A book review of sorts.
For the past few months (yes, months, its been a bit of a slow reading summer) I've been reading a book called "Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash" by Elizabeth Royte. It's one of the most interesting books I've read. The author spends a year essentially "following her trash" around New York City. She starts with a regimen of weighing and categorizing her trash...food, plastics, paper, etc. She seeks out her local garbage collection garage, and spends time riding around with the guys on collection days. She also tried (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to see where her garbage goes after local collection, which is often to a large dump. The author also examined recycling centers of various types, composting operations, and sewage treatment plants. The book, overall, is both journalistic and scientific, but not too scientific for the non-scientist reader. I recommend reading this book if you have any interest in where ALL your "stuff" goes when it leaves your house; if you have any interest in how clean your drinking water, or your local swimming hole are; if you are interested in what it would really take to live in a zero-waste society. Below are some of the most interesting snippets that I found. I took notes throughout reading and it would be hard to include everything, but these are the highlights (or lowlights).
-In NYC sanitation workers are 3 times more likely to be killed on the job than fire fighters and police combined. The dangers include lifting 5-6 tons per day in adverse conditions (slipping, getting crushed, etc), sharp metal or glass protruding from bags, unknown liquids (acids, chemicals illegally put in trash), and being hit by cars.
-The nation's first "sanitary landfill" in Fresno, CA was once nominated as a National Historical Landmark...at the time it was also deemed an EPA Superfund site. The nomination was retracted.
-The Fresh Kills landfill in NY was the largest ever, taking in 24,000 tons of garbage per day. The word "kill" means River in Dutch. Fresh Kills can be seen from low earth orbit. Before it was capped in 1996, 3 million gallons leachate flowed out of the dump every day.
-Landfills that have been closed are only funded for monitoring for 30 years. After that, whatever happens happens. Even the most well-lined landfill will have failures in its lining, meaning that after the thirty years of monitoring, any further degradation of lining (and therefore leaching of waste) will not be managed.
-As of 2003 413/1571 of the EPA's worst Superfund sites were landfills.
-Up until 1992 coastal states were still dumping sewer sludge directly into oceans and rivers. Still today, in places like NYC, when runoff from storms overwhelms the city sewers, the overflow goes into the water.
-Today there are many companies that turn solid human waste (sludge) into fertilizers. In 1999 a bill was introduced to require labeling for products grown in sludge. The EPA denounced it fearing it would spark "unwarranted fears." Sewage sludge contains, among many things, cadmium, mercury, lead, PCB's, pesticides, asbestos, DDT,and dioxin. As of 2005 when the book was printed, such labeling for this "fertilizer" was still in limbo. ....no wonder people get sick from spinach.
-Recycling as we know it today is not the answer to our garbage problem. Often, recycling takes more resources that making a new product. One way to help is to simply BUY LESS. The best thing to do would be to convince manufacturers to make new products out of completely and easily recyclable resources. This is also discussed in the book "Cradle to Cradle, " another good read. For example, car bodies cant be recycled and remade into new cars because the paint cannot be broken down with the metal. Also, manufacturers need to make products that don't need replacing so often..but that would be bad for their pockets.
Anyway, great book. Learned a lot. Pick it up, or borrow it.
-In NYC sanitation workers are 3 times more likely to be killed on the job than fire fighters and police combined. The dangers include lifting 5-6 tons per day in adverse conditions (slipping, getting crushed, etc), sharp metal or glass protruding from bags, unknown liquids (acids, chemicals illegally put in trash), and being hit by cars.
-The nation's first "sanitary landfill" in Fresno, CA was once nominated as a National Historical Landmark...at the time it was also deemed an EPA Superfund site. The nomination was retracted.
-The Fresh Kills landfill in NY was the largest ever, taking in 24,000 tons of garbage per day. The word "kill" means River in Dutch. Fresh Kills can be seen from low earth orbit. Before it was capped in 1996, 3 million gallons leachate flowed out of the dump every day.
-Landfills that have been closed are only funded for monitoring for 30 years. After that, whatever happens happens. Even the most well-lined landfill will have failures in its lining, meaning that after the thirty years of monitoring, any further degradation of lining (and therefore leaching of waste) will not be managed.
-As of 2003 413/1571 of the EPA's worst Superfund sites were landfills.
-Up until 1992 coastal states were still dumping sewer sludge directly into oceans and rivers. Still today, in places like NYC, when runoff from storms overwhelms the city sewers, the overflow goes into the water.
-Today there are many companies that turn solid human waste (sludge) into fertilizers. In 1999 a bill was introduced to require labeling for products grown in sludge. The EPA denounced it fearing it would spark "unwarranted fears." Sewage sludge contains, among many things, cadmium, mercury, lead, PCB's, pesticides, asbestos, DDT,and dioxin. As of 2005 when the book was printed, such labeling for this "fertilizer" was still in limbo. ....no wonder people get sick from spinach.
-Recycling as we know it today is not the answer to our garbage problem. Often, recycling takes more resources that making a new product. One way to help is to simply BUY LESS. The best thing to do would be to convince manufacturers to make new products out of completely and easily recyclable resources. This is also discussed in the book "Cradle to Cradle, " another good read. For example, car bodies cant be recycled and remade into new cars because the paint cannot be broken down with the metal. Also, manufacturers need to make products that don't need replacing so often..but that would be bad for their pockets.
Anyway, great book. Learned a lot. Pick it up, or borrow it.