Trashing the Planet: Examining Our Global Garbage Glut
CHAPTER 1 From Rags and Bones to Plastic Disaster On September 15 2015 a mega-storm dumped a record-breaking 2 4 inches 6 centimeters of rain on drought-stricken Los Angeles in just one day In Southern California the first big storm of the fall usually comes after a summer of little rainfall and brings what locals call the first flush Like the flushing of a giant toilet the rainwater courses through LA’s urban storm sewers and flood control channels picking up tons of garbage along the way The rainwater carries the trash into rivers which flow into the Pacific Ocean Most of the trash is plastic single-use water bottles shopping bags toys athletic shoes car parts 4 TRASHING THE PLANET
Heavy rains each fall carry trash from the streets and sewers of Los Angeles into rivers and then into the Pacific Ocean Discarded plastic Styrofoam and other debris end up on beaches and bob in waters offshore electronic devices beer and soda coolers and countless other plastic-based consumer goods The first flush of 2015 attracted a handful of trash pickers to Seal Beach south of Los Angeles where the San Gabriel River flows into the Pacific Ocean The pickers searched for items they could sell at swap meets or garage sales Katie Allen is the director of Algalita Marine Research and Education which studies the impact of plastic pollution on beaches and oceans She visited Seal Beach after the 2015 first flush and talked to the trash pickers Allen remarked Although their relationship with the first flush is purely business every single picker I interviewed was profoundly disheartened by the mess She continued Much of the debris was completely worthless and most of it remained on the beach The City of Los Angeles works to prevent garbage from washing into the ocean during the first flush City workers clean storm drains before seasonal rains begin in the fall Consumers recycle plastic on trash pickup days Yet garbage still piles up After the 2015 first flush many sandy California beaches glorified in rock songs books and movies turned into trash dumps And the garbage is more than an eyesore Over time ocean waves will carry the trash into the Pacific Ocean There sunlight rain and waves will break it up into small pieces As the plastic and other synthetic human-made materials decompose some of them will release poisonous chemicals into the air and water The scene at Seal Beach after the first flush is a microcosm of the worldwide garbage crisis Cities across the United States and nearly every other country on Earth have similar garbage problems Every day manufacturers create countless products to sell to millions of consumers And just about everything comes packaged inside and secured with instant trash cardboard boxes plastic boxes plastic and Styrofoam wrappers plastic bottles plastic sheeting rubber bands twist ties and more Consumers toss most containers and wrappers into the trash Even the products themselves often end up in FROM RAGS AND BONES TO PLASTIC DISASTER 5
TRASHY TERMS In general the term garbage refers to our weekly household refuse including food waste food containers and wastepaper The term trash usually refers to junk materials such as old furniture and unwanted household items In this book we use the two terms interchangeably along with terms such as junk refuse and debris the trash When toys and electric appliances break many people simply toss them and buy new ones It’s easy and cheap to do so On a global scale humans create around 2 6 trillion pounds 1 2 trillion kilograms of garbage a year In the face of the garbage crisis the United States other wealthy nations and local governments around the world are trying to contain the accumulation of trash Many cities run recycling programs collecting plastic glass and metal containers old newspapers magazines and scrap paper and cardboard The cities sell recycled materials to businesses that turn them into new containers fresh sheets of paper and even products such as park benches Even so Americans recycle only about 30 percent of their trash every year In the United States trash put out for curbside pickup rather than recycling usually goes to landfills or incinerators where the trash is either buried under layers of soil or burned However the rotting garbage in landfills frequently leaks toxic liquids that can seep into and poison groundwater Garbage-burning incinerators release toxic gases through their smokestacks polluting the air we breathe In many poor nations cities have no curbside trash or recycling programs at all There people simply pile garbage onto gigantic heaps outside burn it or dump it into local rivers ANCIENT TRASH HEAPS The global garbage glut is a relatively new problem For thousands of years everything humans produced came from the natural world around them 6 TRASHING THE PLANET
Many US cities dispose of garbage by burning it in big incinerators At this incinerator in Harrisburg Pennsylvania a mechanical claw grabs garbage and moves it to a furnace Ancient humans made knives axes and other tools out of shells animal bones wood and stones Potters shaped clay into containers to hold food and water Other ancient craftspeople wove reeds leaves and twigs into baskets They used plant fibers and the skins and wool of animals to make clothing All these materials are biodegradable when they decompose they break down into tiny harmless particles In fact the particles actually benefit the environment They contain minerals and other substances that enrich the soil and provide nutrition for plants Early peoples used their tools containers and fabrics until they broke or tore They tossed items that couldn’t be mended or reused onto trash heaps on the outskirts of their settlements Some of the trash such as baskets and clothing decomposed quickly Other trash such as bones shells stone tools and pieces of glazed pottery decomposed very slowly over thousands of years Yet none of these items polluted the air land FROM RAGS AND BONES TO PLASTIC DISASTER 7
