n most of the world, including North America, we do one of two things with our ordinary garbage: burn it or bury it. Neither one is good for us or for the environment. Burning garbage in incinerators releases dangerous gases and dust (particulate matter) which contribute to global warming and pollute lakes, forests, oceans and cities half a world away from where they originated. Most incinerators in industrialized countries now remove large quantities of particles and pollutants, thus ensuring cleaner air. But the bulk of what they remove ends up in a landfill.
This site concentrates on landfills, in part because this improvement in incinerator technology has increased the pressure on landfills, and in part because a much higher proportion of garbage in North America is sent to landfills than to incinerators.
Burying garbage also causes both air and water pollution, and simply transporting it to the sites consumes an increasing amount of valuable fossil fuels, which produces more pollution.
As a result, alternatives to the burn-or-bury option are increasingly attractive. Composting heads that list of alternatives.
The solution to the garbage problem is many-faceted. First, we need to reduce the amount of garbage: how about out-lawing non-returnable bottles? Re-usable glass bottles would provide more jobs and make a lot less garbage. We need to seriously examine the packaging issue and the planned obsolescence of appliances and electronic devices.
Source separation would allow food waste to be composted and perhaps other throw-away items to be re-used first. How about cloth napkins, returnable ceramic cups at the coffee shop and cloth rags? What about that statistic that 80% of products made are to be used once?
We need to examine all of the solutions: and we need to begin with reduction of garbage.
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