10 Facts About Your Garbage
It’s easy not to think about garbage. You throw away your empty cartons, bags, and cups, and once a week the trash collector comes and takes it all away. Out of sight, out of mind… except that it’s not really gone. Most US garbage is simply relocated from your garbage can to a landfill or incinerator, both of which are fraught with problems: Incinerators: Emit toxic dioxins, mercury, cadmium, and other particulate matter into the air, and convert waste into toxic ash (which is sometimes used to cover landfills). Landfills: There are more than 3,000 active landfills, and 10,000-old landfills, in the US. While the number of landfills in the US has been decreasing in recent decades, they have, individually, been increasing in size. Along with being a major source of methane emissions, landfills produce “leachate,” a toxic fluid composed of pollutants like benzene, pesticides, heavy metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and more, which come from the compressed trash.Although land...
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