America Is a Toxic Dump

[Orwellian_Ghost]

America Is a Toxic Dump

by Sadhbh Walshe
There are some places in the world where there is no word for garbage. The idea that an object could have no purpose, or be brought into being only to be discarded, is so alien that the concept simply does not exist. America is not one of them.

On the contrary, we have become such a disposable society that we are one of the top garbage producers in the world, dumping an estimated 254 million tons a year, less than a third of which is recycled. That's enough rubbish to fill more than 82,000 football fields packed six feet deep. Needless to say, all this waste is wreaking havoc on the environment and depleting our natural resources. But rather than focusing our efforts on reducing consumption and more effective recycling, billions of dollars are spent each year collecting, crushing, burying, burning and exporting the evidence of our destructive ways.

The worst part is that so much of what we throw away would not fit with most people's perception of rubbish. I recently took part in an urban foraging tour in New York. I had intended only to be a casual observer, but when I saw the range of goodies on offer – organic still fresh fruits and vegetables, fancy olive breads, cured meats, bagels, donuts and other delectables, still sealed in non-biodegradable packaging, it seemed an awful shame to let it go to waste. Another dumpster dive led me to more durable goods like books, clothes, toys, furniture and electronic items in near perfect condition. Nothing, it appears, is too good to be discarded here.

Unfortunately only a tiny percentage of the city's refuse is reclaimed by foragers. The rest (which amounts to about 4,385,000 tons a year) is gathered by collection trucks which instantly crush it into compact piles, eliminating the possibility of further salvaging. It is then taken to a transfer station and from there either to an incinerator where it will be burned, releasing cancer causing dioxins into the air, or more likely to a landfill where it will decompose into a hazardous brew that leaches liquid waste into the soil and water and releases landfill gases into the air.

...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/03-3

[Buzz Clik]

1. Uhhhh .... huh?

Unfortunately only a tiny percentage of the city's refuse is reclaimed by foragers. The rest (which amounts to about 4,385,000 tons a year) is gathered by collection trucks which instantly crush it into compact piles, eliminating the possibility of further salvaging. It is then taken to a transfer station and from there either to an incinerator where it will be burned, releasing cancer causing dioxins into the air,"

Standard solid waste incineration that releases dioxins? :wtf: Where did that come from? My guess it was a blind rectal extraction.

[imdjh]

2. Yes, because the US is New York City

On the other hand- if I put an old bookcase and some wheelchair that I bought at a yardsale ten years ago, metal shelving, or any number of things at the end of the driveway tonight (trash day is Wednesday), the junkers will get it before the trash truck does.

By the same token- up on the boulevard is a "dented can" store which actually sells salvage food that is still good but beyond its "best by" date. Some of it is, in my opinion, beyond its good or safe date. It's always great when an overpriced health food store has gone out of business, because the salvage store is just full of all those overpriced meal bars as well as stuff like flax meal for a dollar instead of five dollars.

[HamdenRice]

3. Even NYC is not NYC. Sounds like the OP article was dumpster diving on the upper east side

Yes in the richest parts of NY, I'm sure the garbage is primo. But NYC is overwhelmingly a working class city, and you won't find organic food still in its wrapper in eastern Queens or central Brooklyn or the South Bronx.

What an idiotic article.

[Deja Q]

5. The real question is, will people blindly believe it, without doing their own research?

Not that everybody can summarily fly to NYC, but the writing alone is a whopping gigantic red flag. There's no way it could be believed by anybody outright, unless the person(s) in question watch FOX cable 'news'.

[Deja Q]

4. I'm sure the streets are paved with gold, too... still, this is modern-day editorialism,

Hyping up half-truths to get emotions out of people.

That article's contents smell worse than the claim. If so many goodies are summarily thrown out as litter, let's cart all the homeless up there. Indeed, so many words with so many freakin' adjectives; it's damn obvious the writer of that slop is doing more to tell a trumped-up story than to tell the un-embellished truth.

And "organic, still-fresh fruits and vegetables", surely? Not to mention that even I could write it more coherently. Not by much...