Low Income Families Are Disproportionately Subjected to the Detrimental Health Effects of Waste

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Since the industrial revolution the United States has experienced tremendous change. This change has created a consumer culture that has resulted in the creation of mass amounts of waste. According to reports, in the year 2003 Americans produced almost 500 million pounds waste. Alone the U.S consumes 30% of the world’s resources and produces 30% of all waste (Conquest, 2). These numbers attest to a consumer culture that has created an undesirable waste problem that is yet to be resolved. However, not everyone is affected proportionately by waste, as predominantly low-income communities live in close proximity to waste related sites. In this paper I will discuss how low-income communities are disproportionately subjected to the detrimental health effects caused by waste, and I will argue that low-income communities have historically and are currently responding to counter the effects of waste to protect their communities.
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...

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...s of unity in order to bring change to their community. Furthermore, to gains national attention, the Kettleman community produced a short documentary in order to expose the illness and death that the landfill is creating. To extent to which the community created a documentary, reveals the motivation and desperation of the small community to gain public support against a corporate giant such as The Chemical Waste Management. Ultimately, the frustration of the residents can be seen as they consistently express, “Why us?”. While the case of Kettleman City awaits the results of toxic analysis to shows that in fact the facility is causing negative health effects in the community, this case is indicative of how even the smallest communities can bring create change and more importantly it shows that low-income communities are currently opposing waste in their communities.

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