What To Be Done Of The Trash Epidemic

          The worlds trash problem has become quite tremendous. Across the globe, there are reports of trash heaps, garbage fires, and waste problems like the world has not seen before. Since China is no longer receiving and accepting recycling, it is not only an issue of non-reusable waste; even though there are recycling programs in place, for many countries that relied on China to take their recyclables they are now faced with the challenge of establishing new recycling programs (4) to keep from being overcome with waste. Places like South Korea are experience massive trash growth, and even further there is one incident in South Korea where the dump has been on fire for the last 3 months (3) due to improper dumping, and there is no end in sight. This is an epidemic, more people are throwing away more things and in less space than ever before, and in places like India it is quite literally affecting their development (2). There are many different reasons that trash has become a global issue, ranging from individuals all the way up to entire governments.

Several places in the United States have decided to end their recycling programs (3) because China is no longer accepting recyclables, and these cities, at least at this current time, do not have the programs to keep up with the output. It is a shame that places, especially in the United States, are not more self-sufficient. It is an issue that only continues to grow, and if nothing is done about it, it only gets worse exponentially so. The dumpster fire in South Korea is the direct result of abstaining from fixing the problem. In the span of ten years or so, Kim Seok-dong, the owner of the property where this garbage problem is happening, has allowed the original two thousand tons of trash he was granted to hold on his property to balloon to over 80 times (2) that amount. This massive over-use of space mixed with harmful chemicals led to the fires yes, but unfortunately this is not an isolated incident.

In Africa, the city of Lagos has grown tremendously (7), from seven million people in 1992 up to twenty-one million in 2017. Even if they had the programs in place to help combat the garbage spike, the quickness at which this has been done is staggering and would have been difficult to foresee either way. They are experiencing massive outputs of trash that they were not ready to handle; whereas in the past they simply drove the trash outside of the city, they are now forced to find other means of removing the trash, as they have literally expanded into and around the dump (7) where it was previously disposed. India is experiencing a problem quite similar, where they have overpopulated the developed space that they have and are forced to try to find an answer to take care of the large, and ever-growing trash problem. “Plastic is a bit like fire: good servant, bad master” writes Kumar, and the relationship between the rise of plastic use and waste management problems correlates (2). An answer to this would be to recycle, but unfortunately recycling does not always answer the problem. The biggest difficulty in increased recycling is increased cost; although many places within the US are mandated to recycle, such as Pittsburgh, New York City, and San Diego, recycling takes time and costs more money (4) to produce than by making new plastics. It is because of this, along with China’s new trash and recycling refusal, that many places even within the United States have been forced to cut back (4) on their recycling programs.

Trash and recycling cans overflowing after an Earth Day concert held in Washington, D.C. (1)

There is some hope, however. There are several places across the globe trying to fix this epidemic, some within our own backyard. Composting programs have become a major part of central Ohio, as this helps lower the amount of food waste in landfills. Composting (6) not only allows the landfills to last longer, but they also help to reduce the size of the landfills, which is crucial in places where populations are growing. Los Angeles as well has increased its recycling programs (5), diverting its waste in volumes of over eighty percent, two and a half times the national average. This has been done in several steps, primarily by categorizing waste; Dan Knapp, the visionary behind “Zero Waste” (5), determined that waste is more than just unusable garbage, but that if we could categorize it, garbage had untapped potential to be lowered in volume and increased in recycling.

Trash is an ever-growing problem in modern day society. With the increased use of plastics, recycling is essential to limiting the growth of trash, and at the same time the increased recycling creates a large burden and a large cost on those that are doing it; it is a paradox. Fortunately, there are some models that are working, and it is not without hope. With increased composting, smarter recycling programs, and larger public outreach, it will become much easier to incorporate recycling and garbage management into developing society.

Sources

1. Aleister. (Photographer). (2015, April 19).  National Mall Trashed After Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day Concert [digital image]. Retrieved from: http://mooserider123.blogspot.com/2015/04/there-was-overflow-trash-crowd-at-earth.html

2. Kumar, S. (2019). Waste of a Nation: Anthropologists Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey on garbage and growth in India. First Post. Retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/india/waste-of-a-nation-anthropologists-assa-doron-and-robin-jeffrey-on-garbage-and-growth-in india-5890971.html

3. Kwon, J. (2019). South Korea’s plastic problem is a literal trash fire. CNN. Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/02/asia/south-korea-trash-ships-intl/index.html

4. Lieber, C. (2019). Hundreds of US Cities are killing or scaling back their recycling programs. Vox. Retrieved from: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/18/18271470/us-cities-stop-recycling-china-ban-on-recycles

5. McCoy, T. (2019). In a world drowning in trash, these cities have slashed waste by 80 percent. Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/02/13/world-is-drowning-trash-can-zero-waste-save-it-before-its-too-late/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4b31f9679309

6. Navera, T. (2019). How composting could turn the trash tide in a growing Central Ohio. Columbus Business First. Retrieved from: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/01/31/how-composting-could-turn-the-trash-tide-in-a.html

7. Sieff, K. (2017). The World Is Drowning In Ever-Growing Mounds Of Garbage. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/the-world-is-drowning-in-ever-growing-mounds-of-garbage/2017/11/21/cf22e4bd-17a4-473c-89f8-873d48f968cd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.909913e2f65e