Sunday, April 18, 2010

Solution to Garbage

As the societies of the world continue to grow and expand, it is almost impossible to say that garbage can be deleted from earth’s existence. Considering it would be a huge feat to do so, not to mention an even more drastic to change the way the whole world lives, there are other solutions. The main way to help with the garbage issue is to reduce, reuse and recycle. I have talked about it before, and the concept is very easy to understand and do. However, the main problem that there is with this type of campaign is that in order to help solve the garbage issue around the world, the whole world must participate. I must say that, I am guilty of not always doing what I could, and partially it is due to the amount of resources that should be available in order to have it work efficiently. This could be a problem to the more “third world countries”, where they don’t have enough money and other resources that are needed to make it work. This is when there needs to be a larger type of organization, such as the Basal Convention to aid in the revolution to reduce garbage.
In many cases, the reason why globalizing countries are unable to get a hold on their garbage is due to the fact that they don’t have the means to. What I mean by this is that because they are developing to create a more stable society, they haven’t quite looked at all the pictures that are associated with this type of development. This can be seen in Africa. Here, they are growing so fast that they don’t have anywhere to put the waste. They do not have any sort of management for the municipal waste system. (Globalization, Urbanization and Municipal Solid Waste Management in Africa)



The figure above shows the urban population growth rates for six countries. Here, you can see that Africa by far has the largest increase, which could possibly be due the fact only a few years ago, Africa had a 38% urban setting. As a result, it can grow and expand the most. However, as mentioned, with this large increase in population, there needs to be a system set up to deal with the waste that is left behind. In the case of Africa, the cities were spending roughly 50% of their budget, but only 20-80% of the waste was actually collected. This relates to the need for another organization that can help with the total clean up of garbage. Similarly, the use of a waste system must be accessible to everyone in order to see a reduction. If Africa, for example, is only 38% urbanized, what about the other 62%? They are the ones that usually don’t have the means to have a proper waste system, and so the waste continues to pile. As a result, the areas in which that do not have a waste system, the people just end up dumping it to a vacant lot. This results in harmful exposure to hazards and waste. (Globalization, Development, and Municipal Solid Waste Management in Third World Cities)
With out a means to get rid of garbage, countries will only find themselves creating more issues if they just toss their garbage anywhere. Not only air pollution, but water and soil contamination and then run off into the water supply plagues all areas that unethical dumping occurs in. Thus as an overall solution, there needs to be some sort of management of waste in countries that is accessible to all areas. This can be done by individual countries, or if global organizations are created and more involved, then they can assist in aiding the areas that need waste facilities the most.


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Friday, April 9, 2010

15 Sources of Garbage

1. Low-Level Waste Disposal Capacity Report
This is a report that assesses the US Department of Energy in 2000. It talks about the good things and the bad things that the DOE has done, and how to also fix this issues that were found. Similarly, it talks about the amount of waste in the low level waste disposal facilities, and gives a good background even if it is not the most current. With this assessment, it can be used as a comparison with the newer assessment to see the changes.

2. US Department of Energy
The main website for the Department of Energy gives great information on all things regarding garbage. Here it gives regulations on certain types of garbage and how to manage it better. Essentially this website is the home for waste disposal and information in the United States, if there are any questions, then this is the best site to ask questions and get information.

3. Waste Disposal
This site is one of the sites that is a good starting point. Meaning that it gives the general layout of waste disposal, talking about the different types of waste, how to dispose of it, and a few statistics that are pertinent to understanding the disposal of waste in general. I personally like it because it is short and very simple to understand for someone who doesn’t have any clue on this subject.

4. Basal Convention
*Please note that this has been put in the form of a tab versus saving it as a document.
The Basal Convention is an interesting document that talks about the transboundary of waste, where we in the US (or other countries) ship waste to third world countries to dump it there. This document incorporates both the Basal regulations, as well as how the EPA is doing in regards to the volunteered convention. I also think it is kind of interesting how it takes a separate type organization to start a movement for the whole world to fix an issue that each country has contributed to its self individually.

5. International Plastics Task Force
The journal article here was provided to explain the safety issues of plastic in Haiti. Since plastic is the number one substance that fills landfills, it is important to understand the consequences of the substance and how it affects humans and the environment. The documents talks about the three main ways of plastic toxics 1) direct ingestion, 2) inhalation, & 3) air pollution due to improper burning. It is also important to understand that Haiti’s waste crisis can be changed into solution, and this paper explains how that could possibly be done.

6. The Globalization of Garbage: Following the Trail of Toxic Trash
This is an article that talks about toxic trash and how it is affecting countries that are literally having it dumped on them with or without consent (transboundary waste). It also focus more on the electronic type of waste and how that the chemicals in that seep into the ground and create problems for the third world countries which accumulate it all.

7. The Story of Stuff
The inspiration for this blog started with this video. It is a great way to really learn about how ‘stuff’ is created and what ultimately ends from it. It also brings up front the issues that urbanizing countries are running into when trying to compete for status among the other countries. Similarly, this main hub for the website has videos that also are of importance to the world such as cap and trade, electronics (dealing with electronic waste), and bottled water.

8. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements on Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
The Basal Convention, as previously mentioned talks about the disposal of hazardous waste. This document goes into further detail about the Basal Convention, and how they plan to use a recovery system for the hazardous waste. This document also gives the guidelines regarding how to set up a facility, or way of dumping the hazardous waste.

9. Environmental Protection Agency
This is the home site for the wastes section in the EPA website. Here, you can look further for almost any type of information waste. One interesting part is looking at the regulations that are currently in place about waste. One link from this site, talks about the efforts that the EPA is trying to do, such as to conserve sources by reducing waste, as well as prevent future disposal by enforcing current regulations.

10. Globalization, Urbanization and Municipal Solid Waste Management in Africa
This is an interesting journal article that describes the process in which a country goes through to create a waste management program to help gain control of the waste issue in the globalizing country. In Africa, it is common to see landfills full of garbage, and yet have adults and children scavenging through looking for objects (ie. garbage) that could be used for something else. This issue of having so much garbage is a result from the country trying to urbanize and globalize too quickly. Going too quickly often ends up in a huge accumulation of waste which, due to the country still in the developing stage, doesn’t have a place to go.

11. Globalization, Development, and Municipal Solid Waste Management in Third World Cities
This journal describes the status of waste in third world countries. Commonly, there is too much waste that is being produced by third world countries than they can sustain in an efficient way to keep it clean and healthy for the people. As a result of improper disposal and handling, the runoff of waste collection sites ends up in the water that feeds many people of the country, and seep into the land and are released into the air. The paper ultimately offers proposals to create a network to better suit the countries.

12. Basal Action Network (BAN)
BAN a group that focus on the aspects relating to toxic trade. It is currently headquartered in Seattle and confronts the fact that there is unfair and unsustainable amounts of toxic waste being dumped on areas that are still developing, and as a result have a hard time dealing with all the waste. This main site is useful to understand more about the BAN and Basal Convention, where it gives information regarding what they stand for and updates in the area regarding the toxic waste.

13. European Waste
I really like this part of the site, because as part of the link, you can see what facilities in the world are allowing for the proper removal of waste. This is nice in that it gives a legal option for this removal instead of countries just dumping it on other countries that are not economically stable to handle it all. However the concept is somewhat resting, however I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to get it to work. However, this link http://www2.oecd.org/waste/rwaste.asp?q=50 shows the list of countries for non-specified waste. From here you can contact the facilities listed, since all are for an environmentally sound management facility.

14. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The three R’s are a campaign to get Americans to begin thinking about how they throw out their garbage. Ultimately, it was an effort started so that there was less garbage being formed from new materials, and to reuse the old materials to create the new materials instead. This way of thinking took hold in the 90’s and has continued since, and has created a more “green” movement across the United States. Even WSU has a saying central to the theme: Be Crimson. Go Green.

15. California Against Waste
CAW essentially involved in the conserving of resources, preventing pollution and protecting the environment through the development of a waste reduction and recycling policy. Even though this is taking place in California, it can still be used as an example of how to implement this same sort of policy for other states and cities. They address legislation regarding the safety of the environment and waste policies and will help to reform them to make them better, so when the legislation does pass, it will not have any issues in implementing it and can create a good result instead of a headache. This also has a pretty good link to facts and statistics in the state, and further help to emphasize why a proper way of disposal is necessary.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Conditions of Trafficking

Human trafficking is a topic and a reality that many people ought to be more concerned about. It is currently the third most profitable activity, only to drug and firearms trafficking. Due to the secrecy involved in this, as you could say, industry, it is very hard to get accurate numbers on the quantity of people whom are involved, both as the ones trafficked and the traffickers. However, it is still estimated that 600-800 thousand women, men and children are involved in human trafficking. And, it is hard to believe that these numbers are only going to increase as years go by unless something is done on the issue.

Not to make light of the whole issue, but I am going to take a different spin on it and talk about the conditions in which the people involved in human trafficking live in. To begin, the sweatshops essentially are similar to sardines in a can. A ton of people all crammed into a small area without proper ventilation and worked at an exhausting rate. Not to mention, if the people are in the situation where they pretty much live at work, where they have house (if you can call it that) provided, it is usually filthy, un-kept and even rat infested. So in a way, humans are living in the conditions that could be compared to also that of a chicken coop. Sweatshops are not the only place that have foul living conditions. Agricultural workers do to. They usually are exposed to chemicals and pesticides that are unsafe in all ways for humans being in contact with unless they are properly covered. These types of chemicals, especially in the agricultural field are very harmful, and can have many effects including headaches, sweating, weakness, vomiting and even death. Similarly, however different, are those conditions in which prostitutes often find themselves in. In general prostitutes are often found in the “slums” of large cities, where garbage litter the streets and homeless people sleep in the stoops. Most women who find themselves in this situation, do so either by choice (vary rarely), false lures, such as being promised a higher wage and better living than what they were in, and even being sold or given away by family. These conditions are not only filthy and unbearable, but also, they are sometimes set up like a temporary home. Where there are is almost a changing room type layout of different women in each “room”. Then not to mention, the women are given drugs to keep them at a mind state that they can be controlled. In a way, this then leads to them not really keeping up on the hygiene side of things.

The condition in which people in any sort of forced work setting, whether it be an agricultural setting, or a prostitution setting, no person should have to live in any of those conditions. However, people do and most of the time it is just being over looked. In no way should any person go through anything of what people in human trafficking go through, and it won’t stop until people are more aware of what is going on.

To how to help stop visit this blog:
Get Involved

Sources:
Human Trafficking
Farm Workers and Pesticides
Women and Sweatshops

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