Trash Troubles
Callie Yeager
In her recently published novel, Garbage Land, concerned citizen Elizabeth Royte
creates an experiment that traces the path of her kitchen garbage from household to
dump. She siphons through her trash each week and determines what can be thrown away
and what can be recycled. Taking care to document her findings, she realizes that much
of her trash can be recycled which makes her wonder what percentage of the population
comes to this same conclusion. Sharing her concerns, I decided to explore the slightly
disgusting but extremely important world of trash.
After reading Elizabeth Royte’s novel, I decided to see how much of my trash
could be recycled by siphoning through my own waste. I found: three cans, two
Styrofoam take-away boxes, three fast food wrappers (Taco Bell, Jimmy John’s,
McDonald’s), three waxed paper cups, straws, and lids, three cardboard boxes, two
plastic garment bags, one plastic baggie, one newspaper, three packets of hot sauce, ten
pieces of paper, one milk carton, and four pounds of compostable food items. Of these,
the cans, Styrofoam, paper cups, cardboard boxes, plastic garment bags, the baggie,
newspaper/papers, and the milk carton could be recycled, and the four pounds of food
could be composted. Since I live in an apartment complex, I have no where to compost
the food, so it has to go to the dump. Total pounds of garbage to go to the dump: six.
Total pounds of garbage to be recycled: six. Exactly half of my garbage was headed for
the dump, and the other half could be recycled. Keep in mind that this garbage only
compiled over four days between my brother and me, and had I waited longer, the
numbers would have been larger.
While I imagine that on average, about half of my garbage could be recycled, I
can honestly say that I don’t always recycle it. I consider myself rather environmentallyminded, so this makes me wonder how much an average American citizen recycles. In
an era when time is money, people claim a lack of recycling plants, spare time, or
convenience, but what it comes down to is that Americans aren’t thinking about their
garbage, where it goes, or how much of it can be recycled. Yet they should be—our
garbage is slowly piling beneath and around us; whether we’re aware of it or not.
Europeans have taken charge of recycling and waste management, so why haven’t
Americans? In fact, Europeans are, in general, more aware and sensitive to these
environmental issues. Take for instance, plastic bags. In America, it is not unusual to
find closets in any given household stuffed to the brim with used plastic bags from WalMart, Target, or some other large superstore. If you’re shopping in a store such as this in
the States, you have to purchase your own recyclable bag or use the provided plastic
bags. In Europe, citizens bring their own canvas, cloth, or other bag made from
recyclable material to the grocery store, and they have to pay extra for a plastic or paper
bag when they forget to bring their own. This seems backwards to us in the States; some
people say they don’t use cloth bags because they leave them in their cars, or forget to
bring them along. But if we stop to think about it, most people in the world are using
these alternative bagging methods to conserve plastics: maybe Americans are the ones
who are unusual. It might not be because we’re lazy or ignorant, but rather we’re not
used to worrying about this kind of thing because we’re so far removed from our waste.
Just because a sanitation person comes to your house to take it out of your sight, doesn’t
mean it’s not still there. Nearly all of the plastic that has been produced in this country
since the beginning of the technology is still here because it doesn’t decompose.
Americans need to become more informed about recycling, waste, and garbage in general
in order to make a dent in the ever-growing pile of trash.
Though it seems the garbage is slowly closing in, the situation isn’t entirely
hopeless. Take for instance what is already being done: waste management companies
are offering customers green boxes to store their recyclable materials; some grocery
stores offer store credit for bringing in your own bags, or provide cloth alternatives to
plastic bags; even Starbucks even gives a small discount for bringing in your own
thermos or cup instead of using their recycled paper cups. Yet recycling shouldn’t stop
there. Buying less disposable products that don’t decompose quickly like paper towels,
razors, overly packaged food products, etc. can be a help as well. Sometimes, you can
even find a way to make money from your own waste. For example, some junkyards and
iron and metal companies will pay you for your steel and aluminum if it is saved in large
enough quantities.
If Americans will begin to keep in mind what they can do to reduce the amount of
trash that is produced in this country, progress will ultimately be made. But the only way
this can happen is if we become active in the amount of goods and products that we
consume, and consciously make our consumption choices based on how we can
effectively and smartly dispose of our waste. This will inevitably take some government
action to get Americans in the mood to recycle. It may not make a difference in our lives,
or even our children’s, but the issue has to be addressed now, before our trash takes over.