The document discusses the environmental impacts of waste and recycling. It notes that landfill space is decreasing as waste production increases. Recycling programs are presented as costly and inefficient, requiring significant energy use for transportation and processing. While recycling saves some resources, the document argues it may do more harm than good to the environment on balance.

1. Save the Earth

2. “Common sense is a
set of prejudices
acquired by age 18”

3.  Feels good
 Saves energy
 Saves money
 Saves trees
 Saves landfill space
 Improves Environment

4. 1. Wastes money
2. Adverse affect on the environment
3. Wastes resources

5.  Mobro 4000 –1987
 NY garbage going to Louisiana landfill
 6 week voyage on east coast
 1989 EPA paper :
The Solid Waste Dilemma:
An Agenda for Action
J. Winston Porter –EPA assistant administrator
“We’re running out of places to dispose our trash”
“1/3 of the nations landfills will be full in the next
few years”
“If we wait, the problem will get worse”

6.  Heavy subsidies hide the true cost
 Cost to US taxpayers was $8 Billion
 Cost is 3x more than regular garbage
▪ $50 per ton for mixed garbage
▪ $150 per ton for recycleables
 $33 million in NY alone
 40% of garbage picked up for recycling ends
up in landfills

7.  New paper is wasteful
 Recycled paper is eco-friendly
 Using new paper contributes to deforestation

8.  Paper is made from trees
 Grown and sustainably harvested to make paper
 We have 3 times more trees now than in 1920
 Due to recycling efforts, large areas of these
forests are being sold off to build housing

9. 1. Special truck picks it up
2. Recycling center – uses energy, emits
pollutants
3. Truck to paper mill – could be miles away
4. De-ink and bleach - leaves behind a toxic
sludge
5. Pulp is turned back into paper on machines
that use more energy
6. Truck brings recycled paper back to printer

10.  Americans make 220 million tons of trash
each year
 Dirty
 Dangerous –methane gas
 Running out of landfill space

11.  Not near groundwater
 Site cannot be on a fault line
 3 feet of impermeable clay
 Trash is buried under dirt then converted into
park space etc.
 Methane is harvested and used for energy
 Powers 50,000 homes for 30 years

13.  Feels good
 Saves energy
 Saves money
 Saves trees
 Saves landfill space
 Improves Environment

14.  “Recycling may be the most wasteful activity
in modern America. It is a waste of time and
money, a waste of human and natural
resources”
-As reported in the New York Times on
June 30, 1996