WASTE
About the WASTE Section
Every year, Americans throw 270 million tons tons of waste into the garbage, destined for one of the 3,000 active landfills (there are over 10,000 inactive) in the country (Zero Waste). The average American produces 4.5 pounds of waste a day (EPA). In large part, the amount of waste we produce is not our fault- most individuals do not have a say-so about how much plastic the products they need are wrapped in and wish that the stuff they bought would last longer.
Twin problems: packaging and durability
While tin cans have been around since the early nineteenth century, plastic packaging didn’t gain popularity until the 1970s. 40 percent of plastic produced is for packaging- used just once and then thrown away (Nat Geo), for a total of about 14.5 tons a year!
Besides packaging, the other source of abundant waste is the durability of goods. Why doesn’t stuff last us a longer time? In theory (besides food) shouldn’t we be able to buy something once and have it last until the materials start degrading? We all know this isn’t the case, and this is actually because of a deliberate effort on the part of manufacturers.
Today’s companies use two types of obsolescence: planned and perceived to keep us buying new stuff. Planned obsolescence is the intentional effort of companies to produce goods that quickly become obsolete via frequent changes in design, access to plans are parts for fixing products, and the use of nondurable materials. Perceived obsolescence is why you aren’t wearing bell bottoms and using a flip phone right now- it just isn’t cool. The Story of Stuff shares a short and entertaining overview of this problem.
Life Cycle Analysis
The study of a product’s life, from cradle to grave, is called Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). Most products in today’s advanced capitalist system follow a linear pathway: materials are mined, product is processed, distributed, used, and put into a landfill.
A life cycle analysis is often used to figure out what people and environments may have been exploited and polluted along that journey.
Being that this problem is systemic, what can we do as individuals and communities? Of course, we can always advocate for companies to use bioplastics, or to make products more durable. But there’s also the opportunity, right here and now, to help curtail this problem, have fun, and MAKE STUFF in the process! To parse this out, let’s think of the kind of wastes we produce. In essence, we have organic wastes, and inorganic wastes.
From trash to treasure
Organic wastes are stuff that you put into your body (food), stuff that comes out (excrement), and yard ‘waste’ like grass clippings and wood. Typically, we put food scraps (22% of landfill waste comes from food!) and yard waste in the garbage and bodily functions in a modern toilet.
We could, however, instead compost these wastes into products that are useful for growing more food. There are a ton of different solutions for composting kitchen waste (even for urban areas) and also some very exciting new technologies for composting biological waste.
The other type of ‘waste’ is inorganic waste. Unfortunately, we can’t compost this type of waste, but we can still find ways to use it. This goes beyond recycling- throwing stuff in the blue bin- to upcycling- making useful stuff out of ‘garbage.’ In the past DECADE or so, upcycling has actually become a huge movement, which is great news because people all over the globe are sharing their ideas and DIY instructions. From tin can earrings to plastic upcycled furniture and shipping container homes, the possibilities are as endless as they are innovative and exciting.
I'm ready to UPCYCLE!
In the #SOLUTIONS section, we’ll introduce you to a range of solutions for composting organic waste and recycling inorganic waste. Then you can flip to the #MAKE to find how-to instructions for so you can try them at home.