A Dirty Secret: America's Growing Trash Crisis

Americans discard 254 million tons of garbage every year.  One-third of this waste gets recycled.  Mountains of scrap are shipped overseas. However, the bulk of the rubbish winds up in one of the 2,000 landfills that dot America's landscape.  Without change, the country will drown in its debris.

A few numbers illustrate the crisis.  The average American throws out 4.4 pounds of trash a day.  In one study, researchers found 40 percent of all food in the country goes uneaten and is left to rot. As a nation, we are disposing of three times more food than we did in the 1960's.

In 1960, studies show Americans generated 88 million tons of garbage.  By 2013, the amount of waste had more than tripled.  If the trend continues, in 50 years the country will be faced with finding ways to get rid of more than three-quarters-of-a-trillion tons of refuse annually.

Add to the problem the burgeoning use of plastic bottles, which account for nearly 13 percent of waste.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), only 28 percent of these containers are recycled.  The remainder eventually are buried in landfills or exported overseas. 

Food and plastics account for nearly 30 percent of our waste.  Paper products contribute 27 percent of the total.  Yard trimmings constitute 13.5 percent, metals 9 percent and glass 4.5 percent.  Wood scraps and rubber, leather and other textiles make up the remainder.

If the U.S. figures appear overwhelming, consider that the U.N. estimates that 2.12 billion metric tons of waste are produced globally annually.  If all this rubble was loaded onto garbage trucks, the number of trash vehicles would circle around the world 24 times.

In the past, America used China as a dumping ground for much of its recyclables. However, China signaled it would no longer accept plastic waste beginning in 2018.  From 1992 through 2017, China imported 106 million metric tons of plastic, processing much of the material into reusable products. 

Now that China has thumbed its nose at the world's leftovers, it is piling up in landfills, being incinerated or dispatched to other countries, such as India and Malaysia.  But the United States can no longer dodge the impending disaster by burying or sending its debris elsewhere.

For starters, it is more expensive to send shiploads of garbage to India and Malaysia.  In addition, these countries do not have the capacity to process as much plastic, metals and other recyclables as China.  Therefore, America will have more refuse left on its shores for disposal.

At home, the country is running out of space to build more landfills.  Besides, landfills are environmental nightmares, contributing to groundwater pollution and emitting methane gas, which is 23 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The only way out of this crunch is to encourage more recycling, to build plants that turn plastics and metals into usable products, to design containers such as water bottles with biodegradable materials and to drastically reduce food waste.  That will be a daunting task without infrastructure changes.

One area ripe for innovation is food.  The food chain is replete with waste.  Farmers cull fruits and vegetables that are not a perfect shape or color.  In processing and distribution, more food ends up being discarded.  Retail groceries toss out $15 billion in unsold fruits and veggies annually.

Food service and restaurants waste a good deal of food in the kitchens.  When the dishes of food reach the table, average diners leave about 17 percent of their meal uneaten.  Households are no better, throwing out between 14 and 25 percent of the food and beverages they purchase.

Unfortunately, only about three percent of the jettisoned food is composted. The remainder finds its way into landfills, where the waste decomposes, releasing toxic methane gas.  France has tackled the issue by prohibiting supermarkets from throwing away unsold food.

French grocers are required to compost unsold food or to donate it.  Some countries, such as Austria, the Netherlands and Germany, have nearly eliminated landfills by adopting stringent waste disposal policies.  Recycling and composting are key components of these countries' strategies.

Faced with the alarming rise in waste, business firms are racing to create technological solutions.  Firms in Finland and the U.S. have developed machines that sort trash, using robotics and computer algorithms.  The machinery is faster and more accurate at finding clean materials for recycling.

Currently, waste employees sort through tons of litter from municipal recycling programs that are often a jumble of dirty items. Studies show that 30-to-50 percent of materials in recycling bins are too contaminated or cannot be recycled.  This makes sorting labor intensive and expensive.

The high-tech machinery has been deployed in three cities, but more need to come on line to experience a dramatic sea change in the current recycling rates.  However, it needs to be underscored that households and businesses must do a better job of separating their trash at the curb.

Everyone has a role to play if America is to trim its waste and hike recycling rates.  If nothing changes, households will begin paying more for trash service as waste management firms struggle to find ways to dispose of the rubble.  That should be incentive enough to waste less and recycle more.