Where Does Our Trash Go?

The Life Cycle of Garbage

Once we have taken out the trash, we often forget that it all has to go somewhere. But
not many of us know exactly where it goes, nor do we usually think about it. The Life
Cycle of Garbage shows what happens to your trash once it leaves your home, to give
you an idea of where it ends up and how much of it there really is.
The Life Cycle of Garbage begins in your home:
Your kitchen trash can fills up...
.
So you take the garbage bag out to your curbside trash container...
And the garbage man comes to empty it...
But what happens to all your trash once the garbage man takes it away?
Typically it goes to a Transfer Station...

A transfer station is where local trash is taken and dumped before it is transferred to its
final destination. The final destination could be:
A Landfill...
where the waste is buried and left to decompose, a process which takes hundreds of
years even for biodegradable materials...
An Incinerator

where the garbage is burned and turns into ash and heat, sometimes used to generate
energy (calledwaste-to-energy)...
Or a Recycling Center
where it will be transferred to a manufacturing plant so these materials can be used to
make new products!
If waste is not correctly managed, it can end up harming the environment and
polluting our air and water. Illegally dumped trash and litter can end up:
Littering our Communities
Or In the Ocean

This is why it is so important that we put our trash into the proper containers and
recycle as much as we can. Garbage does not simply disappear once it leaves our
homes, it all ends up somewhere and has an impact on every single person in some
way.
Small actions can have a huge impact. Find out how you can help! Contact us today
to see how you can help support the Lawrence County Solid Waste District's mission by
contributing to proper solid waste management in your community.
Waste and wastes implies unwanted or unusable materials.
The term is often subjective (because waste to one person is not necessarily waste to another) and
sometimes objectively inaccurate (for example, to send scrap metals to a landfill is to inaccurately

classify them as waste, because they are recyclable). Examples include municipal solid
waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains
bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.

Definitions[edit]
United Nations Environment Programme[edit]
According to the Basel Convention,
"'Wastes' are substances or objects, which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are
required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law"[1]

Schematic illustration of the EU Legal definition of waste.

United Nations
Statistics[edit]

Statistics

Division, Glossary

of

Environment

"Wastes are materials that are not prime products (that is products produced for the market) for
which the initial user has no further use in terms of his/her own purposes of production,
transformation or consumption, and of which he/she wants to dispose. Wastes may be generated
during the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw materials into intermediate and final
products, the consumption of final products, and other human activities. Residuals recycled or
reused at the place of generation are excluded."[2]

European Union[edit]
Under the Waste Framework Directive, the European Union defines waste as "an object the holder
discards, intends to discard or is required to discard."[3]

Types[edit]
Main article: List of waste types
There are many waste types defined by modern systems of waste management, notably including:

Municipal waste includes Household waste, Commercial waste, and Demolition waste

Hazardous waste includes Industrial waste

Biomedical waste includes clinical waste

Special Hazardous

waste includes Radioactive

waste,

explosives

waste,

and Electronic

waste (e-waste)

Reporting[edit]
There are many issues that surround reporting waste. It is most commonly measured by size or
weight, and there is a stark difference between the two. For example, organic wasteis much heavier
when it is wet, and plastic or glass bottles can have different weights but be the same size. [4] On a
global scale it is difficult to report waste because countries have different definitions of waste and
what falls into waste categories, as well as different ways of reporting. Based on incomplete reports
from its parties, the Basel Conventionestimated 338 million tonnes of waste was generated in
2001.[5] For the same year, OECD estimated 4 billion tonnes from its member countries.[6] Despite
these inconsistencies, waste reporting is still useful on a small and large scale to determine key
causes and locations, and to find ways of preventing, minimizing, recovering, treating, and disposing
waste.

Costs[edit]
Environmental costs[edit]

Waste not the Waste. Sign in Tamil Nadu, India

Inappropriately managed waste can attract rodents and insects, which can harbour gastrointestinal
parasites, yellow fever, worms, the plague and other conditions for humans, and exposure to
hazardous wastes, particularly when they are burned, can cause various other diseases including
cancers. Toxic waste materials can contaminate surface water, groundwater, soil, and air which
causes more problems for humans, other species, and ecosystems.[7] Waste treatment and disposal
produces significant green house gas (GHG) emissions, notably methane, which are contributing
significantly to global warming.[5]

Social costs[edit]
Waste management is a significant environmental justice issue. Many of the environmental burdens
cited above are more often borne by marginalized groups, such as racial minorities, women, and
residents of developing nations. NIMBY (not in my back yard) is the opposition of residents to a
proposal for a new development because it is close to them.[8] However, the need for expansion and
siting of waste treatment and disposal facilities is increasing worldwide. There is now a growing

market in the transboundary movement of waste, and although most waste that flows between
countries goes between developed nations, a significant amount of waste is moved from developed
to developing nations.[9]

Economic costs[edit]
The economic costs of managing waste are high, and are often paid for by municipal
governments;[10] money can often be saved with more efficiently designed collection routes,
modifying vehicles, and with public education. Environmental policies such as pay as you throw can
reduce the

cost of management and

reduce

waste

quantities. Waste

recovery (that

is, recycling, reuse) can curb economic costs because it avoids extracting raw materials and often
cuts transportation costs. "Economic assessment of municipal waste management systems case
studies using a combination of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC)".[11] The
location of waste treatment and disposal facilities often has an impact on property values due to
noise, dust, pollution, unsightliness, and negative stigma. The informal waste sector consists mostly
of waste pickers who scavenge for metals, glass, plastic, textiles, and other materials and then trade
them for a profit. This sector can significantly alter or reduce waste in a particular system, but other
negative economic effects come with the disease, poverty, exploitation, and abuse of its workers.[12]

Resource recovery[edit]
Main article: Resource recovery
Resource recovery is the retrieval of recyclable waste, which was intended for disposal, for a specific
next use.[13] It is the processing of recyclables to extract or recover materials and resources, or
convert to energy. This process is carried out at a resource recovery facility.[14] Resource recovery is
not only important to the environment, but it can be cost effective by decreasing the amount of waste
sent to the disposal stream, reduce the amount of space needed for landfills, and protect limited
natural resources.[15]

Energy recovery[edit]
Energy recovery from waste is using non-recyclable waste materials and extracting from it heat,
electricity, or energy through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation,
and anaerobic digestion.[16] This process is referred to as waste-to-energy.
There are several ways to recover energy from waste. Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring
process of decomposition where organic matter is reduced to a simpler chemical component in the
absence of oxygen.[16] Incineration or direct controlled burning of municipal solid waste to reduce
waste and make energy. Secondary recovered fuel is the energy recovery from waste that cannot be
reused or recycled from mechanical and biological treatment activities.[16] Pyrolysis involves heating
of waste, with the absence of oxygen, to high temperatures to break down any carbon content into a

mixture of gaseous and liquid fuels and solid residue.[16] Gasification is the conversion of carbon rich
material through high temperature with partial oxidation into a gas stream.[16] Plasma arc heating is
the very high heating of municipal solid waste to temperatures ranging from 3,000-10,000 C, where
energy is released by an electrical discharge in an inert atmosphere.[16]
Using waste as fuel can offer important environmental benefits. It can provide a safe and costeffective option for wastes that would normally have to be dealt with through disposal.[16] It can help
reduce carbon dioxide emissions by diverting energy use from fossil fuels, while also generating
energy and using waste as fuel can reduce the methane emissions generated in landfills by averting
waste from landfills.[16]
There is some debate in the classification of certain biomass feedstock as wastes. Crude Tall Oil
(CTO), a co-product of the pulp and papermaking process, is defined as a waste or residue in some
European countries when in fact it is produced on purpose and has significant value add potential
in industrial applications. Several companies use CTO to produce fuel,[17] while the pine chemicals
industry maximizes it as a feedstock producing low-carbon, bio-based chemicals through
cascading use.[18]

Education and awareness[edit]

Education and awareness in the area of waste and waste management is increasingly important
from a global perspective of resource management. The Talloires Declaration is a declaration
for sustainability concerned

about

the

unprecedented

scale

and

speed

of

environmental pollution and degradation, and the depletion of natural resources. Local, regional, and
global air pollution; accumulation and distribution of toxic wastes; destruction and depletion of
forests, soil, and water; depletion of the ozone layer and emission of "green house" gases threaten
the survival of humans and thousands of other living species, the integrity of the earth and
its biodiversity, the security of nations, and the heritage of future generations. Several universities
have implemented the Talloires Declaration by establishing environmental management and waste
management

programs,

e.g.

the

waste

management

universityproject. University and vocational education are promoted by various organizations,

e.g. WAMITAB and Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.

Gallery[edit]

Vegetable waste being dumped in a market inHyderabad

Weapon scraps

Agobox; Bio-medical Waste

Hospital waste

Waste collected in a tricycle

How much do we waste daily?

The average person generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day. This is 1.6 pounds more than most produced back
in 1960. Where does it all go?

Approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the
over 3,500 landfills. Municipal solid waste landfills are the second-largest source of human-related methane
emissions in the United States, accounting for approximately 22 percent of these emissions in 2008 (EPA,
2011).

What is waste and why is it a problem?

DEFINITION OF WASTE
Waste, or rubbish, trash, junk, garbage, depending on the type of material or the
regional terminology, is an unwanted or undesired material or substance. It may consist
of the unwanted materials left over from a manufacturing process (industrial,
commercial, mining or agricultural operations,) or from community and household
activities. The material may be discarded or accumulated, stored, or treated (physically,
chemically, or biologically), prior to being discarded or recycled. It is also used to
describe something we use inefficiently or inappropriately.

THE PROBLEM
Waste can be regarded as a human concept as there appears to be no such thing as
waste in nature. The waste products created by a natural process or organism quickly
become the raw products used by other processes and organisms. Recycling is
predominant, therefore production and decomposition are well balanced and nutrient
cycles continuously support the next cycles of production. This is the so-called circle of
life and is a strategy clearly related to ensuring stability and sustainability in natural
systems. On the other hand there are man-made systems which emphasize the
economic value of materials and energy, and where production and consumption are
the dominant economic activities. Such systems tend to be highly destructive of the
environment as they require massive consumption of natural capital and energy, return
the end product (waste) to the environment in a form that damages the environment and
require more natural capital be consumed in order to feed the system. Where resources
and space are finite (the Earth isnt getting any bigger) this is ultimately not
sustainable.
The presence of waste is an indication of overconsumption and that materials are not
being used efficiently. This is carelessly reducing the Earths capacity to supply new
raw materials in the future. The capacity of the natural environment to absorb and
process these materials is also under stress. Valuable resources in the form of matter
and energy are lost during waste disposal, requiring that a greater burden be placed on
ecosystems to provide these. The main problem is the sheer volume of waste being
produced and how we deal with it.
HOW IS WASTE DEALT WITH?
Most contemporary waste management efforts are focused at local government level
and based on high tech / high energy waste disposal by methods such as landfill and
incineration. However these methods are becoming increasingly expensive and energy
inefficient. The financial costs of managing the long-term environmental impacts of
waste disposal are many times what is actually charged for this service and in many
cases corrective action is not remotely feasible. The purely environmental costs such
as negative effects on habitat, wildlife and biodiversity are also recognised. In other
words waste disposal is not sustainable and will have negative implications for future
generations.

IS ORGANIC WASTE A PROBLEM?

Between 21% and 40% (by weight) of municipal solid waste in South African cities is
organic, increasing to up to 45% if you include paper and cardboard. If the soil
component of this waste is included, more than half the waste sent to landfill can be
used as a growing media for plants. Considering the investment that went into creating
the organic waste (and the nutrients and energy contained in it) this is too valuable a
resource to simply throw away. However, organic waste sent to a landfill rots under
anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions, giving off methane gas. Methane is one of the
'greenhouse gases' that trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
Methane is particularly bad in that weight for weight it traps 21 times more heat than
carbon
dioxide.
While garden waste can be shredded or chipped for use as mulch and compost, food
waste is putrescible (it becomes putrid, smelly) and attracts pests like rats and flies if it
is left to rot. In order to prevent potential health and environmental problems, food waste
is generally taken to landfills and buried or to fed to pigs. Feeding kitchen waste to pigs
is not an ideal solution to food waste as this practice can promote the spread of swine
fever, parasites and pathogens.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Clearly, more appropriate and sustainable approaches to waste need to be adopted. To
be sustainable we need to move the emphasis toward a system that is local, community
based, makes use of low tech / low energy systems and is focused on waste
minimisation. This is an approach which we at FullCycle advocate.
Other methods of managing waste include:

Waste minimization is an approach that aims to reduce the production of

waste through education and the adoption of improved production processes
and less wasteful practices.

Recycling, by separating certain materials within the waste stream and

reprocessing them. The recycling of many materials is currently not financially
viable.

Waste processing is treatment and recovery (use) of materials or energy from

waste through thermal, chemical, or biological means.

We believe that the ultimate goal of waste management efforts should be waste
minimization, however, waste processing and waste recycling play an important role in
improving production processes and in dealing with 'waste' in a manner that is more
environmentally and economically beneficial. Flows of materials and energy from
producers and consumers to processers / recyclers must be encouraged as happens in
natural ecosytems, and the elements of the system should be located in close proximity
to one another. This approach has actually been implemented on a very large scale, the
classic examples being the Kalundborg industrial complex in Denmark and the
Jyvaskyla industrial complex in Finland. Here a web of exchanges in materials and
energy exist between companies, effectively creating 'industrial ecosystems'.

While nations should aspire to such urban and industrial ecosystems, as individuals we
can start practically at a household level through recycling, energy efficiency and
environmentally beneficial technologies such as vermicomposting, grey water systems,

biogas generation, solar power and heating systems and so forth.

Organic waste is easily processed at domestic and medium to industrial scale by means
of vermicomposting and composting. Vermicompost, vermitea and compost greatly
improve the fertility and health of our soil, and will become increasingly important
resources to ensure our food security, as we reduce our dependance on inorganic
fertilisers produced from fossil fuels.

Our aim at FullCycle is to be part of the solution to the waste problem and to help and
encourage others in this endeavour because together we all can make a difference.