cubic feet of space. In contrast, however, is the Durham Road Landfill, outside San Francisco, which occupies over seventy million cubic feet of the biosphere. It is a sad monument, indeed, to the excesses of modern society [Gore 151]. One might assume such a monstrous mound of garbage is the largest thing ever produced by human hands. Unhappily, this is not the case. The Fresh Kills Landfill, located on Staten Island, is the largest landfill in the world. It sports an elevation of 155 feet, an estimated
Fresh Kills Summary Response The documentary, “The Fresh Kills Story”, by Andy Levison, posted on vimeo.com and published in 2012, tells of the transformation of the world’s largest garbage dump into a environmentally friendly park. Fresh Kills began on April 16, 1948 in Staten Island, New York. Covering more than two-thousand acres, the area damaged the reputation, image, and scent of the community surrounding the garbage lot. Nearby residents explained the dump to give off a prison-like impression
shut down for cleaning. It affected the shops that relied on visitors coming to the beaches the most. The estimated cost of the lost revenue in the tourism industry that summer was over $1 billion. The waste was eventually traced back to the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Because of this event, there was the creation of an extremely successful act known as the Short-Term Floatables Action Plan. In 1987, an almost mile-long slick was seen along the central New Jersey shore. “It included medical
disasters and wildfires, the most apparent and controllable contribution of harmful acts to the environment are humans. Some factors that cause this degradation are overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, human interference, and government corruption, landfills and land disturbance. These then go on to affect loss of biodiversity, impact on human health, ozone layer depletion and of course loss of tourism industry. Growing up I was able to go farming with my grandmother and as I walked through the pastures
New York City is one of the biggest and most influential cities in the world. With a visible impact over the entire US, and perhaps the entire world, New York stands as one of the two only cities in the world (with London) recognized by the Globalization and World Cities Network (GaWC) as an “Alpha + + city”, described as a city “vastly more integrated with the global economy than any other cities” (The World According to GaWC 2012). To this day New York City continues to grow and further expand
$165 billion per year on food waste and the cost is rising steadily (Uslan). Out of the 36 million tons of food produced by America yearly, roughly around 95 percent gets put into incinerators and landfills (“Resource Conservation”). According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food rots in landfills and “becomes a significant source of methane –a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide” (“Resource Conservation”). Many supermarkets, colleges/universities
question, but in our country that has over 2,000, landfills it really makes you wonder if we are a nation of excess. Excess isn’t solely defined by what we just throw away. It may be some old clothes that one never wears or perhaps one perfectly good cell phone that was discarded because it was time for an upgrade. The United States is full of excess that could be severely reduced. With waste comes three major topics: waste in general, the landfill, it’s stored in, and the effect it has on the environment
countering these issues through recycling and trash management, but is it enough? (Cooper 267). II. America seems to be experiencing a narrowing of disposal options (Griffin 1). Trash is either dumped into landfills, incinerated or burned, or recycled. Seventy percent of all solid waste ends up in landfills (Griffin 2). Each year, “240 million tires, 1.6 billion pens, 2 billion razors and blades and 16 billion disposable diapers” are dumped (Griffin 2). Five hundred disposable cups and 10,000 sheets of
and die, while others organisms like octopi thrive. The rise in temperature not only affects sea life, but all life. According to Davis and Cornwell, 30% of species will go extinct if temperatures rise three degrees Celsius due to famine, lack of fresh water, and the spread of disease. One species that the earth would not survive without is bees. According to Greenpeace, “Honey bees – wild and domestic – preform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide”, meaning without them the worlds ecosystem
36 U.S. states anticipating local, statewide water shortages, 64 million tons of materials are going to landfills. Ready to start going-green yet? We can recycle our garbage, have clean efficient machines and cars, or simply use less water. These every day things can change a lot in the way you live and to the planet. If we continue to not recycle, not conserve energy, or clean air, we will kill our home and eventually us humans. Throwing away items that can be recycled diminishes energy, water and
to hospital IV bags. It simplifies our lives in numerous ways, but due to improper disposal, plastic has a severely negative impact not only on our environment, but also on humans and animals. Plastic pollutes our water sources, poisons humans, and kills animals. Recycling and volunteering to clean up beaches are just a few of the many ways in which to help get the plastic pollution under control and to prevent further damage to our Earth. This deadly issue needs to be addressed immediately. The environment
The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. Plus, the three R's save land and money communities must use to dispose of waste in landfills. Every week we recycle our paper and plastics in order to reduce waste material. Many of use also reuse certain items over and over again – items such as plastic bags, paper, and water bottles. However, not many people realize that reusing some
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). With such a huge problem, it makes people wonder how the problem got this bad. It has grown to this extent for a number of reasons. The ways in which supermarkets
EPA says the rates for recovering solid municipal waste increased from 1960 of around 5.6 percent to almost 25 percent more with an addition 8.5 percent in 2007 from composting. This percentage change has led to a decrease in content found in our landfills which benefits animals, humans, and even the environment as a whole. If people do not keep on recycling, our natural resources will keep on diminishing which we do not want to happen. If more people do not recycle, climate change will keep going
“Almost half of all fruits and vegetables produced worldwide are lost or wasted – equivalent to 3.7 trillion apples. Fresh produce has among the highest wastage rates of any food products.” (Croplife International, 2016) According to the statistics, Australians by far have high rates of wastage and as stated, this most commonly comes from our fresh produce. Everyday, farmers spend their time growing and watering these plants so Australia can enjoy and stay healthy by eating freshly
plastic. The debate that comes up touches on which material is more harmful to the environment. Paper and plastic bags are both harmful to the environment in their own way, but which one is worse? Paper bags are said to use harmful chemicals and tons of fresh water, but facts will prove plastic bags to be much harder on the environment. The first thing that needs to be taken into consideration is how the bags are made. Paper bags use trees.They start off by cutting down trees, which have to dry out
of plastic bottles wind up in landfills (Barclay). Unfortunately, these bottles do not decompose naturally. Thus, toxic chemicals are released when they disintegrate (Barclay). Those chemicals pollute the waterways, contaminate soil, and sicken animals (Schriever). It 's common knowledge that turtles and possibly other creatures lay their eggs, inland and once they hatch they go to the water. Imagine little newborn turtles struggling through bottles on the landfill trying to get to the ocean. Before
that each day the amount of pollution is increasing, while the lifespan of the earth and the health of its organisms is deteriorating. Manpreet sandhu A picture of a factory in China releasing contaminated smoke (Ackerman). The polluted planet will kill the population if nothing is done to prevent it (Alliteration). Our needs for technology has pushed us to this catastrophe, but our wants have made us continue this act of destruction. It is strange that humans living on planet Earth are destroying
When looking at how the media portrays environmental issues, one huge book/movie is The Lorax. Written by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name, Dr. Seuss, The Lorax tackles environmental issues through a simple kids book. A man by the name of Once-ler, travels to a land that is full of trees with fluffy leaves called a Truffula tree. The Once-ler decides to use these leaves to make something called a thneed, which is something that can be turned into anything, but, right when he chops down his
extraordinary almost as if she was dancing. One might find her skipping rocks by the creek or laying in the grass at the landfill park with her cat. Ella was simple and beautiful and made the most out of everything, simply by just living in complete bliss and not giving a care in the world. It was Ella’s ninth birthday party and she decided she wanted to spend it on top of the landfill or what she liked to call it “Mount Trashmore”. Her mother prepared