Waste Management
Written by Boomer Vuori, Former Student on Wednesday, December 17, 2014
The management of waste in our country and even the world is a huge problem. Our environment will not be able to handle all of the waste and pollutants for much longer and not to mention, the impact that waste and landfills have on humans and animals.
Pollutants from landfills pollute not only our air, but also our water and land. These landfill pollutants can leak into our water supply and spread harmful diseases or bacteria to humans and animals. Solving the problem of waste is a very large task and I believe that everyone can help a little bit by managing their food waste.
I believe that a part of this solution is to make laws to recycle and compost food waste. Not only does throwing out food waste money, but it also produces harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
There are many benefits of composting food waste, such as enriched soils, it helps clean contaminated soils, prevents pollution, it is a low cost alternative to buying soils, and it can be used as an erosion deterrent.
Food waste costs the average family about $95 a month, which is actually a pretty big waste of money, so why not just throw the leftover food in a composting bin, where it can help the environment, instead of throwing it in the trash where it will be thrown into a landfill and pollute the environment?
New York alone buries 1.2 million tons of food waste in landfills a year at a cost of $80 per ton. That's a lot of money, waste and pollution per year. They could just be recycling their food waste and using it as fertilizer or turning it into energy for a lot cheaper of a price.
I think that states should pass laws and pay for recycling/composting programs throughout each individual state. This would impact the United States greatly if states chose to make composting food waste a real law, because it would greatly reduce the size and emissions from landfills each year. This would lead to us having a more healthy lifestyle and a more healthy environment.
