Trash Beyond our Hands: Learning the Life Cycle of our Waste

Imagine being responsible for all of your waste from the time of obtainment to the end of its life recycled or put in a landfill. Most would say that's an impossible task. Do you know how many pounds of trash you create? What about your household? Or your neighbor? Or how about your entire housing complex or area? What does a weeks worth of trash intake look like at a landfill? As a consumer society all we do is create garbage. Packaging and shipment materials and waste fill our trash cans each day and and even with recycling there's many types of cardboard or plastic which can't be recycled due to its composition or condition. We often don't realize the magnitude of our waste because of an "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. So, this week Dr. Gervich challenged our class to collect ALL of our trash for a week leading up to our lab class trip to the Clinton County Landfill. This was an exciting challenge for me as I knew it would put into perspective the average garbage created by each person and visualize what that would quantify to if everyones garbage habits were like mine.

We arrived at the landfill and we had to weigh our garbage as a class with the direction of Sean (operations manager) and Tammy (recycling supervisor) who work at the landfill. Myself and my roommate collected our garbage together so we created ten pounds of garbage in a week between the two of us. On average they say Americans produce 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day (recyclables included because they still need to end up somewhere), so we were well below average because we always recycle everything we can. If we lived in a place with space that would allow for a compost I believe our garbage for the week would have been more around six pounds.

After weighing our garbage we went through the rest of the landfill and recycling center. The center recycles cardboard and newspaper the most but accept plastic, tin, paper, magazines, glass, tires, aluminum and electronic waste as well. Each bale of recycled material they collect of plastic weighs 1,020 pounds and cardboard weighs in at 1,300 per bale. Tammy informed our class that one way interest in recycling has increased is from open houses to show people the magnitude of waste and encourage responsible waste handling as well as the convenience drop-off stations they have scattered around the area. Although Clinton County sorts their recycled material, Tammy says zero-sort recycling has encouraged recycling more as well because of the ease for residents. Clinton County Landfill is happy to say that less than 1% of recyclable materials end up in their landfill. Shockingly, the center is sometimes overwhelmed with e-waste recyclables which has increased exponentially in the past decade with shorter life spans for electronics as well as changes in trends for consumers. Each month the site hauls off six truck loads (24 pallets per truck) of televisions and other electronic waste. The facility has to have someone come and remove the mercury components from the products to then transport them to a facility where they can be recycled so overall this process can be costly in time and money.

Although Clinton County has worked hard to meet and exceed safety and practice standards set forth for them there are still environmental challenges and risks that face landfills and their futures. With these challenges Clinton County has worked to innovate and maximize the usage and life of the land fill. It is estimated the landfill has a life span of 80-90 years with a whopping 92 1/2 acres of fillable space. Landfills can have lasting effects on the ecosystem and environment as a whole including air pollution, groundwater pollution, visual and scenic impacts, and have lasting impacts on biodiversity, soil fertility, and human health. Clinton County has recognized these risks and issues and has worked hard to monitor and maintain liners of the landfill which are five feet thick, collect runoff from the liners to properly handle, and have been aware of residents concerns in the area. In addition Clinton County has adopted a methane, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen sequestration energy system which captures the gases at 160 points across the landfill that are covered and in use right now and then transported to an engine facility on site to be turned into energy for the community. There are four twenty-two cylinder engines that at 100% efficiency can power 20,000 homes a year. Although landfills don't have long term operations and will close, the gases from the landfill can be sequestered for thirty or more years after the landfill closes. By sequestering these gases, the landfill reduces greenhouse gas emissions, reduces air pollution by offsetting the use of non-renewable resources, benefits the community and economy, creates health and safety benefits and reduces environmental compliance costs.

Before landfill regulations were implemented, governments had no way to monitor waste disposal. Through increased regulations and methods of sequestration landfills have improved their performance and safety to make long-term solutions to ease the strain of landfills on ecosystems. Although landfills may seem unconventional and sequestration might feel like a band-aid on a gushing wound, landfills are the safest ways to handle the problem society hasn't found any other solutions for. As time progresses and technology increases markets will be available for change in waste disposal and less landfills will be needed. So as we continue to progress its important to support projects like those of Clinton County's landfill to help ease and alleviate some of the threats that come with them and work towards a plan for the future of the landfill. More than anything the only solution to this issue comes from manufacturers and citizens actions. Making less and recyclable packaging in manufacturing and having citizens be aware of the garbage they're producing and the life cycle of that waste will help lead us to communities that produce less trash and utilize the best, newest, and safest technologies in waste handling.

Attached is a video I captured from our afternoon at the landfill as well as a link to a video about the effects of our garbage habits on wildlife. Secondly I attached an interesting article from the Atlantic titled, "How to Stop Humans From Filling the World With Trash" about the future of garbage and garbage handling.

Thanks for reading!!