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and are concentrated m food chúns.
They can be degraded, if at all, only
witb great difficulty.
Declares marine resources expert R.
W. Risebrough regardíng these indus–
trial pollutants:
"Within the past two years, there–
fore, we have become aware of the exis–
tence in our planetary environment of a
whole new class of pollutants. What
would happen if these substances were
shown to be carcinogens [ cancer–
inducing agents
J
?
The damage to human
lives and the harm to wildlife would be
the major effects, but aJso,
o¡;emight the
worltl'.t 1J1t1rine fisheries
tVOifld
be wiped
0111."
This is the awful future- if plastics,
paints and myriads of industrial goods
are considered more vaJuable tban Jife
itself.
Risebrough believes that technolo-
Tbe
PLAIN TRUTH
gical intrusions into the sea will
greatJy increase befare the true nature
of the crisis of the oceans becomes com–
pletely known:
"\Y/e are only at the beginning of our
technological revoJution, and as this
revolution proceeds, increasiog outputs
of waste materials per capita will in–
crease by
ma11y
limes
the rate at which
pollutants enter the sea."
The coming crisis in the oceans
clearly calls for unprecedented inter-
11ational action and cooperation. Such
international political machinery •s
woefully lacking at the moment.
Solid Waste: Our
Disposable Culture
A garbage explosion is threatening
mauy of the major dties of the world
witb a gigantic garbage disposal prob–
lem! The world's rapidly expanding
consumer societies are increasingly hard–
pressed to keep the growing mountains
of trash, refuse and waste clown to man–
ageable size.
"Every year," said a U. S. Public
Health Service spokesman, "we [ Ameri–
cans] generate 1.5 bi llion tons of ani–
mal wastes, l.l billion tons of mineral
wastes, 550,000,000 tons of agricultura!
waste and crop res idues, 250,000,000
tons of household, commercial and mu–
nicipal wastes, and 11 0,000,000 tons of
industrial wastes - a total of 3.5 bil–
lions tons of discards per year - and
growing."
These awesome statistics average out
to about 100 pounds of solid waste per
person per day! The Publ ic Health
service also estimates that in a typical
yea r Americans throw away more than
30,000,000 tons of paper, 4,000,000
tons of plastics, 48,000,000,000 cans
(more than 240 per person) and 26,-
000,000,000 bottles and jars (or more
than 130 per person). And it keeps
growing every year.
The solid waste problem was greatly
intensified during the 1960's with the
tremendous increase
in
the use of non–
degradable products - all-aluminum
cans, many types of plastic containers,
bags and products, and non-returnable
bottles. Iu many areas, even the eady–
morning rattle of milk bottles is no
11
more - thc milk coming "bottled" in
plastic throw-away containers.
At the end of the Sixtics, 30,000,000
junked automobiles, trucks and buses
.filled U. S. junkyards and littered the
American landscape. Adding to this
awesome statistic were the carcasses of
100 million d iscarded t ires!
One American trash disposal special–
ist warned recently: "The major metro–
poli tan areas are standing in front of an
avalaoche, and it's threatening to bury
them"
Ask most people where their garbage
goes and you'll probably get a look of
puzzlement. Most are unaware of, or
unconcerned with, the gigantic prob–
lems of waste disposal - except when
their garbage isn't coJJected.
Yet municipal garbage disposal often
ranks third in community expenditures
right behind education and roads . The
budget for New York City's Depart–
ment of Sanitation is around $150 mil–
lion a year. Despite the prodig ious
amount of waste removed from New
York, solid wastes from the city are
now estimated to be the Jargest single
source of sediment entering the Atlantic
Ocean
f
rom North America!
Imagine what a horrible position a
city would be in if garbage collection
were halted for any prolooged lengtb of
time. Reflect on New York City's di–
lemma during a nine-day sanitation
worker's strike m February, 1968.
Nearly 100,000 tons of foul -smelling
uncollected garbage !ay in big heaps on
sidewalks and in doorways. Trash fires
flared al! over town. Rats rummaged
through the piles of refuse. Public
health officials proclaimed the city's first
health emergency siuce a 1931 polio epi–
demic - warning of thc danger of ty–
phoid and other diseases.
Many big cities are bcing inundatcd
with waste disposal problems, not only
because every person is adding more
each year, but because land arcas where
garbage can be safely disposed of are
running out.
Garbage is beiog burned in open pits,
buried and compressed under layers of
dirt, dumped into the ocean or shipped
long distances to disposal sites in un–
populated areas. But as a result our air,