two articles- continental drift and incinerators

The first article called "Continental Drift-How Much Might UK Waste Exports Grow? explains how Eunomia is headed for overcapacity and they are scared that soon the trash will build up so much that it will fall all on them. This article shows the different imports and exports from UK to other places. Most of Northern Europe has overcapacity as it shows on the maps. This article explains how exporting is better then incinerators as the UK does. The big question in the future for UK is if they should continue with the use of incinerators or even make them bigger. 

The next article "Burning waste has many negative environmental, social and health consequences" by Gaia explain how incinerators are very harmful because it is filled with many toxic chemicals that effects our air, water, and land. It is also stated that these toxins enter our food chain and they can cause many heath issues. They also explain how the ask from the incinerators need to have their own landfills because of all the ash. Due to the fact that this is a finite planet, it is crucial that very end this habit of consuming and disposing. This article states that it is better to recycle then to do the waste-to-engergy incinerators. It is sad to hear that they are proposing to putting incinerators in poor countries, not only are they suffering from shortages of food and other necessities but they have to live with even more health problems due to the toxins from these incinerators. 

Garbology Chapter 11

This chapter talks mostly about Portland, Oregon. Humes explains how they are very green and they even have more bicycle racks then actual parking space along with many bike lanes. They also have Alphine chalets which are cable cars which take people everywhere from downtown, to universities, to medical centers as Humes states.  Although Portland makes a lot of trash, they do all that they can to be green. They divert as much trash as they can. In Arlington they have a experimental process called plasma gastification that uses electrical energy to vaporize the trash. Humes states "This garbage death ray reduces trash volume by 99 percent, not even leaving ash behind"(Humes 251).  This process is very expensive unfortunately. I thought it would be an amazing way to get rid of trash! Another place Humes talks about is Copenhagen, Denmark. They seem to have it all worked out, from everyone on bikes, to energy independence, to using zero fossil fuels in the future. Only 3 to 4 percent of their trash goes to their landfills, Humes states. They are turning trash into a energy source. They keep waste to energy plants by their neighborhoods, saying that most are proud of it. Denmark runs most of its power on wind! The rest in energy from their trash!

Garbology Chapter 10

 Chapter 10 was eye catching to me because instead of just talking the talk, Andy Keller made a solution to our trash crisis. His focus was on the plastic bags, he went to the landfill and was astonished by the amount of plastic bags dumped there. He came up with a solution, and Humes says he wasn't even a skilled worker in this particular subject. He started making reusable bags to substitute plastic bags called ChicoBags. He started selling them but it was slow as many of us know that people find it more convenient to just get plastic bags. I think he is very smart for selling it to schools as funrasier instaed of candies that schools already selled. This way, it was healthy and eco-friendly. Schools started to sell them and Keller relly got dediated to it as he would go edcuare the students on the amount of plastic nags being used. Humes says they did an experiment where everyone would get as much plastic bags as they had form home, bring it to school, and see how many times it wnet arounf the school. Everyone was surpiresded with the amount. Keller breally opened the eyes of many. He also came up with "Bag Monster" it was sort of like a mascot as u can see in the picture above. Humes states that schools loved hime and would want him to go make demonstrations about why plastic bags are bad. He even made a website about bag monster and he made tour where he would show people why plastic was bad and his friends helped by doing the same. He really is passionate about trying to ban plastic bags! Sadly plastic bag companise started getting mad with the Bag Monster, but then Humes states that San Francisco banned the use of plastic bags in grocery stores! There were so many other places that took the heat from plastic companies and it became a plastic war!

Garbology Chapter 9

Chapter 9 is very interesting because Humes talks about how trash was used as art. I though tit was very creative and a good way to educate people on the amount of trash that is being thrown away. It was interesting to me that in San Francisco , they had to separate their trash into different piles or else they would be fined! Humes states 1,000 dollars fine! That to me seemed like a great idea because people will be more willing to help their environment in a orderly system. The residents in San Francisco would have campaigns about getting rid of trash or even just making others be aware of the garbage crisis. They would use their art to symbolize the overload of trash in the environment. Hume also explains what recycling theft is and why it is important to watch out for. Basically it is when people grab things from others' recycling bins and go to recycling centers and sell them as their own, doing so effects the garbage/recycling companies because they waste gas and time coming to pick up peoples recycling. When they get there, the recycling bins are empty. The Dump seemed so intersting, many that work their are fascinated with the trash they get and Humes states that they act like archeologists or scientists figuring out the uses for the trash. It is definitely a different way to look at our trash crisis.

Garbology Chapter 8

This chapter did not really catch my attention, although some parts were important to know. Bill Rathje, the archeologist, started a garbage project which basically was used with his students. They did independent projects on the difference in trash between a poor family and a rich family. They said it was pretty equal but the poor family spent more on child education. There was one quote that Rathje said that I found very true "Most people don't know their trash...but through their trash, we sure do know a lot about them."I found that very interesting and also very true. Trash can tell you so much about the person throwing it away, even in the ancient times. Archeologist have found out so much about the past from their trash. That is very interesting. Due to the successful experiment with the two families (the poor and rich) , the Garbage Project became huge and spread more and more. They used the garbage project from examining food wastes to toxic household waste. The Garbage Project also helped with the incomes and demographics in different neighborhoods.

Response to article about incinerators

The question was "How would you feel about having one of these state-of-the-art plants — lovely or unlovely — in your town, in your neighborhood?"

 I wouldn't mind having it in my town because it is helping get rid of trash and our planet is already very toxic so a incinerator isn't going to harm us as much as we are doing already. I think ot would be a good idea especially because it gives off electricity and heat. 

Garbology Chapter 7

This chapter was odd for me because I never knew that trash could be tracked! I thought it was just trash, like it didn't matter where it went. So they would put a electronic tracker in the trash and locate where it would end up from what I took of it. Seattle is very eco-friendly and it was interesting to find pout that they recycle about 50 percent due to the Trash Track as it states in Garbology, page 148. There were three ways the trash technology would work and Humes was very descriptive about it. So Humes explains how many electronics were disposed and as I looked at the chart, I realized most of them had a high rate of disposed. Very little was recycled, that was very sad to hear. all these things that spend tons of money on aren't even being reused. So we are basically buying things to just throw away later. Just for temporary entertainment.

Garbology Chapter 6

This chapter was so interesting and I really learned so much! First off, I really respect Miriam Goldstein, the scientist, because she has so much dedication to do all these experiments on plastic in the ocean. She even says that it is more difficult to examine plastic in the ocean then an archeologist or paleontologist because you cant know the exact age of the plastic. So most experiments are difficult to declare, due to uncertain elements. In other words, they cant say exactly where and when the plastic got to where it is. Humes really shows how he feels about the plastic in the trash and from what I got, he seems to be very annoyed and worried about it. The sad part was learning about how the sea animals had little plastics in their body, which then transfers to our body due to seafood markets and restaurants. Another thing that caught my attention was when Humes said that Goldstein, "Pacific Garbage Patch", found garbage floating around twice as large as Texas!!! You could find that on page 130 of Garbology. He also blames it all on man-kind, because he says "as Goldenstein points out, there's really nothing to debate about who and what is turning the oceans into plastic soup, as plastic is a completely man-made substance"(Humes 135). When I read this quote, I put 3 stars by it to show how much I loved that! I mean, he does have a point and it clearly shows that it is man-kind's fault. There was so much information in this chapter, I spent so long highlighting things and writing little notes and stars for things I not only found interesting, but that I agreed with.

Review of "19-year-old student develops..."

First off let me just say how amazing it is that this boy is only 19 years old! If he can think of the solution to helping our environment, why can't the government? I mean he thought of something that can get rid of more then 7 million tons of trash! He thought of a way that can separate plastic from the plankton so the fish would not mix them up. It is greta that this method would save money, trash clean ups, and our environment. I do not see why we can't go along with his method, the least we can do is use less plastic.

Review for "Plastic in Pacific..." Article

It was so shocking to read that the garbage in the Pacific Garbage Patch is 100 times more then it was around 40 years ago! That's crazy! I never knew how horrible plastic was until I read that most of the oceans surface was filled with thousands of it. Not only is it surrounding our land but it is stuck inside the stomachs of the fish in the sea. Which is also stated in Garbology. I get the land being polluted with tons of garbage but the ocean? Next time I visit the ocean, it might not be as relaxing.

Garbology Chapter 5

This was one of the most interesting chapters of the book so far because it dealt with the ocean. I never realized how much garbage affects our ocean! I mean it is crazy to think about the amount of trash dumped into the water. It was sad to read about how many marine mammals and birds died due to the amounts of garbage thrown in the ocean. Another part that really got my attention was when Humes said that the little pieces of plastic floats around the ocean, the little fish eat the plastic thinking it is plankton, then the bigger fish eat the little fish, then we eat the big fish. So, in other words we have plastic in our body! It even said that there are little plastics our in our body washes which are substituting bar soap. It seems so weird to learn about all these plastics stuck in places you would never expect. It was really odd to learn about nurdles, which are basically pre plastic beads almost like liquid. It was said that 10 percent of beach clean ups consist of nurdles. Now when I go to the beach, I am going to be more aware of all that was stated in chapter 5.