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Moreover, sites officially con–
sidered to be "sanitary landfllls"
are at times inadequately tended
a nd become little more than
dumps with a fancy name.
The majority of municipal incin–
erator facilities are also inadequate.
Most do not have the proper air pol–
lution control equipment. Conse–
quently, they simply change a solid
waste problem into an
air pol/ution
problem!
Dcspite Iaws designed to prevent
it, much human and industrial
waste continues to be dumped into
river systems- killing fish and ren–
dering the water unusable for
drinking and irrigation.
Thus, the great bulk of our
trash and garbage is disposed of
.on our land, in our streams and
oceans and, through burning, in
our atmosphere.
How Long Can l t Go On?
"So what
?"
many might as k.
" Just so it's out of my house.
1
don't particularly care
where
it
goes!"
The problem is tbat many c it–
ies throughout the Western world
are
running out of pfaces to
dump their trash-and
can't find
new ones. Moreover, disposal
costs are rising dramatically.
The situation is becoming
criti–
ca/!
Scicntists say it is impossible
for mankind to cont in ue present
ratcs of consumption and waste.
We are beginning to Iearn that
nature has its limits! The delicate
balance of nature is being severc–
ly upsct!
City planners, urban engineers
and e nvironmentalists are in–
creasingly warning about the
"solid waste avalanche." We may
soon, they declare, fi nd oursclves
buried a/ive
in our own debris!
The "garbage squeeze" is on!
Yet few of us give any thought to
the consequences.
For many years we have heard
about smoggy s kies and dirty
water, but the solid waste prob–
lem has been Iargely overlooked.
Solid waste is now being called
the "forgotten third pollution."
lf
present trends continue, it
wi ll not be long before it will be
impossibfe
to forget it!
August. 1981
There are many culprits to be
blamed for this shocking state of
affairs. One of the worst offend–
ers is
excessive packaging.
The Packaging Prob lem
A package is defined as anything
that protects, transports and iden–
tifies. T his includes cans, glass
and plastic bottles, boxes, card–
board car tons, erales, barreis and
so on.
Discarded packaging materials
account for upwards of 20 per–
cent of municipal waste.
rt
has
been estimated that nearly 90
percent of all packaging is tossed
on the trash heap!
Packaging is
big business
in
the Western world! Attention–
gett ing packages havc become a
major form of advertising.
Sorne packaging is deemed
necessary for the prevcntion of
theft as well as for advcrtising
purposes. A half-dozen wood
screws, for example, might be
sold encased in plastic, which is
in turn glued to a large piece of
cardboard. This makes it diffi–
cult for a shoplifter to pocket
the ítem. How far we have come
since
th~
general store days,
when Ioose screws could be pur–
chased from a bin, box or bar–
re!!
Cans and bottles constitute a
major form of packaging. More
than
70 billion
caos are thrown
away each year! Cans and bottles
make up well over 50 percent of
the total volume of all litter.
lt
used to be that ncarly all
beer and soft drinks werc sold in
returnable bottles. Today, it is
virtually impossiblc to find bever–
ages in returnable bottles. Super–
markets don't like returnables
because of storage and handling
problems. Consumers don't want
to be bothered by having to haul
bottles back to the store. The
decline of the returnable bottle
has been a major factor in the
garbage glut.
Solut ions
The root of the problem is the
"happiness through consump–
tion" approach to Iife prevalent in
Western society. Status and suc–
cess are measured in terms of the
consumption of goods and ser–
vices.
And with their consumption,
consumers demand
convenience.
We want to consume with the
least effort and bother.
Simply put, the problem is
attitude!
The solution to the problem
will thus involve radical
changes
in attitude.
If we are to avoid impending
calamity, significant recycling of
solid waste materials on a nat ional
scale must become a reality with–
out delay. Today, vi rtually none
of our municipal waste gets recy–
cled. Multiple millions of tons of
steel, wood and glass lie buried in
our landfills and dumps. A few
years ago it was estimated that
California alone buries the energy
equivalent of 22 million barreis of
oil each year- more today!
Under harsher circumstances,
materials would be salvaged
straightway. In World War
11 ,
both consumers and industry
dili–
gently
recycled. There was little
choice. There were important
nat ional goals and objectives at
stake, and all segments of society
felt a responsibility.
Under prcsent circumstances,
however, humans will not
vofun–
tarily
limit consumption of dis–
posable goods or recycle those
used.
In lieu of a
willing
change in
attitude on the part of consumers
and industry ali ke, it would prob–
ably be necessary for human gov–
ernments to enact
laws
to pro–
mote recycling. Thi s cou ld
includc laws banning throwaway
bottles and laws requiring house–
hold separation of glass, metal,
food and paper trash to facilitate
widescale municipal recycling.
Most authorities see no other
alternative.
Recycli ng centers would have
to be dramatically increased in
number to make them more con–
venient. But to be more effective,
recycling centers would bave to
be almost as frequent as local post
offices. Yet many communities
do not have
even one
recycling
center!
Incentives to encourage re–
search and development in meth-
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