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| Green City : Solid Waste |
 Beginning with Earth Day 1970, the
environmental and recycling movement re-opened public debate by
establishing the connections between the throw-away society, the
dangers of land filling and incineration, and broader
resource-conservation issues. It became clear that burying in
landfills unconscionable and often toxic quantities of natural
resources, including the world's forests (in the form of paper and
wood products), non-renewable petroleum reserves (in the form of
plastics and tires), other limited natural resources (including
semi-precious metals like aluminum). Even nutrients from diminishing
agricultural top-soil were being buried in the form of food waste.
Independent recycling centers were opened in the City to try to stem
this colossal waste.
Local solid waste generation is increasingly the result of broader
national and international market trends, including increased
production of disposable products and the use of packaging as a
marketing tool. Efforts to achieve sustainable urban waste
management must tackle the difficult question of commodities and
packaging arriving from distant sources, used and discarded locally,
and processed and returned to distant manufacturers and agricultural
users.
The three fundamental approaches to reducing waste are 1) to avoid
creating waste in the first place, 2) to purchase durable,
repairable products and reusable packaging, and 3) to purchase more
products made from recycled materials in order to strengthen
commodities markets for recovered materials. These strategies, in
addition to expanding access to neighborhood recycling centers and
improved recycling collection and processing programs that target
more materials, will reduce waste stream.
 This commitment will yield significant rewards beyond resource
conservation and reduced land filling. Recycling and waste reduction
represent a major local-economy growth sector that is still largely
untapped. Recycling and reuse are significantly more labor-intensive
than garbage hauling, and create a new source of jobs in collection,
processing, and repair or manufacturing the kind of jobs for
people with low skill levels that have become increasingly scarce.
Business taxes from such recycling and reuse businesses will also
expand local government revenues.
To date, waste reduction has been largely voluntary. A more
effective approach must include economic incentives that make it
more expensive to waste, and more cost-effective to recycle and
reuse. Eventually, consideration must be given to mandatory
measures, including disposal bans on locally recyclable materials or
mandatory recycling for businesses and residents. Finally,
businesspeople in every economic sector including the construction,
manufacturing, wholesale, retail and service industries must take
responsibility for wise resource use.
True sustainability, which implies eliminating garbage collection
service and landfilling will require dramatic changes to almost
every economic transaction. Moving toward sustainability will
transform many of the day-to-day activities of consumers, workers,
and business people.
Source: http://www.sustainable-city.org/ |
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