Why do we create so much trash for the landfills?

[gtaus]

One big problem is that appliances now days are made to last 7 to 10 years and not to be repaired. When we bought our house we bought new stove and fridge and that was 35 years ago, they are still in use now. We have friends that are on there 4th fridge in the same amount of time and they need to call a service tech about every other month.

Electronics are not repairable, either, in the sense that it is almost always cheaper to buy a new, better, product than to fix the older unit.

My brother bought a new freezer that lasted less than 1 year. Had to be replaced under warranty. The company made no effort to fix it. They just replaced it. And yes, the old freezer was about 25 years old, still worked, but was energy inefficient and cost a lot to run.

The other thing I hate are the plastic bags at the store, I may be wrong but would say for every bag recycled 2 go to the land fill or are blowing around the world. When offered I always get paper, they break down and is a renewable resource.

Our local WalMart has a plastic grocery bag recycling bin. Dear Wife drops off our plastic bags when she shops there. I cannot think of any stores that even offer paper bags where I live.

 

[gtaus]

I used to live in Michigan. My sister-in-law’s parents owned a trash collecting company. Unless there is an order for recyclable stuff, and there aren’t that many besides aluminum, it all goes in the land fill anyway.

That's what I suspected.

Most people do their best.

I would respectfully disagree. I think relatively few people attempt to separate their trash and recyclables, but it's just too easy for most people just to throw everything into the garbage. There is no penalty for putting recyclables into the regular garbage. I suppose that is because the recyclables are ending up in the same landfill despite our best efforts.

Maybe if we had to pay a fee per bag of garbage, but the recyclable materials bags were free, there would be more effort to save money and people would take the time and effort to sort out those items that could be recycled. Unfortunately, if everything ends up in the same landfill, I don't imagine that the garbage company has any incentive to change.

Kids in diapers etc cause a lot more trash as well.

I grew up in the days of cloth diapers. So, no plastic diapers in the landfill from me 100 years or more after I leave this Earth. But I don't know of any young parents that want to go back to cloth diapers. I don't see that happening. Maybe diapers could be made of some kind of biodegradable material? I'm getting to the age where I might need those adult pull-ups, so it's not just baby diapers that fill up the trash.

 

[Smokerbill]

Washington state banned single use plastic grocery bags a while back, though there are still single use bags in the meat and produce departments. I still have a bunch of the "banned" bags saved up, because I use them as my trash bags in my small trash can. Can't see spending money on real trash bags that are just going to be thrown away.

Glass is not accepted in the recycle container here, because broken glass causes problems in the recycling stream. Paper, cardboard, certain plastics, aluminum and steel cans are accepted. Every year they trash company adjusts the cost of service, which depends on how much revenue they received for the recyclable materials.

I save a lot of the glass jars and plastic food containers to reuse. They come in handy at times. I don't buy much in the way of processed or ready-to-eat foods either, and the way those are packaged usually create a lot of waste.

I started using chicken feed bags as trash bags too. I have a single 35 gallon trash can that's scheduled for pickup once a month, and it's usually only about half full, so I don't really contribute much to the landfill.

 

[Stravager]

The problem with recycling plastics is that it also uses a lot of water, and then the water gets billions of tons of microplastics in it. If they don't properly filter that out, then all of that microplastic just ends up in our water systems anyway. At the end of the day mass recycling can be just as damaging to the environment as tossing things into a landfill or burning it. The only real way recycling makes an impact in North America is by individuals doing what folks like on this site are doing and reusing materials.
And paper, sadly, is not as renewable of a resource as we might think. The Amazon rainforest is currently getting deforested at an alarming rate to grow plantations for palm oil and in North America our trees are getting cut down for mining operations or toilet paper. Bamboo forests are apparently also at risk now.
Reduce buying, reuse as much as possible, and that will equal your recycling.

 

[SourRoses]

We produce a lot of trash. Mostly from bulky food packaging, since we do all our own cooking. Eating out is a rare treat.
There are only a few things the manufacturers have gotten better at packaging, like sour cream that now comes in squeeze tubes that shrink down to nothing in the trash. But I'm often surprised at the waste from cooking just one meal. Granted, our meals tend to be a little involved...

We don't have a close enough recycling center, so we separate the cardboard and burn it when we handle the fallen tree branches.
The house we're renting has really terrible ancient plumbing, so no paper products get flushed, and honestly, I can't bear the idea of trying to burn that stuff, so it all goes to the landfill.
Then there's kitty litter, cat food cans (stinky), dog food tubs, etc. Water bottles because we can't drink from our tap.

In my opinionated view, people tend to blame the consumer for daring to try to exist within this system, for making choices based on taste or efficacy that make life more enjoyable.
But it's the companies that decide what a product gets packaged in. We shouldn't have to force them; it should be an easy decision to switch. The squeeze tubes would work for a great deal of liquids. Some things could be bagged in waxed paper, like fruits and veg.
Instead, all the moral burden is supposed to fall on the consumer...

 

[Stravager]

In my opinionated view, people tend to blame the consumer for daring to try to exist within this system, for making choices based on taste or efficacy that make life more enjoyable.
But it's the companies that decide what a product gets packaged in. We shouldn't have to force them; it should be an easy decision to switch.

The consumer does indeed have to exist within a very flawed system. The entire system is designed to choke the life out of the poor and increase the riches of the wealthy. No company is going to care about switching to eco-friendly packaging when the eco-friendly version costs three times as much to produce as cling wrap - if they do, they pass the cost on to the consumer.
All you can do is avoid over packaged foods as much as possible. For example, buy a whole watermelon rather than the ridiculous pre-sliced packs they serve.
But at the end of the day, no one should be shamed for buying and consuming goods. That is the entire foundation of North America, and the entire point of a consumer economy - it is designed to force you to buy buy buy.

 

[gtaus]

Washington state banned single use plastic grocery bags a while back, though there are still single use bags in the meat and produce departments. I still have a bunch of the "banned" bags saved up, because I use them as my trash bags in my small trash can. Can't see spending money on real trash bags that are just going to be thrown away.

I think the state of Washington has been much more concerned about the environment than many other states. Minnesota does OK in some areas, but I think we could do better.

I started using chicken feed bags as trash bags too.

Probably a good use for them. I have a bunch of feed bags saved up for something.

I have a single 35 gallon trash can that's scheduled for pickup once a month, and it's usually only about half full, so I don't really contribute much to the landfill.

Sounds great to me. Reduce that trash to the landfill!

 

[Henfla]

Not quite sure what you mean by a renovation company. Maybe it's lost in the translation. Where I live, we have a large company that accepts our trash and recyclables. We drive up to a building called a transfer station. There, we can put recyclables in one bin and the trash goes into other bins.



A couple of years ago, all our recyclable materials is now able to be combined together in our recycle bins. So, all glass, metal, plastic, and paper get dumped into the same recycle bin. One is supposed to assume that the recyclables get transferred to a place where they are sorted out. However, I have never heard of such a facility, and I suspect everything just gets dumped into a landfill in a third world country or someplace out of sight for those of us in the US.

I don't know that to be true, but you would think that if our recyclables were actually being recycled that the local, country, or state governments would be advertising how much waste was recycled and what it was used for. Other than paying for the mandatory trash service in our local property taxes, there is no accounting for what happens to any of our recyclable trash.



I'm all for reducing the amount of trash in our environment. It bothers me to think about some trash I use and throw away may be on Earth for hundreds of years after I am gone.

There are a few small changes that address the recycling issue on the front end. For example, Amazon now ships most of their products in environmentally friendly cardboard with biodegradable labels and packing tape so it could be tossed into a compost pile instead of a landfill.

Where I live, newspapers are mandated to use environmentally friendly soy based inks, which allow the newspapers to be composted. Before, they used inks that were toxic to the soil. So, it's small steps like that that are nice to see because they add up fast.

Sorry, we call trash handling for renovation Maybe you call them recycling company?

Yes, I also believe that if they don't get the trash already sorted, it won't happen. Where my parents live, they actually have like four bins instead of having two like we do outside our house and instead of having bags of different colour like we do, they just throw for example all the paper in the designated bin, and then they have to put the bins by the road on certain days. I think it's enough to just have two like we do, because I struggle enough as it is with remembering to put the bin by the road every tuesday evening, and every other month I also have to remember the bin for glass and metal.

I think the newspaper thing is very smart. I know that some food waste in my country are being used for making biofuel.

 

[gtaus]

The problem with recycling plastics is that it also uses a lot of water, and then the water gets billions of tons of microplastics in it. If they don't properly filter that out, then all of that microplastic just ends up in our water systems anyway. At the end of the day mass recycling can be just as damaging to the environment as tossing things into a landfill or burning it. The only real way recycling makes an impact in North America is by individuals doing what folks like on this site are doing and reusing materials.

Yes, I have seen a number of YouTube videos about microplastics in the ocean's waters. It's a problem. I think we need to find a bacteria or something that eats and destroys all those plastic products. That would be nice. Or, maybe someone can invent a plastic that is not as toxic to the environment.

And paper, sadly, is not as renewable of a resource as we might think.

Which is why I shed almost all our paper products at home, use the paper shreds as chicken coop litter, then the coop litter gets tossed into the chicken run composting system to decompose. In a manner of months, I use that compost for the raised garden beds.

Reduce buying, reuse as much as possible, and that will equal your recycling.

I don't know about reduce buying, we pretty much buy only what we need. I try to reuse or repurpose our containers, even if only one more time before they get trashed.

I think the three R's of recyling, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle should be expanded to another R. I propose we have four R's: Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle.

The difference between reuse and repurpose is that reusing is using that item for the same job, whereas repurposing is thinking of new ways to use all or part of the item for a completely different job. Like cutting a plastic 2-liter bottle and using the top half as a funnel and the bottom half as a pot for plants. Or, that empty plastic peanut butter jar might make a good container for screws and nails out in the garage.

 

[Stravager]

Yes, I have seen a number of YouTube videos about microplastics in the ocean's waters. It's a problem. I think we need to find a bacteria or something that eats and destroys all those plastic products. That would be nice. Or, maybe someone can invent a plastic that is not as toxic to the environment.

Eco-friendly plastics exist, but they're expensive to make in comparison. Would be really nice if they would figure out how to mainstream them and bring down the cost.

And a lot of people buy way more than what they need, sadly. Myself included. Online shopping can be an evil thing. XD