Category: Environment

Climate change is something that more people are becoming aware of on a daily basis, and has become a divisive topic on a political scale. A majority of Americans feel that the government is not doing enough to combat climate change, with around three quarters saying that it’s very much real and will negatively impact the future of the world. No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, it’s hard to ignore the natural disasters that have been happening recently. Things will only escalate in the near future, too, with these changes being more frequent in coming years.

5. Hurricanes

As the atmosphere continues to warm up, we will not only see a slight rise in the amount of hurricanes, but they will also become more intense. We’re seeing more category 4 and 5 hurricanes in recent years, as these storms are able to hold more water vapor. This creates rainfall that’s damaging and wind that can knock down structures. Of the 10 years in which there were the most hurricanes (a statistic that’s been tracked since 1851), six of those years have happened since 2003.

4. Drought

While hurricanes are producing more rain, those that are not getting hit by hurricanes are suffering through a complete lack of precipitation due to climate change. When we get warmer temperatures, evaporation is at its highest and leads to surface water becoming dried out. We’re also seeing lakes and rivers start to lose their water levels, and it’s causing a global crisis. Precipitation overall is down in many areas, and it’s killing crops and water supplies.

3. Increased Flooding

You might think to yourself that drought on a global scale couldn’t possibly lead to flooding, but climate change does affect those that live near certain bodies of water. Think of areas like Louisiana that have been hit hard with hurricanes and experienced flooding. You’ll start to see that more in coastal areas as the ice caps continue to melt, causing water levels to rise and flooding to increase. Flash floods are also becoming more common due to the water vapors we discussed earlier.

2. Heatwaves

It’s only natural that if the global temperature is increasing, it’s going to bring a lot of heatwaves. Just take the European heatwave of 2022 for example, where many were not prepared due to lack of air conditioning and sadly lost their lives. Looking at the average global temperature, it has consistently been on the rise. There have only been two years since 2012 where the average global temperature was below 55 degrees fahrenheit, compare to an average of about 50 degrees a century ago.

1. Wildfires

Over the past few years, some of the biggest news headlines came because of wildfires that were happening in the United States and Australia. It’s something that we’ll see more of as the temperatures rise and the ground becomes more dry. Scientists say that we’re on the doorstep of a wildfire crisis on a global scale, with estimates saying there will be an increase of more than 50 percent in less than a century. It’s scary to think about, but areas that are more humid now might be at risk in 100 years.

Recycling is one of those activities that we’re taught at a very young age, but it somehow didn’t seem to catch on with a lot of people. Mostly due to convenience, many opt to simply throw items away without much regard for recycling. In fact, only about one in every three Americans actively recycles. That’s still a massive increase from the one out of 20 there were a half century ago, but it’s still not enough. Here are a few reasons why you should be helping to increase that number today.

5. It Saves You Money

There are some people that believe recycling their items is more expensive than simply throwing them in the trash, leading them to avoid recycling. However, when playing the long game, you’re saving yourself money by recycling. More recycling leads to more businesses saving money on materials and not having to increase costs. You can also make pocket change for yourself by recycling cans or papers. This is especially true in the state of Michigan where you get a $0.10 refund on a deposit per can or bottle that’s recycled.

4. Helps You Breathe Better

Naturally, to have better air quality, we need more trees since they take in carbon dioxide and then use it to release the oxygen that we breathe. In the past few decades, though, trees have been cut down left and right for the sake of paper and other material goods. Even though the newspaper isn’t the most popular form of media anymore, recycling all of the newspapers in the United States each year alone would help to save around a quarter billion trees.

3. For Your Health

The alternative to recycling is to simply discard anything and everything into the environment, and it can lead to some nasty side effects. This is especially true of toxic liquids that are being poured into bodies of water, and the entire community can feel its presence. With less water, land and air pollution, the amount of diseases in areas that recycle more are reduced drastically. Zurich, Switzerland was found to be the least polluted city in the world, and the life expectancy is 84 years, which is also among the tops in the world.

2. Job Creation

We’re all feeling the crunch in today’s economy, and a lot of people are currently left without jobs. It has been shown through studies, though, that recycling creates a lot of jobs, with over 750,000 in the United States alone. If people recycled at a ¾ rate in the country, then there would be more than 1 million new jobs created within the next decade. This amounts to almost 10 times the amount of jobs that are created by landfills, and billions of dollars would be put back into the economy.

1. Our Future Depends On It

Simply put, our atmosphere is heating up so fast due to global warming that experts are predicting that catastrophic events will continue to happen until it’s too late. If you want to set up the world for future generations, then you should be recycling immediately. This will help to cut down on greenhouse gasses and emissions as we cut down on new production. “Any time you use renewable resources, or secondary resources, there’s less carbon emitted than if you use primary sources,” says author Adam Minter.

Across the globe, more than two billion tons of waste is dumped into landfills each year. And while landfills are certainly a necessity for the disposal of waste, the reality is that they often contain high percentages of material that could have been recycled or reused. As landfills run out of space and the ecosystem suffers, a new practice known as landfill mining aims to alleviate concerns.

What is Landfill Mining?

Specifically, landfill mining refers to a practice where existing landfills are mined for recyclable and/or reusable materials that were dumped there. As these materials are extracted from landfills, they can be sent to recycling centers, sold to scrap markets, or otherwise repurposed. The idea is that by removing recyclable/reusable materials from landfills, it is possible to free up space for additional waste while also helping the environment. In some cases, landfill mining can also be used to remove potentially dangerous materials (such as batteries and other hazardous waste) from landfills.

There are various methods for landfill mining, ranging from the use of large magnets and mass excavators to vibratory screens and trommels. The technique used in any given landfill mining project will depend on the exact type of waste being pursued, as well as the size and makeup of the landfill itself.

The Potential of Landfill Mining

There are many possible benefits to using landfill mining as a means of extracting recyclable and/or hazardous materials from landfills across the globe. In removing materials that should not be in landfills to begin with, it is possible to free up space. Because density/space issues are a real concern within landfills across the globe, this could be a huge benefit.

Meanwhile, removing materials from landfills through mining can also help to protect the environment by ramping up recycling efforts. Groundwater quality can also be protected, as hazardous materials that would otherwise break down and leach into groundwater can be removed through effective landfill mining practices.

What the Future May Hold

Only time will tell how practical and cost-effective land mining efforts will be, especially in the long run. There are currently a lot of concerns about the cost of land mining as a practice, as well as the potential implications of disturbing landfills and moving waste. There is some concern, for example, that disturbing landfills through mining could generate additional methane gas emissions, which could undermine the environmental goals of the practice. Ultimately, more studies will need to be done to determine whether landfill mining is a practical long-term solution for the planet’s waste crisis.

In the meantime, however, everybody can do their part by participating in a local recycling program; this can help to keep waste out of landfills. Likewise, following proper disposal procedures for hazardous materials can keep landfills safer and protect the environment (including local groundwater supplies). If everybody works to do their part, even the smallest of gestures can add up to make a huge difference for our planet and its future generations.

Trash. It’s usually not something to which we give much thought. We create it, throw it out, have it picked up by that noisy truck far too early in the morning, and it goes to some magical place where it will stay. Well, much of it doesn’t actually stay there, and we will get into that shortly.

Your trash combines with everyone else’s to create one big trash mountain. It’s like a trash stew that tremendously impacts our lives and the world. So here are some interesting facts about your trash and what happens when combined with everyone else’s trash.

You Generate a Lot of Trash

Yes, you do, I do, we all do. Americans generate about 4.4 lbs of trash daily, almost twice as much as the global average of 2.6 lbs per day. As 4% of the world’s population, we generate 12% of the total trash produced.

On top of the 4.4 lbs of trash, the EPA says we recycle and compost another 1.5 lbs daily.

Some studies indicate that those numbers might actually be very low.

Some fundamental lifestyle changes, like reusable shopping bags or buying reduced packaging items, can greatly reduce how much we throw away.

Your Trash Travels Much Further Than You Think

Not every city buries its trash nearby. MIT researchers tracked 3000 pieces of Seattle trash in 2009 and found out it ended up all over the country. The garbage from New York City is shipped out of state to states like New Jersey, Ohio, and other areas. In Kentucky, one dump was 80 to 90 percent waste from other states.

Tell that half of a stale Twinkie in your trash to enjoy its voyage, see some sites, get some sun, and maybe send a postcard.

Lose Something in Your Trash? You Might Be Able to Get It Back

Well, unless you are that guy in England with a hard drive somewhere in the local landfill with $250,000,000 in Bitcoin on it. Some cities allow you to report a lost item after you’ve accidentally thrown it out.

Items of significant value can be reported within several hours in some cities like Albuquerque so that there is a chance to get them back. If it is your extensive collection of giant lint balls that got thrown out, don’t plan on it having significant value.

Dogs Really Like Peeing On It

Yes, dogs see a trash bag on the sidewalk as the preferred place to take a bathroom break. It’s a new feature of the landscape and, therefore, fascinating. Also, there are certainly some exciting smells in there, so your trash bag may as well be the world’s tallest broadcast tower for dogs.

Some of Your Trash Might End Up in the World’s Oceans

An estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic reach the world’s oceans yearly, which equals five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of the earth’s shoreline. Unfortunately, it is becoming an ecological disaster, and your reduced use of plastics or demanding recycled plastics does make a difference.

There’s much more to trash than remembering when it’s trash day. Every bag or bin we haul out signifies our usage of the world’s resources and our commitment to the environment. Our trash represents a lot to humans, not just our dogs.