Burning Waste is Harming our Planet more than you Think
If you don’t know where your garbage goes or what’s done with it, it’s easy to ignore how much you’re producing. But most people would think twice before buying things like double-wrapped granola bars or one-use ziploc bags if they realized that Americans alone discard more than 250 million tonnes of garbage annually, most of which ends up underground and harms the well-being of surrounding communities.
Westchester County in New York continues to receive the lowest grade on the American Lung Association’s air quality scale, partially due to how close it is to the carbon-dense New York City, but mostly due to its assigned role as a garbage dump in the past. There even exists a plant in the area that burns 2,250 tonnes of waste daily from both domestic and industrial locations.
Despite the fact that it provides 63 MW of energy for nearby residences, the way in which that energy is produced isn’t environmentally friendly or renewable in the slightest. Alongside that so-called clean energy comes 131,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and 577 million pounds of carbon dioxide, and that’s just one plant. That amount of energy can also only be produced once from a given amount of waste, as it can’t be reignited and burned again.
Severe air pollution kills millions and costs billions. Releasing poisonous substances into the atmosphere, like mercury, lead, and carbon monoxide, only harms the world and its inhabitants. The Westchester plant and many others need to make a drastic change very soon, because if they do so, many valuable lives and wasted dollars would be saved.
Of course, that big change can’t happen without another: dramatically reducing the amount of waste we produce, no matter where we are. This, too, will be much easier on the environment and keep people healthier than they would be otherwise. Ten American cities are already on the path to recovery.
Revolutionizing how we get rid of waste and how much waste there is to rid of will have almost immediate positive impacts on us and our surroundings. It’s not just worth doing - it must be done if we want a cleaner future.
