Advocacy Project Annotation 2
Wendy Willner
In the article “Environmental Problems: Landfills” by Jared Skye, the author argues that
landfills cause political debate because they are absolutely necessary but nobody wants to live
near them; additionally he argues that landfills are bad for the environment. Jared Skye uses
strong wording with phrases like “while there are a number of reasons for the vehement
arguments that often surround landfills, one of the largest is the juxtaposition of both the
understood need for landfills and the lack of will to live near one” and “The environmental
problems caused by landfills are numerous”, to prove his point.
Jared Skye supports his argument with discussion of the atmospheric problems,
hydrological problems, and landfill fires and decomposition associated with landfills. The
atmospheric problems associated with landfills are that gases, toxic chemicals and dust can
escape into the environment and reduce the quality of the air near the landfill site. Hydrological
systems can be affected when chemicals leach out of landfills and into the water system.
Additionally, the chemicals in landfills can catch on fire and burn through the other substances in
the landfill, which can release CO2; the fire can also spread to other things and harm wildlife
habitats. Also, solid waste takes many years to decompose so that the space occupied by landfills
will be occupied for generations to come. All of these are reasons why landfills are bad for the
environment and in general why we should try and make sure the landfills are as small as
possible.
This article informs our project because it explains the reasons why landfills are not good
things to have in our environment and it serves as part of our rationale for this project. Making
sure landfills don’t increase unnecessarily is part of the basis for our project and this article gives
concrete reasons why such a rationale is environmentally necessary. Considering our project
needs student support to run effectively this article and others like it will help justify to students
why spending time on this issue is important and why they should choose to make it a priority in
their lives. If students understand the consequences of adding to a landfill they are more likely to
donate an item or purchase a reused item in order to save it from the purgatory of a landfill. This
article discusses the impact of the 4.5 pounds of waste that each American contributes to landfills
every day; all of this information supports my project because we are aiming to reduce this waste
and subsequently reduce the problems. If there were no environmental problems with having
large landfills then there would be absolutely no point to our project but unfortunately that is not
the case.
Skye, Jared. "Environmental Problems: Landfills." Green Living
. Love to let you know. Web. 11 Nov 2013.
<http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Environmental_Problems:_Landfills>.