Throw Away, Recycle or Reuse

Mia Moore

In exercising our single civic duty as American citizens to shop, we produce an amazing amount of waste.

The fact is, we live on a finite planet which sustains the lives of every human who has ever lived and will ever live, making our waste and its final destination a huge problem.

The answer couldn't possibly be as simple as throwing it into the trash can, setting it out on the curb to be taken to a landfill. It just feels wrong. Most of use have been conditioned to believe recycling is the best answer to our waste problem. Recycling makes rational sense and makes us feel good. But is it the solution to the problem?

The answers vary depending on who you're talking to. The pro-recyclers have already made up their minds and committed fully to recycling. You may have noticed an almost religious-like connection to this solution, complete with projecting judgement of moral superiority. Pro-recyclers often site landfills as the biggest problem because they leak toxins into our soil and pollute nearly every level of our eco-system.

However, there are some who argue that U.S. landfills, using state of the art double lining requiring all landfills by law, protect the groundwater from contamination. Additionally, these landfills can be harvested for the methane gas produced by the decomposing waste as alternative energy capable of provided enough energy for neighboring towns. They further state that recycling is not minimizing this net pollution but rather creating a new, equally polluting industry offsetting any good recycling claims to accomplish such as the bleaching chemicals used in the manufacturing of recycled paper.

In other countries, they have a different practice. You can buy a bottle of water, return to the store for another, but you will charged extra if you don't bring back the original bottle for reuse. This must be the solution, one bottle for life!

The problem is that "over time, the bottles develop cracks and crevices where the bacteria can easily collect. It's important people swap out their bottles as much as possible". The article from Fox Oregon states that after only a couple days after throughly washing, "the bottle contained 4,100 bacteria colonies", twice the acceptable amount according to Coffey Laboratories in northeast Portland.

Of course the bottled water is just an example of reuse. Other former waste materials find a new use after their original intent is finished.

So what can we do? Make our products last longer, construct a more efficient recycling program, create a safer landfill and disposal system or is it something we have yet to think of?