Zero Waste Would Mean a Zero Economy??
The head of a plastic bag industry group, whose full-time job consists of battling local bans on disposable grocery sacks, made a provocative observation to me about trash recently: Don’t be so quick to reject waste, he warned.
Equating green with economic ruin is a familiar refrain, of course, but this claim about waste is worth a hard look. Trash really is the biggest thing Americans make, and it tends to get bigger in good times while shrinking during recession. Does that mean, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, that garbage is good? Should the old saw about waste not, want not really be waste more, get more? Should Americans just chill out and revel in the fact that we are the most wasteful people on the planet, rolling to the curb 7.1 pounds of trash a day for every man, woman and child — a personal lifetime legacy of 102 tons of garbage each? Doesn’t that just show that we’re buying lots of stuff and living large?
Just the opposite. After immersing in the world of Garbology for the last year and a half I’ve learned some shocking truths about the high costs of our garbage. Here are some numbers to consider.
Americans make twice as much waste per person as in 1960. Most of the increase is from “instant trash’ — packaging, wraps, containers and bags, the biggest component of our garbage these days.
Garbage is our No. 1 export. Not computers, cars or planes. Our biggest export is the scrap paper and metal that China turns into products and packaging, which they sell back to us. America has turned itself into China’s trash compactor.
According to the best available data (from a biannual surveys of American landfills by Columbia University and the journal BioCycle), the average American makes 7.1 pounds of trash a day. That compares to 2.5 pounds per person in Japan.
The Johnsons’ household expenses have dropped by 40%, making college funds, a hybrid car and cool vacations possible. Their non-recycled, non-compostable trash fits in a mason jar — for the year.
Zero waste doesn’t mean zero economy. It means a different economy, with different winners. And fewer mountains of garbage.
Precycling? What will they think of next??
Author: Ed Humes Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of twelve nonfiction books, the latest being Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash. Humes' recent trilogy of environmental books also includes Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet and Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution. His other books tell stories of crime, juvenile justice, education, science, and medicine. No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court received a PEN Award for nonfiction, and Humes' definitive account of a modern-day Scopes Trial, Monkey Girl, received Silver Gavel honors for its depiction of America's evolution wars. He received his Pulitzer for his newspaper coverage of the military. He has taught writing, journalism, and literary nonfiction at graduate and undergraduate levels, and he has written for the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Sierra Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine. He lives in Southern California.