Description of Environmental Problems

Description of the Environmental Problems Recycling is more than just waste control; it is a responsibility for the conservation of resources. As the years have passed, the influx of individuals entering the United States and natives alike, who are unequipped with the proper paradigm to fully understand the colossal advantages recycling has on their state and greater still, our world as a whole, do the environment a grave injustice. The world is only able to produce so much and if people don’t work to preserve what the finite resources the earth, as we know will be a cesspool of waste. The problem that seems to readily exist is the limited emphasis put on the process of salvage and reuse. This is a progressive society and without alarming statistics in order to grab the attention of those who dismiss reprocessing as too time consuming or a nuisance won’t conform. Mother Earth will be emaciated and uninhabitable in the future if enough people don’t recognize the scarcity of resources this epidemic can create. The outcry to recycle is not being expressed loudly enough, nor is an alternative, and as a result our earths ability for infinite life and growth is being challenged. There needs to be a mandatory computation for families sent out, like a census, to track their usage for a week to as a means of bringing like to the amount of waste being generated. In calculating my own use, as a family of five, I found my landfill bag to be the fullest at the end of the week, yet the recyclables, paper included, weighed the most. Paper in my home is abundance, yet the more paper the less trees and although this destroys a living organism and seems to be the easiest for anyone to recycle, although, its the most discarded. Deciding what belonged in each bag was a relatively simply duty, I have been recycling, although not always properly, until recently, for over ten years, so what started out as a time consuming necessary evil is now a way of life. The product that was discarded the most was paper in the recycling bin, some of which was never read just a sheer waste of trees and most on non-recycled paper, pull-ups were the most discarded in the landfill container and a two lunch meat containers went into the reuse bin. Recycling isn’t a hard chore if you look at it as regular occurrence, like brushing your teeth, it’s just something you do daily. Recycling is a crucial precursor for the longevity of the earth among other things and a minor task for me to continue. It is also a lifestyle that must be invoked to keep equilibrium among insatiable wants of humans and the necessities of the earth in order to remain sustainable, and R. Edward Freeman, Jessica Pierce and Richard Dodd concur by stating: The conservation mind-set tells us to conserve the earth's resources for the future. The moral and practical presuppositions for this mind-set are several. First, we have to believe that many of the resources basic to human survival (e. . , clean water, arable land, breathable air, forests, other species) are scarce, a fact the conservationists believe has been amply proved. Second, we have a moral responsibility to future generations and must be willing to frame our activities now in the context of future needs. In theory, people would have a moral responsibility to the quality of life for future generations and exercise it, but in r eality, people don’t care or don’t respond adequately to the human element and even less about wildlife and their habitat. Despite our best efforts the question still remains, are landfills the most environmentally safe and cost effective device to promote a healthy environment? The are some pessimist who respond negatively to the idea of recycling as some argue that without proper waste management options it cost more to recycle that to just discard. The National Resources Defense Council, quoted a writer, John Tierney, from â€Å"Recycling is Garbage†: The simplest and cheapest option is usually to bury garbage in an environmentally safe landfill. There’s little reason to worry about modern landfills, which by federal law must be lined with clay and plastic, equipped with drainage and gas-collection system, covered daily with soil and monitored regularly for underground leaks. In conflicting information it shows that this is an incorrect statement, because landfills are not inexpensive and the danger to the environmental has been noted as dangerous but conflicting on the level of toxicity. Recommendations The Merriam-Webster collegiate dictionary describes recycling as â€Å"to pass again through a series of changes or treatments; to return to an original condition so that operation can begin again†. Recycling is clearly the only way to prolong the life of the planet, but the lingering problem is what manner to do the recycling? Landfills are no longer the optimum choice because of the long-term consequence and no one is fully prepared to have a landfill in their neighborhood. â€Å"It is likely that regional prosperity would be enhanced if every community were more self-reliant†¦ and recycle locally† (NRDC, 1997). The use of state of the art less emission incinerators would be an option or the use of less packing supplies for items that are unbreakable (apparel, books and rubber exercise equipment and accompanying tapes), are all item that could use less packing. People are driven by money, use the same incentive that make people return pop cans and if there were a price put on the amount of recycling it would stand to increase considerably. Over the years, people attempting to reduce their trash started burning it which is more harmful to the environment from the fumes alone and other methods have tried and failed.