A theology of trash: What I learned during my summer as a garbage man
Materials and Waste
Hefty EnergyBag ends yearlong recycling pilot in Omaha; program remains controversial despite saving 10 tons of materials from landfills
"It works like this: People in the Omaha area buy orange Hefty-brand bags from local Hy-Vee stores or from online vendors. They then fill the bags with stuff that’s not otherwise recyclable, like foam cups, chip bags and plastic utensils. The bags go into recycling bins, and once they arrive at the City of Omaha’s contracted recycling sorting facility, they’re picked off a conveyor belt and stockpiled for alternative uses. One such use is a fuel source at a Kansas City-area cement kiln."
"Dawaune Lamont Hayes, 23, of Omaha has spent the better part of this year stuffing the orange bags with such plastics. Hayes, who is communications director for a local art gallery, says he fills one up about every two months."
“I know that I have an option not to throw it into a landfill,” Hayes said.
"Sounds simple, right? But along the way, the program has also found vociferous criticism."
"On one side, program advocates say finding alternative uses for these materials is an improvement over sending them to rot in a landfill."
"On the other, local and national sustainability advocates have blasted the program. They say if we’re going to continue to use such materials as they’re currently made — think the multilayered potato chip bag — it’d be better to just let the stuff sit in a landfill. If that potato chip bag, for instance, is incinerated, as has been one use case with the program so far, it will emit carbon dioxide — exactly what environmentalists and many scientists say the Earth doesn’t need more of."
Time for NY to Become the Resource Recovery State
"Landfills have been the talk of the town(s) the past year. Solid waste management on all levels – local, state, national and worldwide – must be taken seriously in 2018. Municipal landfills are reaching the end of their lifespans (see the city of Albany). Privately-owned dump operators are taking in more trash than they are legally permitted to accept (see Colonie/Waste Connections, Inc.). Enormous landfills (many in southern states) that take in waste shipped from out-of-state producers are filling up at a record pace. And, according to a report by Kadir van Lohuizen in The Washington Post, “The world produces more than 3.5 million tons of garbage a day – and that figure is growing.” The divide between the proposed goals set to decrease the amount of waste we produce and the actual implementation of programs to meet those goals is as deep and wide and high as Albany’s Rapp Road landfill."
Why Our Addiction to Consumption and Growth Is Killing Us
Why the Deadly Asbestos Industry is Still Alive and Well
"Despite irrefutable scientific evidence calling out the dangers of asbestos, 2 million tons of the carcinogen are exported every year to the developing world, where it's often handled with little to no regulation."
"For this episode of VICE Reports, correspondent Milène Larsson traveled to the world's largest asbestos mine in the eponymous town of Asbest, Russia, to meet workers whose livelihoods revolve entirely around the dangerous mineral. Surprisingly, the risks associated with asbestos mining didn't seem to worry the inhabitants; in fact, asbestos is the city's pride, celebrated with monuments, songs, and even its own museum."
"Larsson then visits Libby, Montana, another mining town almost on the other side of the globe, where the effects of asbestos exposure are undeniable: 400 townspeople have died from asbestos-related diseases, and many more are slowly choking to death. Why is the deadly industry of mining and selling asbestos still alive and well?"
Plastics
America’s Television Graveyards
"Years after most Americans switched to flat-screens, we're just now beginning to deal with the long-term ramifications of sustainably disposing of old cathode-ray televisions and computer monitors. This dangerous, labor-intensive, and costly undertaking will have to be done for each of the estimated 705 million CRT TVs sold in the United States since 1980. CRT processing, as it's called, happens at only a handful of the best e-waste recycling centers in the United States. In many cases, your old TV isn't recycled at all and is instead abandoned in a warehouse somewhere, left for society to deal with sometime in the future."
"At ECS, televisions affixed with Post-it Notes labeling each unit's weight have been arranged in a line, ready to be hammered, crowbarred, and sawed back into their component parts. There are old Sony Trinitrons, wood-paneled RCAs, and huge plastic Toshibas. Plastic TVs weigh up to 80 pounds, but larger, rear-projection CRTs can weigh as much as 500 pounds, and surely, in better days, had prominent spots in family rooms around the country."
"Demanufacturing the televisions is hard manual labor that works as a reverse assembly line, as the components from these old TVs are separated by hand and moved down a conveyor belt. First, they use a crowbar to remove the back case. They cut, strip, and sort the power cords. They remove internal screws with drills. What's left of the TV is then hammered, to separate the front screen from the cathode-ray vacuum tube. They strip the wires for copper. Wood will eventually be composted or turned into sawdust. Plastic is put through a shredder so that it can be melted. A handheld grinder spews sparks as it separates the screen from whatever is left of the tube. Then, more smashing—this time, the glass. "