Rubbish is the bane of our environment. Damaging everything around is something that all of us generate, no matter how much we recycle or do our bit to look after the environment. Have you ever really thought about what happens to all of that Garbage?
Rubbish or Garbage, is generated in mass amounts by families all over the world, and of course we can’t just keep it in our backyards so we must send it off to mysterious Garbage fairy land. We know not where it is, just that our garbage goes there. In some cases we do know where this trash goes but dare not go any where near it! However do you really know how much garbage you generate?
On average an American family will create about 24 Kilos of rubbish each week! That’s one family and it’s about a third of the weight of your average adult. This comes to just over a tonne each year of Rubbish supplied by each family. Although I must be making this far worse than it sounds, because the rubbish isn’t leaking out anywhere we can see it, and there are no crazy garbage landslides. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. Here are a few facts for you to think about:
Fresh Kills in New York is the largest “Land” Fill in the world. Spanning over 890 hectares, that’s about 950 football fields (bring it into perspective). However this “Land” fill is ridiculously small compared to the worlds largest Rubbish collection point. Our seas are by far the most polluted parts of the world, and the Pacific ocean actually has a collection of rubbish that takes up about the same amount of room that Texas does on land. The currents in the sea collect the rubbish and dump it in this oceanic desert.
Even more dangerously Landfills are ticking time bombs, capable of extreme destructive power. As they grow, they compress rubbish at the bottom to a sticky and hot mush. This heats up drastically, to somewhere around 300 degrees as one of the hottest recordings. The chance of an explosion then becomes very high, and it is possible for it too ignite. Another Bi-product of the Landfill is something called Landfill gas which is created by micro organisms living within the landfill. This is extremely flammable and can be ignited by a spark or naked flame, also causing a mass explosion.
When you are throwing out your trash, remember that even the smallest piece of recycling can help to make a difference, for every kilogram of recycling that you accidentally throw away, there is a possibility that almost 300million more people in the US are doing the same thing!
Bio:Mark Cronin is an Eco friendly Travel Blogger working with a St Lucia holidays tour operator, sharing his ideas and experiences with any of his readers.