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.