatever, it’s just a matter of landfill diversion. Landfills are seriously difficult to expand in many places. There are few NIMBY issues stronger. If there is at least some waste that can be kept out, even if it’s not directly economical to recycle, it’s worth it to avoid filling up existing landfills quicker.
I live alone and recycle everything. No food is wasted as things like banana peels and corn cobs go to the garden to feed the worms which are also vegan. I believe most of the trash and food waste comes from people who live in apartments or people who just don’t care. I have been called a tree hugger for talking about what I do, but nobody wants a landfill near their home yet they continue to add to the existing one so when it fills up, it will cost future generations more to have it trucked farther away.
I’m a waste water operator grade 3 in the United States and like garbage we have a hard time getting rid of our sludge created by the waste water plant. We have a sludge bio solids dryer but because of many factors it hasn’t ran in years. It reduces the amount of water from the sludge by 90 to 95 percent making the sludge into a dry highly flammable dust like matter that can be used for fertilizer or spread on any land as its harmful properties are nearly non existent. It’s a form of organic compost I guess you can say. Maybe we will get our dryer working again one day or get one without the many complications ours has had, so we can eliminate our severely reduce our sludge removal problems.
I live in the UK our council East Suffolk used to collect food waste and garden waste together. Then they stopped collecting food waste and told us to put it in with the main trash and on top of that they started charging us for collecting our garden waste. So a lot of people stopped using that service. Is this an example of a council who used to get it right, choosing to go back on it’s commitment to the environment, due to costs? Surely our council tax pays for these services, so the council is not only ripping off the environment but it’s residents too!
Bulgaria has a huge problem with waste management and illegal landfills. They most often occur in the low-income neighbourhoods or towns, municipalities very often close their eyes on this. The worst I have seen in the second biggest city in Bulgaria (Plovdiv), is illegal landfills on the shores of Maritza river which crosses the city and is part of the European ecological network Natura 2000. Many protected species inhabit that wetland and yet no authority has managed to preserved its shores from turning into illegal landfill.
My vege and kitchen scraps go into an in-ground compost bin. I got an old plastic wheelie bin, cut the bottom out, drilled holes in the sides, from the bottom up two thirds of the way. Now it’s buried in my garden. After six months I dig a new hole and move it there. It rots down and feeds the garden plants. We need to do pyrolysis of suitable waste like plastic, tyres and wood. A synthetic diesel is produced, with mineral components left behind like carbon black, silica and others.
I’ve been strongly in favor of getting petroleum based products turned back into a petroleum product. Right now there is a technology called plastic pyrolysis. Basically, you take “plastic” and put it in an oxygen free atmosphere and heat it to 500C for about 45 minutes. It takes more energy to product the oil than pulling it from the ground. The beauty of it is that you don’t really need to sort, or clean the plastics. So, even if this was only applied to the plastics that were destined to the landfill, it would be a huge win. If this could be combined with process heat from the molten salt reactors, it could be a dramatically less carbon intensive process.
The USA and the Britain shamefully export their waste to overseas poor countries that don’t have the infrastructure to process or have landfill systems such as Indonesia and African nations.. but yet, we are caught up in a culture embedded in values of living large in big houses and overconsumption at the cost of the environment and developing countries
As the scientist in the article notes, the answer is education. If we teach our children practical management of our consumption, as well as how to consume less (read: be happier with less) and use the examples in this article to teach nature, chemistry, environment, planting, and so on, this will make the world a better place.
Require retailers and/ or distributers to pay for the product end of life expenses is reasonable. We already do that for tires and auto batteries. Tax the packaging. If it is much larger than necessary, pay a premium. Offer tax incentives for using truly recyclable materials. Manufacturers wouldn’t see the tax directly, but it would increase their total COP. (cost of production)
In india, no technology can help solve this problem. Landfills can never be viable here due to lack of urban land space and the rapidly growing population. Adaptation for SLF has also been very slow. India is almost 20-30 yrs behind when it comes to adopting sustainable waste management practices. Lately, since 2016, with some government policy enablers and push from private players, i think decentralized waste management is the best way to treat this massive problem of waste. They are economically viable, use less resource, and easy to operate and manage. My organization has developed technology and waste management models in such a way that we can address 3 major problems for the indian economy: 1. Improper Waste Management 2. Energy security (decentralized Waste to Energy) 3. Enabling Access to quality agri products
Have spots to dry the trash burn it. Can’t do that then don’t allow plastic in there. Oh I’m sorry you can’t do that because it’s literally everywhere. Like bottle gords and birdhouse gords use to be used for a water bottle. So at this point reduce plastic production use sustainable materials. Have more green spaces in the cities to reduce air and ground pollution and provides shade and a ecosystem.
Another reason why the demographic development we’re going through as a species is good, humans are not ready for the gift that is earth. I’m glad I am alive and I get to see many wonders of the world but I also see endless greed, suffering and childish behaviour from our so called leaders. If there is indeed a dark age ahead for humanity, we have well and truly earned it.
Trying to reduce and and reuse is good and noble, but most likely not all that practical. At best, I would estimate reduce and reuse is may be 1% effective in removing our trash stream? Composting organic waste is far more effective in lessening our trash stream. Perhaps composting can remove our trash stream by 10-15%? Then try sorting out what can be recycled (like metals?) The rest may best be burned in high tech facilities for energy.
I would like to know more about how the place in India is recycling more than 90% of all their waste–what is their general living standard? I would also like to see more context in the data–for example, how many homes, Y, are producing enough waste to power X number of homes? I’m guessing W2E is a small % of our energy needs. Good article, though.
The problem is that educated people who really have been given the intellectual tools to think about the consequences still don’t care enough to change their behaviour (my wife and her parents come to mind), so how can you possibly expect people who haven’t been given those tools to make the right choices? When you point it out they of course say “you are right, I’ll change”, and then change absolutely nothing. It is an unending, unwinnable battle, as the stats clearly show. Every success has two failures. We are a force of nature. It’s only going to get better after we are no longer here in such numbers. It’s that simple…
👏 More awareness is key!! Composting keeps our trash to a minimum. A little thing I do to recycle small single use plastic items like straws or flossers is to fill up a larger plastic bottle with them. Once it’s full it goes into the recycling. We also don’t put our waste bin out every week. That way the waste truck doesn’t have to stop for a half full bin. If more people did this on the same waste route, the trucks would burn a lot less fuel. If we picked up trash every other week instead of every week…we would burn 50% less diesel 🤯 Just saying…food for thought for anyone who read this 🤔😊💚 🪱♻️🌎🤙
Forget all this. Aim for minimum waste. Working with corporates and industries should be the 1st step to reduce the amount of waste. Even the smallest village, smallest hamlet should have at least 1 recycling plant. Factories that can produce recycled items should be encouraged and tax-free to promote a cleaner environment. Landfills are fine, but govt should aim for a zero landfill policy.
Anyone else thought, based on the thumbnail, this was a Cities Skylines 2 update? Likewise, much like CS2, global warming will get multiple patch updates, but ultimately, the problem is just too big and complex to fix… cause the fact of the matte is, global warming isnt a pollution problem… it’s an economic one.
In developed countries….. It has been illegal to use landfills since the 90’s. But the cleanup has still today, just been done on the official locations, while private landfills that was cleared decades ago, open to the air, in the sea, and forests are still lingering, pollution day by day, more and more. Im not so sure this is better than the scheme of cO2 quotas that has been invented.
“…in the short term, (methane is) over 80x more potent at heating the planet than carbon dioxide…” Um…but if methane emissions never reverse (show me the 20-year stretch where we abate methane emissions)…doesn’t it follow that methane is THE big, controllable GHG emission of interest? It seems like most reporting on this is wrong. Methane is minimized and emphasis is placed on transport and EVs, but we should be doubling down on agriculture, trash, and other sources of methane more than anything because it has both near- and far-term consequences. What am I missing?
SIMPLE PLASTIC BAN CAN REDUCE THESE LANDFILL. THINGS I DO. 1. I used cloth bag instead of plastic. 2. I purchased cloth about 1.5 years ago. I mostly donate my old clothes to needy people or service station or washing station. 3. Never ask for slip post payment. 4. Use steel bottle insead of plastic bottle. 5. In last 18 years i purchased only 3 smart phone and a nokia 1100 phone. 6. Planted 12 trees this year. But other can do 1. Food and vegetable vendors should use cloth bag instead of plastic. Even they can motivate customers. 2. They should be law for companies that atleast 50 percent plastic or other thing they produce to be recycles. Companies like beverage companies, washing powder, toothpaste etc. 3. Mysore and Singapore are example for waste management. Lets made a community for climate change. We are already late
One way to reduce (bottle) waste is to make water free, and safe to drink from anywhere. It’s ridiculous how bad the water gets in american cities, even restaurants you’d expect filtered and then regularly cleaned fountain water. Water bottles should only be a thing in disaster relief. Everyone else should have their own reusable bottles.
First thing first, we need to build a better and bigger recycling system and education for it. Recycling should be specific and detailed more than just 2 bins and the system should be ready to accept all the recycled material and categorizing. We need to teach our kids and ourselves how to and what to recycle. We all know what is right and wrong in a common sense level, just need to do it.
What’s usually neglected in the trash debate is that waste management is a highly local and often cultural issue with global consequences. While the US as the richest country in the history of humankind sends half its waste to the landfill, in many European countries the ratio is way below 10%. Framing the issue as something “we” as a global community have to solve might miss the mark and makes it all too easy to shift the blame. In theory, waste management is a (mostly) solved problem. In practice, it usually fails on a local policy level.
US landfills are not even remotely similar to those in other parts of the world. They are engineered and HIGHLY regulated. Regulations require minimizes working faces, liquids revival systems, lined cells, groundwater monitoring systems around the perimeter, managed interim covers over filled areas, vector continue, and gas collection. It’s clear Dehli hads no regulations
Meanwhile in Israel you can buy 4 bags of potato chips inside another bigger bag just to get a discount of 10%! In other words, they give you a discount and in return they produce an extra bag in your behalf..! Meaning, their only parameter is to make you buy more, even if it makes no sense whatsoever from any perspective apart from the fact that they know that if you buy more you are more likely to eat them faster and therefore buy even more.
Fixing this is important, but it will start with slowing or blocking more waste to such landfills. Plastic should be banned and no more plastic raw material should be produced or supplied. All plastic should be re-used. People should use waste from fruits & vegetables to fertilize the land. It’s a big task should be promoted by governments by incentivising recycling facilities.
The “Haves” in the developed world produce and use so much un-recyclable materials compared to the “Have-nots” !! in what used to be called 3rd world countries!🙁 In the last 40 years or so, plastic made items for storage and wrapping, toys eg Lego, are everywhere, especially in food supermarkets although glass and metal containers are still around. I’m 75 yr old now and as a child growing up in Australia, plastic items and wrapping wasn’t around and paper was used for wrapping meats, bread and vegetables..glass and metal was used for some limited processed foods, and the refuse paper was burnt in the wood fired stoves and heaters… PLASTIC products derived from fossil fuels, mainly oil, are the worst materials polluting our farmlands and especially our oceans! 🐳🐠 BP, Exxon Mobil and other major fuel companies are continuing to make significant profits from dirty oil! 💰💰💰Scandinavian countries, like Norway, Sweden and Denmark seem to have a good waste management system.. but they are a small population compared to other nations: USA, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific countries. How did we get to this point? Ignorance is bliss! We didn’t have the interest, knowledge or evidence to show how difficult it is to dispose of “PLASTIC”, but now we have the evidence and knowledge, thanks to organisations such as GREENPEACE and others, of the major problems and issues that “PLASTIC” is causing! Fossil fuels got us to the moon, but at what cost?
The solution is very VERY simple, stop CONSUMING TOO MUCH and stop plastics in food industry use glass and paper. 1000 years ago people didn’t have such problems because everything they used was natural and biodegradable plus they didn’t use petrol, plastics and other chemicals we use now thus they didn’t have such issues.
Bio Gas is the way to go #bjp #modi please so this one simple thing to segregate garbage and use all bio for producing methane. Reduce pollution, clean cities and less oil import. It’s a win win . No brainer. You also get to feel good about it. I want to see India be a leader from being a laggard in climate causes
Reduce. Reuse Recycle? Everyone focusing on the symptoms and not the root? One time packages and containers you can only reuse so much. For medical it’s safety, for big brands it’s aesthetics. Corporations benefit from planned obsolecense, because if they made up for it in quality, nobody would buy another one or whatever, or it would be too expensive for the normal consumer, making them lose money. If it’s more expensive, ugly, and harder to find ecofriendly stuff, unless a law passes, most people and entities will not do it.
NEED TO EDUCATE YOUNG CHILDREN AND PEOPLE NOT TO USE ‘PLASTIC PRODUCTS’. Why the hell permission is given to produce new plastic product by scratch, instead they should use recycled Plastic in Plastic manufacturing industries like Bootles, packing materials and other Plastic industries. PLEASE BOYCOTT PLASTIC! LET’S GO FOR TRADITIONAL STYLE.
I love how it starts off with a 3rd world country who’s absolutely notorious for being strait filth had a trash fire… shocking… then talk bad about America and how much they create but never dive into how much we use for making power, or recycle. then back to how 1 town is doing some small little project for food scraps and how this is the way.
Build modern efficient waste-to-energy facilities. It’s not perfect, but it does get rid of dangerous landfills ans produces energy in the process. Landfills are banned in some countries including Germany. That said, a lot of countries still export their trash across the oceans to developing countries. This needs to be banned
To be honest with you it does not take common sense to fix these massive issues on our planet, this one is easily fixed farmers should be farming their own food people should be farming their own food we should not have to rely on some government to give us our food what happens whenever they can’t function anymore then you just don’t have any food to eat and you die
OK this is not a land fill it is a trash pill. US land fills are sustainable and clean. They proses trash for half the price of recycling most of that price is fossil fuel. Recycling is a wast of fossil fuel. Metal is the exception. Modern landfills have a rubber liner, monitoring wells, and methane recapture systems.
Love how u keep finger pointing at 🇮🇳 to tarnish Modi ji’s success all the time 🤣🤣. But what do u have to say about 🇩🇪’s people attitude towards whales 🐋 in Faroe Island🤔🤔. Perhaps u should look at ur own internal matters first before u lecture others 😅. 🇮🇳 is very well aware of waste management problem and they are already working on it. 😇
I suggest really make birth control easy and free. Give men the options to have a vasectomy for free and easy and at least a week or two sick leave. Women even battle to sometimes travel to a clinic for the meds. It is unfair to say us people have more waste, but other countries have less waste but such large families. Be at least objective about that too
OMG, can someone please hand that narrator a glass of water? That sound of way too thick saliva is unbearable when listening with headphones! It is not that you have to produce those articles in such a hurry, that your staff is close to death from thirst! Other then that he has a great narrating voice and pace! Keep the good work, improve the conditions!