Climate Action
How Our Trash Impacts the Environment
July 9, 2024
Over two billion metric tons of unsustainable, human-generated waste are thrown away globally every year, entering our environment and polluting every ecosystem around the world. If we continue practicing waste management strategies as we do today, the total waste generation for 2050 is projected to be around 3.78 billion metric tons, representing a 1.66 billion metric ton increase in waste since 2020. In other words, we are creating more trash than ever!
Sixty-two percent of global waste is collected in controlled municipal facilities, with the remaining 38% dumped, burned, or discarded. Of the total municipal waste that is collected, 19% is recycled and 30% ends up in sanitary landfills. Sanitary landfills essentially try to keep the trash “out” of the environment, away from water sources, for example. They also use landfill gas collection systems to keep greenhouse gasses (GHGs), created by decomposing trash, from being released directly into the atmosphere.
Trash Exacerbates Climate Change
In the United States, the primary system for controlling waste is the use of these ‘sanitary’ landfills, this type of site is expensive to operate and only accounts for 8% of the world’s landfills in total.
The most common type of landfill, accounting for 31% globally, is an ‘open’ system. These landfill systems allow different types of waste, such as microplastics and toxic chemicals, to leak out of the trash and into the soil, groundwater, and nearby waterways.
These open landfill sites also allow greenhouse gasses, like carbon dioxide and methane, to be released directly into the atmosphere. Researchers have discovered that 20% of the total methane emissions from human-related sources are produced from open waste landfill sites. Methane is one of the largest contributors to climate change with a warming potential over 80 times greater than carbon dioxide.
This means that even though innovative climate mitigation strategies, including the development of various climate-resilient policies, are trying to tackle the problem of climate change, our poor waste management is undermining these efforts.
A recent Harvard study showed that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across seventy U.S. landfills were on average 77% higher than estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This crucial lack of reliable government data is deeply concerning and may mean we are vastly underestimating how much landfills sites are contributing to GHG emissions and therefore impacting climate change.
Trash Is Killing Wildlife
Increasingly we are treating our oceans as a dumping ground too and the vast majority of the trash we are dumping is made of plastics.
All kinds of marine species, from fish to mammals to birds to crustaceans, consume fragments of this plastic or solid waste as it degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. Wildlife is often unable to distinguish between food and plastic waste and in some cases they are even attracted to it by its smell.
Researchers have found that an estimated 19 to 23 million tons of plastic waste are dumped in our oceans annually, with 1,500 different species having been found to have consumed toxic plastics and microplastics, primarily whales, sea turtles, and seabirds. For example, a krill-obligate blue whale is said to ingest 10 million pieces of microplastic every single day. Plastic pollution is even becoming the daily diet for most sea-birds, as a staggering 90% of them consume plastics and many of them get sick and die as a result. Even if these creatures don’t consume plastics in one form or another, plastic trash often injures and maims them.
Some of this ocean plastic is entering the human food chain when we eat the crustaceans and fish that have consumed microplastics. Our waste problem is severely plaguing the health of the world’s species, including our own.
Trash Impacts Human Health
Human health is being deeply impacted by this lack of environmental accountability and awareness. Over 1,000 chemicals used in the manufacturing of millions of different plastic products on the market today are classified as endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic. They have been associated with some cancers, infertility, Alzheimer's, miscarriage, developmental issues and more.
PFAS, also known as 'forever chemicals', have been in existence since the 1940s and are used on items to repel oil and water, which makes them useful in products like nonstick cookware, stain resistant clothing, and firefighting foam. When these items are dumped in landfills, it creates another pathway for these dangerous chemicals to enter the environment, where they can ultimately poison us and all other living creatures.
Bad trash management could be the downfall of humanity, wildlife, and the health of all ecosystems. If emissions from landfills continue to increase, as projections forecast, our climate will not only be negatively impacted, but human health will be too. It’s a sobering fact that even though high-income countries only account for 16% of the world’s population, they are responsible for 34 percent, or 683 million metric tons, of the world’s trash. There’s never been a better time to find out more about plastic pollution and how you can help reduce your own waste. Think before you buy, do I really need this item or will I use it a few times and throw it in the trash? Reject fast fashion, give up single-use plastics for good and sign our plastic petition.
