With the ever-expanding population growth seen throughout Hillsborough County in recent years, environmental degradation will inevitably occur. Environmental degradation is defined as, “the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable” (Johnson). Creating beneficial, eco-friendly programs is in the best interest of the citizens of Hillsborough county. Beneficial environmental programs could include, designated community compost sites within neighborhoods or in easily accessible areas. Also, introducing a different …show more content…
Composting reduces waste, helps protect the climate, and stimulates the local economy. Urban forestry is the care of single trees and tree populations in various communities. Its benefits include, reducing global warming, improving air quality and aid with reducing stromwater run-off and erosion. Most citizens are not aware or educated about the benefits of composting, and they are not mindful of the possibility of reducing the amount of waste each household produces. With an existing population of about 1.3 million, the amount of waste that Hillsborough County produces is staggering. According to the EPA, “In 2013, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of this material” (EPA). To put it into perspective, the average American generates is about 4.4 pounds daily which is much less than the global average of around 2.6 pounds. Most …show more content…
The San Diego Padres implemented a composting program at their facility, Petco Park, in 2005. In 2011 the organization “diverted 132 tons of food waste” (San Diego Padres) from the area’s landfill to make compost at their local greenery. Compost is highly sustainable, and it is created by combining organic waste, grass, or yard clippings and manure into containers or simply organizing it into piles. Capitalizing on a countywide neighborhood/community composting program will be tremendously valuable. It is a simple way for counties and municipalities to deter waste from landfills. Waste facilities are one of the leading contributors of groundwater pollution, and climate change. With space in landfills becoming rarer, composting is now often cheaper than sending waste to the dumps. Composting also saves money that can be focused on additional expenses throughout the county, this opens the doorway to resources and dollars that can be reinvested in other alternative sustainability initiatives. Furthermore, according to the EPA, additional benefits of composting
She suggests that Americans should reduce their overconsumption of such commodities since they are overburdening the non-biodegradable waste load in the garbage collection facilities. It is surprising to note that every Americans disposes more than four pounds of trash on a daily basis (Royte, 2005).
We need to stay away from the landfills as much as we can so eventually we can get rid of them all together. The benefits of compost include increased soil organic matter content, nutrients for plant growth, replacement of peat moss in potting media, reduced erosion, plant disease resistance, weed suppression and generally improved plant vigor (Barlaz 62). Instead of taking grass clippings to the trash people can leave them laying in the yard to decompose or they can use them to help make their compost. People can even make their own composting bins to use at their homes. There are several reasons why people should compost. If people start composting they can keep their garbage, yard trimmings or leaves from getting to the landfills. Which in turn will keep those things from getting in our water or water supplies. If these things get in our waterways or water treatment facilities it just makes more work for other people. Also by composting people will help their plants look healthier. Sharon Durham talks about manure, composting and how it effects the soil in her article, “Improving on a Time-Tested Technique.” Durham says, “Composting results in stabilization of nitrogen in organic form for use in soil” (20). The soil the plant is grown in will be better and help the plants produce better if you are growing food. “Compost may even be tailor-made to reduce phosphorus availability and
Low-income communities are disproportionately living in close proximity to waste related sites in the U.S. To support this claim, reports show that three of out five of the largest landfills in the United States are located in predominantly African American or Latina/o American communities (Hamilton, 6). From this report it is evident that low-income communities are left with the burden of supporting the lifestyles of this consumer society. Although they are the least likely to consume and thus create waste, low-income residents live in communities where they are exposed to degraded environments. To understand why low-income communities live in close proximity to waste related sites, waste corporations claim, “Residents on average are much poorer, less well educated and more likely to be African American than t...
My family already has a composting pile in the yard and I never really noticed its value. I always thought of it as a pile of trash and would be reluctant to recycle leftovers when my parents told me to. It would have been so much easier to just throw everything away in the trashcan. In “Waste Not Want Not” Bill McKibben states that, “we toss 14 percent of the food we buy at the store” (304). That is a lot of food that can be put to better use instead of being wasted. Old food scraps will eventually turn into rich soil that can be used to grow an organic garden. The produce that I buy in the grocery store is not as healthy as I think it is because most of it is filled with chemicals that can be harmful to humans. There is a “displacement of nearly the entire farming population and the replacement of their labor and good farming practices by machines and toxic chemicals” (Berry 401). Using compost to plant my own food I do not have to live in fear about what I am feeding to my family. Composting is not only a good source to keep food out of landfills but it promotes a healthy and natural lifestyle.
Consider how full of everyday garbage our land fields are. This is the reason that we recycle. Put your plastics in one bin, your burnable stuff in another, cans and metals in this stack, and other stuff goes into this trash can. Combine that with the theory of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and it should not surprise you that one way you can recycle is to shop at yard sales rather than visit your local department stores to find your treasures. You will save money and perhaps find a few treasures that you didn’t know you wanted if you join a community wide yard sale.
Taking the time to appreciate nature can allow individuals to value naturally produced resources as well as the beauty of the environment. As societies continue to urbanize and strive to prosper, sometimes they neglect these naturally occurring resources. This kind of broad issue can be considered in any city, but one city one should regard is Kansas City and its current standings in terms of being eco-friendly. Thus, several specific issues can arise if the residents of Kansas City do not take the initiative to preserve is natural resources and environments, which include increased air pollution, tainted water sources, and landfills. By considering these problems that potentially harm Kansas City’s local environments, it allows one to decide
For example, they create park maintenance and planning jobs, enhance tourism, and increase property values. Trees also extend the life of municipal infrastructure by preventing erosion and flood damage, and they help reduce air conditioning and heating costs by shading homes and buildings. As great as Canada's urban forests can be, they are being challenged. These challenges are mostly by development of extreme weather events and higher annual temperatures which is putting a strain on health of all kinds of trees and stressed trees face increased risk of disease and insect
The scary reality is that, according to the book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), “landfilling of food is on the rise – the rate doubled from 1980 to 2007” (Bloom 15). This reality leads to a number of negative consequences such as an increase in methane production and pollution. “Most food waste, approximately 33 million tons, is disposed in landfills, costing $750 million and accounting for 25% of U.S methane emissions” (Uga.edu).
For most of America, recycling has become a way of life. For some, it is a valiant effort to take charge of our waste and do what is right for the environment and for future generations. For others, it is a forced mentality by government agencies or private businesses who attempt to prove their value by self-promoting their commitment to environmental responsibility. Recycling, in theory, is a positive effort; however, massive recycling programs are not the answer. Recycling programs in general lack an intelligent way to a means, since the costs and environmental burden may outweigh the desired result. Recyclers should only focus on materials that they can process in a cost effective way, and consumers should focus
Composting is the process of biodegrading the waste material in which an enormous number of materials like hydrocarbons, nitrogenous compounds, acids, their derivatives and even other organic and inorganic substances can be remediated from the environment (Finstein et al., 1986). Compost pro...
Not only benefiting us, our involvement in making compost benefits the environment also. As if we already don’t have enough garbage filling our landfills, we certainly don’t need our yard waste to waste any more space when we can so easily handle it ourselves. Compost helps reduce the volume it could contribute to landfills. Why put it into the earth that way, when we can enrich it by turning our yard waste into a natural fertilizer? It also helps prevents us from purchasing pesticides and chemical fertilizers that could further damage the environment and the animals around us.
Trees also benefit the environment. They alter the environment in which we live by moderating the climate, improving the air quality, conserving our water source and harboring wildlife. They take in energy from the sun, block the wind, and rain. Trees also control the temperature. In the vicinity of trees is cooler than that away from trees. The larger the tree, the greater the cooling, the better a person feels because they are not in the sun. Air quality is also improved through the use of trees, shrubs and turf. Leaves filter the air we breathe by removing the dust and other particles from the air.
If we all do our part and recycle and watch what we throw out it will make it easy for the trash companies to see what goes where and recycling certian materials is better than making something all over again. For example, aluminum can be used again instead of making a new one from scratch. We should all watch what we throw out I mean who doesn't want to make Earth cleaner.
The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid wastes each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. The number landfills in the United States are decreasing, but the amount and volume of waste being thrown into the new landfills is increasing (Russell 4). Because of this escalating amount of garbage, Methane which contributes to global warming is an outcome of these landfills (Russell 7). As a result, our planet is suffering because of this epidemic. The garbage being put in the landfills could be recycled, but not enough businesses, ...
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different families. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on the nongovernmental organizations and ordinary people (para.... ... middle of paper ... ...