Trash Trouble

Trash - we are producing too much of it. The municipal solid waste foundin the home and office garbage can is a product of natural resources used to manufacture it. This includes energy resources both as base materials (feedstock) and as power for processing and transportation. The mining, refining and consumption of these energy resources creates a variety of pollutants. Given this information, it is easy to see how municipal solid waste is a triple whammy:
1. natural resources are used up, decreasing the quantity of thes irreplaceable materials;
2. energy is consumed, leaving less for the future while creating more pollutants and increasing the potential for global climatic change; and
3. efforts at municipal solid waste disposal are contaminating the environment in which we live.

There are three major methods of dealing with the solid wastes generated: landfills, incineration and recycling. Each method has capacity limitations. Therefore, the BEST MEANS of subduing the problems association with municipal solid waste disposal is to REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF WASTE CREATED.

--University of Florida, Cooperative Extension Service Fact Sheet EES-77