New research shows that Americans may have absorbed public messaging about the importance of recycling too well.
A trash compactor rolls over an active dump site at Pioneer Crossing Landfill in Birdsboro, Pa.
Natalie Kolb/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
Reducing food waste at home is an action that anyone can take to help slow climate change, often saving money in the process. More consumer education could help show people what to do.
Children are among waste pickers exposed to hazards while working at the Olusosun landfill. Photo by: Lionel Healing/AFP.
from www,gettyimages.com
Priority should be given to improving municipal solid waste management in First Nation communities because they currently lack financial resources, infrastructure and solid waste diversion programs.
When in doubt, throw it out – but not in the recycling bin.
Basak Gurbuz Derman/Moment via Getty Images
When governments want people to do less of something, one way to make that happen is to charge them for doing it. That’s the idea behind pay-as-you-throw waste policies.
Lava flows from a fissure in the aftermath of eruptions from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, May 22, 2018.
Andrew Richard Hara/Ena Media Hawaii via Getty Images
Volcanoes might seem like nature’s incinerators, but using them to burn up trash would be dangerous and disrespectful to indigenous people who view them as sacred.
Packaging for consumer products represents a large share of U.S. solid waste, and barely half of it is recycled.
iStock via Getty Images
Maine and Oregon have enacted laws that require makers of consumer product packaging to pay for recycling or disposing of it. Will other states follow?
What happens to millions of these?
Kristoferb/Wikipedia
Batteries power much of modern life, from electric and hybrid cars to computers, medical devices and cellphones. But unless they’re made easier and cheaper to recycle, a battery waste crisis looms.
Volunteers load plastic bags for a weekly food pantry service in Everett, Mass., May 10, 2020. Everett has some of the highest COVID-19 infections rates in the state.
Joseph Prezioso /AFP via Getty Images
Pandemic precautions have given new life to disposable plastic products, which the industry claims are more ‘hygienic’ than reusables. But critics say there’s no scientific evidence this is so.
A discarded medical glove in Jersey City, N.J., April 27, 2020.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
The COVID-019 pandemic has boosted use of disposable packaging and personal protective equipment, at the same time that many recycling programs are facing budget cuts. The upshot: More plastic trash.
A collapsed building in Mayfield, Ky., after a tornado hit the town on Dec. 11, 2021.
Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
Government agencies have detailed plans for responding to disasters, like the Dec. 10-11, 2021 tornados. But one issue doesn’t get enough attention: cleaning up the mess left behind.
The Wheelabrator Waste to Energy Plant in Saugus, Massachusetts, has been burning trash to generate electricity since 1975.
Fletcher6/Wikimedia
Every year the US burns more than 34 million tons of garbage in incinerators. These plants are major pollution sources, and most are clustered in disadvantaged communities.
Incineration of household waste has gotten a bad name, argues an economist, who sees today’s recycling crisis as an opportunity to reconsider how the U.S. handles its waste.