A Brief History of Garbage

Ever since man evolved from a nomadic way of living, to a hunter and gatherer and finally to the more recognizable modern form of life there has been garbage. Whether it is from animal carcasses, bones and rocks, to now-a-days plastics, papers and metals, essentially all things that are left behind in some way or another is garbage. The garbage that we think of today, slow developed as the country developed. When factories were formed, there were scraps of sheet metal, wood, fabric and more, all of which was usually disposed of on the out-skirts of town, where no one had to look upon the dreadful sight. If only that was what our landfills were filled with, instead of the common wrapper, diaper and other non compostable products that not only are an eye sore, but also a health hazard due to the toxins that are emitted into the air, and that are soaked up by the ground.

In fact if you think about it, garbage can be broken down into many subdivisions:
(keep in mind that these are very general, more in a way to understand conceptually versus informational)

Compostable are things you could compost, and eventually make soil for plants and gardens. These in a way are the more household leftovers, like banana peels, egg shells, bread, etc. All of these previous products can then be turned into an end product that can not only benefit the home garden, but also a community garden if distributed to other people. In fact, WSU is not only has a normal composting facility, but they also have a mortality composting facility, where they take the carcasses of animals and create compost with those. (http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb2031e/eb2031e.pdf)




These are fish that are part of a mortality composting operation. Here the fish will decompose and provide nutrients to the soil.
http://organic.tfrec.wsu.edu/compost/Compost%20systems/fish%20waste.jpg


Recyclable “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Is a saying that has been ingrained into our head ever since the push for more environmentally friendly products being produced, in hopes that the waste would also be environmentally friendly. For recycling these days, it is essentially taking a previous, lets say, piece of paper (as well as tons more) and re-make paper through the paper making process again. It is common to see reams of paper that say 10% recycled, or even some journals that say 100% recycled paper. And paper isn’t the end of the road for recycling, metal is also often recycled. Aluminum cans, old cars, and other metal makings are re-melted to create a type of molten lava that can be poured into molds to form something new.

Hazardous these materials are essentially what humans shouldn’t come in contact with. They can be anything from needles, to bodily fluids garbage, to even atomic waste that must be stored until the radiation is low enough not to cause harm.

Reusable the reusable items are ones that you can take apart and fix a problem rather than just throwing them out. I like to think of these as computers, TV’s and really any other electronic device. Many just need someone who can find out what’s wrong with them, fix the problem, and they will be just as good as new!

Misc. this waste is essentially everything that cannot find a home in the previous four. Usually, this type of garbage fills the landfills which is accumulated to about 67% of garbage (Luke Bassis, University of Michigan), and if the people took the time to, for example, separate their compostable products and keep it out of the garbage, then the landfill would reduce in size tremendously. This is also the type of garbage that creates the most health problems such as poor air quality and ground water leakage in the surrounding area.

How you may ask then is globalization part of this garbage? Well, this previous break down is only in the United States, which is a far more industrialized nation than the other developing ones around the world. The U.S. has gone through many trials and errors in fine-tuning the system for extracting the ‘bad’ waste from the ‘good’ waste. In fact, the Department of Energy’s Waste Management system has been a huge help. However, in countries where their government is less concerned with waste and more concerned with the countries world standing, garbage becomes a large issue. There are many pictures where you see children and adults alike, rummaging through the landfills looking for anything usable in their daily lives. Essentially all the garbage that the country is producing is non-biodegradable, due to lack of money to create systems that can help separate the leftovers into different portions, thus possibly creating the compostable, recyclable, reusable, hazardous and mix waste. This then would help the country become more efficient too. If a country is able to regulate the amount of garbage that is leftover from their different endeavors to become more modernized and industrialized, then they would also be able to better focus on their goals of overcoming their persona of poor and developing.



http://www.em.doe.gov/pdfs/llwrev2.pdf
http://www.em.doe.gov/Pages/wmdi.aspx
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/wastedisposal.htm
http://www.ecologycenter.org/iptf/southamerica/Problemofplasticreport.html
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1640/1/