Materials and Waste 📍

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Florida’s toxic breach was decades in the making | Florida | The Guardian

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‘No community should suffer this’: Florida’s toxic breach was decades in the making | Florida | The Guardian

This toxic industry has plagued the state for decades. Central Florida is the phosphate capital of the world; the state produces 80% of the phosphate mined in the US, as well 25% of the phosphate used around the world. An estimated 1bn tons of phosphogypsum is housed in about two dozen stacks that dot the Florida landscape, some looming as high as 200ft, each with its own pond of acidic wastewater on top. And every year, about 30m more tons are added to them.

A plastic for a penny. Do you sort out your waste? You put the… | by Thuận Sarzynski | Environmental Ideas | Medium

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A plastic for a penny. Do you sort out your waste? You put the… | by Thuận Sarzynski | Environmental Ideas | Medium

The lesson I learnt from this one-day trip in the underground of the city, is that any waste with a some value will be recycled. A full value chain will grow around valuable waste. If it’s still useable and if people can collect and process it for a small salary, then this waste will be recycled. A large amount of waste in developed countries is being shipped in China, India or other developing countries where people want a salary. They see the value of our waste and are willing to grasp it even though the working conditions are dangerous. As these countries are developing, they are less willing to manage rich-countries waste and less is being recycled. In the future, it will be important to increase the value of such waste so a recycling industry can flourish around it.