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Roberto Jimenez
Mr. Mathew Moberly
8 May 2015
Writing 10
Abstract
In this proposal I address the problem in our current management of waste of the loss of
recyclable materials to landfills and thus wasting resources. A solution to this would be the
SMaRT station, which is currently in operation in Sunnyvale California, separating trash that
would normally go to the landfill. This station is compared to other alternatives like the Wasteto-Energy and EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program, which each recycle materials in their
own way.
Background/Problem
The idea of having a landfill is very simple: trash produced by people gets taken there,
however, the landfill itself is not so simple. A landfill needs to go through twists and turns of
regulations, permits, and needs to meet certain requirements in order for one to even be
considered to be built. Contrary to popular belief, a landfill is very well engineered since the
bottom is a collection of layers that are designed to keep` the trash from contaminating the
environment or ground water below (Washington 4-104). A completed landfill site would not
appear as if anything was altered since after a site is full, the trash is covered up with more
plastic liners and topsoil.
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The landfill itself is very well engineered, however, the trash that goes into one is not
separated or regulated and depends mostly on the community to do their part in sorting the trash
into their proper containers. For example, where I live we sort household trash in a black
container, organic plant matter in a green container and all recycles in a grey container, which
the garbage trucks come and pick up every week. Waste regulations and the measuring of how
much waste we produced didn’t begin until the 1960s (Cooper 14). However, to this present day
even with these regulations and guidelines to follow, waste that goes to the landfill is still
unsorted and unregulated. In 2012, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
reported that the United States produced 251 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) or
household trash (United States “Municipal”). This amount of trash seems perfectly acceptable
since the US has a huge population, however, out of the 252 million tons of MSW produced,
only 87 million tons were recycled. The other 164 million tons were discarded in landfills across
the US. Since MSW goes unsorted anything that would go into the household trash container: the
plastic bags that contain the trash, paper, any cardboard, food packaging, and any other material
that lands in that container, will go strait to the landfill.
The problem residing with this act is that any resources that went into making of those
products are now lost to the landfills. The plastic bags that contained the trash will take 500-1000
years to degrade in a landfill environment since its not being exposed to air or the elements that
help decompose trash (Kiener 5). Plastic bags are made from oil and all the oil that went into
making those plastic bags will never be able to be put back into production again since it will be
in a landfill for 500-1000 years. The United States consumes about 80 percent of the world’s
resources and that also means that we are the main producers of trash (Cooper 1). All the
resources that went into making products for the US will be lost if the recyclables are not
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separated from the waste. If this continues this would only add to the depletion of the world's
natural resources. The US society is using more resources now than it ever has in history and if
this were to continue it would also damage any generation’s future. Resources would be scarce
due to the wastefulness of the society and wouldn’t be able to support any civilization for long. A
civilization can’t continue to grow if all the resources are used up and wasted. Recycling now as
much as possible will delay this from occurring. As of 2012, the US's recycling rate was at 34
percent and has been on a steady increase since 1960,when it was at 6.4 percent, which was
when EPA first started measuring our waste production and recycling (United Sates
“Municipal”). Recycling efforts have increased and there are many other methods now that focus
on the recycling of materials in one-way or another, but if immediate action is not done, we
could be setting a bad course for the next future generations.
Solution
A better way to manage our waste would be to design a better sorting system or process
that would allow more recyclable materials to be saved from landfills. Only allowing organics
materials to the landfills will also have a smaller impact on the environment since they would
naturally decompose. There are several methods that have emerged that involve the recycling of
resources in one way or another. For example, the EPA encouraged the capture and use of the
methane that is made from the decomposing waste with its Landfill Methane Outreach Program
(LMOP) (United States “Methane”). The LMOP lead to the methane being used as a fuel source
in order to create electricity. Another method of resource recovery is the waste-to-energy (WTE)
method that landfills use, which takes waste and burns it in order to produce electricity: same
outcome as the LMOP, but a different method. A final method that is similar to WTE is one that
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was created by American Chemistry Council. The American Chemistry Council takes soiled
recyclables, like plastic food containers that still have food in them, and shreds them and mixes it
with paper in order to create a high energy fuel that can be used to power cement kiln for
electricity (American Chemistry Council). All these methods are very creative and innovative,
however, they are still wasting valuable resources by burning them. Natural resources are only
made once, like oil used to make plastics, and burning them instead of recycling them is a big
mistake. A better designed sorting process like the SMaRT station would be the better alternative
to these other methods because resources will not be lost, but instead be sorted and recycled.
There are other methods of recycling that are implemented in order to regain lost
resources in one form or another, like American Chemistry Councils method. They use an energy
recovery method which consists of gathering any recyclables that have been soiled by food that
could make the object unrecyclable, and then shredding it and mixing it with paper and making a
mixture that consists of 40% paper and 60% plastic that is used as a fuel to run a cement kiln
(American Chemistry Council). This method does produce fuel that has a higher energy content
than most coals, however, the process of burning the precious plastics that are considered nonrecyclable converts the resources that were used to make that product into ash, which cannot be
put back into production. Another flaw in this method is that The American Chemistry council
only focuses on recyclable trash. This means they do not interact with municipal waste, which is
the main type of waste that goes towards landfills. A method that interacts with the municipal
waste is Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer Station or other wise known as their
SMaRT Station. The SMaRT station interacts with the waste and separates any recyclables found
for later recycling instead of burning them. The station also does not have any byproducts other
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than the fuel to run the station since people separate most of the trash (City of Sunnyvale
California).
Another method similar to American Chemistry Council’s is landfills Waste-to-Energy
method (WTE), which uses a technique called mass burning. The way landfills use this is they
take any trash and simply burn it in order to produce electricity. This method of energy recovery
burned 29 million tons of trash in 2010, which was about 11.7 percent of all the trash produced
that year (United States “Municipal”). According to California Energy Commission the trash that
heads to WTE power plants is “unprocessed or minimally processed,” which means there is a
high possibility that there are recyclables being burned. Along with burning valuable resources,
the plants also have an issue “meet[ing] air quality requirements,” which causes a concern for the
community surrounding these types of plants (California Energy Commission). A better
alternative would be the SMaRT station since the station does not involve the burning of any
trash and doesn’t produce any harmful pollutants to put in the air. The station simply separates
the valuables from the trash and recycles them for later commercial use.
EPA's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) is a program where EPA encourages
landfills to capture the methane that is created from the decomposing trash and then uses it as an
energy resource. The capturing of methane for energy use can produce a broad range of
electricity generation depending on which method is chosen. For example, a couple methods
include the powering of an internal combustion engine, microturbine and or even a gas turbine,
which produce a good amount of electricity ranging from kilowatts to megawatts (United States
“Methane”). The LMOP is a very smart way of making landfills resourceful, however, this
method does not help towards fixing the problem of losing resources to landfills. The problem
needs to be fixed by actually taking the recyclable resources out of landfills and put them back
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into production. The LMOP program depends on organics materials to decompose, but it’s
estimated that plastics would take up to 500-1000 years to decompose in a landfill environment
(Kiener 5). The plastics and recyclable materials wouldn’t contribute anything towards the
making of the methane since they take such a long time to decompose. The SMaRT would
change this since it does take out as much recyclable materials as possible from the trash and
recycles them.
Although the previous methods do regain the lost materials in different forms, they either
burn or don’t do anything towards fixing the problem. A perfect example of what should be
implemented at every landfill is the SMaRT Station that is currently in the City of Sunnyvale
California. This station separates not only recyclable trash, but also landfill waste (City of
Sunnyvale California). This station has the highest recycling rate at nearly a 47 percent resource
recovery, by my calculation. This is 12 percent higher than EPA's 34.5 percent that was reported
in its 2012 fact sheet (United States “Municipal”). 12 percent higher may not seem like a lot,
however, EPA's 2012 fact sheet shows that from 1960-1985, there was an increase in the
recycling rate from 6.4 percent to 10.2 percent over the 25 year period (Unites States
“Municipal”). Over a span of 25 years the rate only increased by 3.7 percent, however, from
1990-present there was an increase of 18.5 percent from 16 percent to 34.5 percent (United
States “Municipal”). This is an 18 percent increase in 22 years, however, the SMaRT Station
managed to increase its recycling rate by 12 percent from when they first started collecting data
in 2009 from the station. The success of the stations recycling rate is due to their location and
their separation process.
The SMaRT station is strategically placed in a transfer station. This is where other waste
management stations make the mistake of just transferring the trash into the vehicles to either
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landfills or commercial buyers. But the SMaRT station separates both recyclable and house hold
waste that comes in. Household trash gets sorted by hand then mechanically treated by having
trash bags ripped open and the insides separated by hand again later on a conveyor belt. The
separation process is explained through a flowchart and a virtual video tour that’s provided by
their website (City of Sunnyvale California). Other waste management transfer stations do not
have this process and thus recyclable materials continue to be lost to landfills. The station also
does not produce any pollutants into the environment and helps reduce the carbon foot print
since instead of making new materials from virgin resources, they can just recycle the ones that
the SMaRT station saved.
Conclusion
From the first time EPA first began to record our trash production during the 1960s, the
recycling rate of The United States has been on a steady rise ever since. The different methods in
effect now are experimentations on how to manage our trash, but the SMaRT station is the best
option. Resources are recovered not burned. Even though the recycling rate is still pretty low,
this is a step towards the right direction especially since the SMaRT station will increase the rate
even more. Managing our trash in a healthy way, like how the SMaRT station does, will prevent
the loss of valuable recourses that go into making products since they will be rescued from
landfills or incinerators. Even if there is a steady rise in our country's recycling rate, never in
history have we ever consumed so many resources in such a small period of time. Now, more
than ever, do the lives of our future generations lie in the hands of this present generation.
Managing our trash more efficiently will help all the future generations by leaving the abundant
resources for civilization to exist.
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Works Cited
American Chemistry Council. "Energy Recovery." American Chemistry Council. American
Chemistry Council, 2005-2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
California Energy Commission. "Municipal Solid Waste Power Plants." California Energy
Commission. Ed. California Energy Commission. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2015.
City of Sunnyvale California. A Day in the Life of Your Garbage and Recyclables. Youtube.
Youtube, 15 Dec. 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
Cooper, Mary H. "The Economics of Recycling." CQ Researcher 27 Mar. 1998: 265-88. Web.
15 Mar. 2015.
Kiener, Robert. "Plastic Pollution." CQ Global Researcher 1 July 2010: 157-84. Web. 15 Mar.
2015.
"SMaRT Station® Annual Report 2012-2013." N.d. PDF file.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Landfill Methane Outreach Program." United
States Environmental Protection Agency. Ed. United States Environmental Protection
Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2015.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling,
and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2012." 2012. PDF file.
Washington State Department of Ecology. "Landfill Design." Solid Waste Landfill Design
Manual Washington State Department of Ecology. Comp. Inc Parametrix. Bellevue:
Parametrix, 1987. 4-102-117. PDF file.