Trash in My Life Essay Example for Free

Trash in My Life Essay Every person is guilty of contributing to the local landfill and I am no exception to this. As all people are responsible for deadline with wastes and creating such, I often find myself a part of it as most of my trash has to do with paper in some form. Every time I go to the supermarket I return home with plastic and paper bags and boxes and I noticed that practically everything I purchase has with it some paper waste. As an example, while enjoying my milk, I tend to buy them in boxes and when these are empty, they somehow find their way to the trash bin and would become another waste added to the tons there is that can be found on the big trash container that will be collected. The community garbage collectors would soon come and take this to the local landfill to join the other trash disposed on different days. While thinking about it, I see myself with no choice but to throw the waste into the trash containers because there is no other way to dispose it especially if it is not recyclable. I have thought about trash and recycling several times. When I purchase toothpaste, for example, it comes in a little box and the paste is contained in a plastic tube. The same applies to many other things which are placed in plastic packages and would also be placed in plastic bags to contain everything else I shopped for. To remedy this, the best thing I can do is to take my own plastic or paper bag so I will not be given another. However, we cannot do this for everything. A good definition of waste is that which is an â€Å"unwanted or undesired material. † I think about the â€Å"unwanted† part when most of the trash that we produce can be used for other purposes. Some components of waste can be recycled such as plastic bottles, metals, glass or paper. If the materials cannot be used for other purposes, then it is this time where they can be considered as waste, which increases the amount of things that have to be taken to the local landfill until it is full and another has to be created. Trash is a major form of environmental pollutant with many types taking hundreds of years to properly decompose when thrown away. The quantity of which is constantly increasing and last year, it is estimated that America generated 390 million tons of trash. With this amount of trash sent in everyday to the landfill, it will be of no surprise that it would soon be filled and this has to be melted down with chemicals and monitoring of the same is a must. To date, there are about 2,216 land fills that are in operation in the US and around 100 landfills across the country closed last year because they were full. Within 50 years, landfills that exist today will be filled (Chang). The idea of recycling came into being when laws were passed that prevented people from burning trash to protect the environment. Attention was given to the fact that many things could be reused and will result to a reduction of the amount of trash produced. At the same time, the materials from the item can be reused to save resources at the same time. A major problem that can be encountered in such is whether the material reused would be cheaper or whether unused materials are cheaper. Goldofttas, in â€Å"Recycling,† stated that most people recycle only about 20 percent of their total waste. Due to the low rate of recycling, laws were passed that all towns with 4,000 or more people had to offer curbside collection of recyclables (Goldofttas). The author also found that in New Jersey, only an estimate of 15 percent was recycled even though the people were encouraged to find ways to recycle 50 percent of the trash (Goldoftas). Some things that can be recycled are being thrown away by people. These things prove to be more costly such as the plastic, glass and aluminum containers which can be recycled if the cost is not higher as compared to the plastic bottle. I believe people put a lot of things in the trash that could be recycled (Monk). I am just as guilty as a lot people, rarely thinking about how trash could be recycled. I enjoy the activity of reading through the news everyday as soon as I see my newspaper delivered to my door. Despite the fact that I could easily have access to the same news through the television, I still prefer to have the news paper inside my house. After reading it, I have to send it to the trash bin and I sometimes forget the act of recycling and I regret not doing so because I could have saved a lot of trees. Being more conscientious of this, I no longer throw paper in the trash along with the garbage, but will take the time to have a special trash can for paper so that it can be recycled. No recyclable materials are allowed in the trash for if it is placed in the trash it will not be picked out to be recycled. It seems that those who pick up the trash each week assume that people are aware of the importance of recycling. Added to this is the fact that most of the trash cans are picked up by trucks, without the collectors knowing what was in them. Toronto was given by Michigan the chance to dump their trash into the land fill located at Carleton Farms, which is a 40-minute drive in the south of Detroit. This is near Flat Rock and the two villages, Waltz and Willow. Supposedly, this is a short-time deal but after six years, the trash is continuously dumped to United States. It is nowhere near end as at the very least 85 18-wheelers filled with 30 tons of refuse, and another 15 trucks filled with dehydrated sewage continue to dump their trash. On days where it is hot, the trucks coming down the road can be smelled and people are affected by the smell (Preville). This is an example of the country’s needs for disposing trash with the space becoming smaller and smaller. There is a need to find ways for people to increasingly engage in recycling. Each city should provide increased literature regarding waste from time to time as much needs to be known about it. The information can be given to the public through the newspapers, television ads at certain times. This is most important around those times when people give gifts that are wrapped in paper, put in boxes, anything creating waste, but which is a waste that can be used again and again. More should be done by the local governments to ensure that those living in the city can help deal with trash as local landfills get filled within a very short time. It is believed that much of the trash being put in the local landfill today could have been put in a recycled bin to be used again. WORKS CITED Chang, Mona. â€Å"What a Dump. † Science World, 57. 13, April 9, 2001, p. 14. Goldoftas, Barbara. â€Å"Recycling. † Technology Review, Nov-Dec, 1987, p. 28. HotFact. â€Å"Facts about Trash and Garbage. † 8 March 2006. Hotfact. 8 March 2008 [www. hotfact. com/facts-about-trash-and-garbage. html]. Monk, Dan. â€Å"Recycling. †  ¬Cincinnati Business Courier. 11. n3, May 30, 1994, p 28. Noyes, Katherine. â€Å"Clean-up Your Trash. † Charity Guide. 8 March 2008 [http://www. charityguide. org/volunteer/fifteen/trash. htm] Parrish Linda. â€Å"Trash and Garbage Collection Regulations. † 8 March 2008 [http://www. fennimore. com//trash. htm]. Preville, Philip. â€Å"Dumps. † Toronto Life 40. 8, August 2006, p. 27. â€Å"Trash Can Depot, Your Source of Trash Cans. † TrashCanDepot. com, Janisan. 8 March 2008 [http://www. trashcandepot. com].