The American way of life is putting the planet to the test. Since the NGO Global Footprint Network calculates the famous “overshoot day” every year, we know that it would take roughly five Earths to meet the needs of all humanity if we all lived like Americans.

A groundbreaking report released by the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine lifts the veil on a particularly deleterious impact on the American way of life: the production of plastic waste. In this category, the United States are the world champions, reveals the study commissioned by the United States Congress to assess the national contribution to ocean pollution.

42 million tons of plastic waste per year: this is the dizzying weight of plastic waste in the United States. A production higher than that of all the countries of the European Union.

Production exceeds waste management capabilities

According to a new report mandated by the United States Congress, 52 million metric tons of plastic waste was emitted in 2021 in the USA. This corresponds to approximately 130 kg of plastic waste per American per year. That is a balance sheet almost twice that of China, as well as all the countries of the European Union. In comparison, the French each emit 43 kg of plastic waste each year on average.

Like the rest of the West, plastic production in the United States has been growing since the 1960s. The recycling infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the enormous growth of American plastic production, comments the report produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A garbage truck dumped in the ocean every minute

The study highlights the urgency of putting in place a national strategy by the end of 2024 to reduce the United States’ contribution to global ocean plastic waste at every stage, as well as establishing a coordinated and extensive monitoring system at the national level to identify sources and track the trajectory of plastic pollution.

According to the report, 8.8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the sea each year, equivalent to dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute. This is a serious concern as far as waste management is concerned.

At the current rate, the amount of plastic dumped into the ocean could reach 53 million tonnes per year by 2030, or about half the total weight of fish caught in the ocean each year, the study estimates.

Plastic pollution made in the USA is all the more impressive since the United States represents less than 5% of the world’s population. In relation to the number of inhabitants, an American thus produces on average around 130 kilos of plastic waste per year, i.e. eight times more than a Chinese (15 kilos) and three times more than a French person (43 kilos). Behind the Americans, the British (99 kilos) and the South Koreans (88 kilos) complete the trio of the biggest polluters.

Dumpster Rentals to the rescue

Americans use a lot of dumpster rental services to discard their junk and waste. But there is not enough of them in the country to balance the mass of garbage created every day (click here for more information).

Waste management must become a high priority everywhere in the United States including in Georgia, otherwise we are compromising our children’s future. The time of awakening has come, let’s all stop creating so much waste.

With different rules for recycling in different places, we know that it’s not always easy to put the right thing in the right bin, including if you are renting a dumpster to discard your junk.

When there are a lot of different labels, regulations, and codes to keep up with, it’s tough to keep up this waste management process. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help you make the best decisions for your recycling.

It includes best practices for plastic, glass, paper metal, and wood.

Plastic

Plastic recycling has one big problem: Plastic types can’t be mixed together for recycling, but it’s hard to tell them apart just based on how they look!

The improper kind of plastic, even in a small amount, can disrupt the whole process. In response to this problem, the plastic industries has bought up a series of markers that can be found on the plastic containers.

This does not mean that the plastics can be recycled or the containers is made from recycled plastic. Despite the symbol of arrows, these markers only show the type of plastic.

It must be virtually marked with the code on everything that is made out of plastic. All kinds of waste can’t be reused.

Types 1 and 2 are accepted Type 4 isn’t always accepted in bag form, but it’s sometimes. Code 7 is plastic that is layered or mixed and has little chance of being recycled.

Only the sorts of plastic mentioned by your local recycling organisation should be placed in your container!
Produce Bags, Grocer Sacks, And Other Packagings

Produce socks and Plastic grocery are often, not always, made of types 2 or 4 of plastic. These bags are often found in barrels at grocery shops, and they usually ends up as plastic lumber, which can be used to build things.

If you have a lot of bags in your house, what can you do? They may be used in many different ways, from storage units to litter box liners.

Glass

Bottles, Jars, Standard Glass And Much More.

Glass is fully recyclable & saves a lot of energy resources. Making things out of recycled glass takes less energy than making things from scratch. Recycled glass is turned into new bottles for drinks, food jars, insulation, and other things.

There are usually two types of recycled glass: clear glass that can be turned into new clear glasses, and coloured glass that can be turned into new coloured glass items.

Recycling programs could ask people to separate glass container by color because they want them to do this. It’s called “single-stream recycling.” Many curbside recycling programmes will pick up both clear and coloured glass containers & separate them.

Metal

According to Philadelphia waste management service specialists, American people use more than hundred million steel cans & more than 200 million aluminium cans every day.

You could rebuild the entire US commercial airliner fleet each 3 months with that amount of money. The content of almost all aluminium & steel products can be reused over and over again without sacrificing its strength. Listed below are a some of the most widely used recyclables:

• Aluminum
• Cans of soda
• Appliances
• Parts for cars
• Windows

Paper

No, you don’t have to take out the screws and other things that hold things together in notebooks.

These are pushed out when paper is turned into pulp. Any paper that is dirty or greasy, like napkins, can’t be recycled!

You might not be able to recycle papers that are waxed, composite, or laminated. This includes fast food wraps, milk cartons, and drink boxes. A type of paper that can’t be recycled, like fax paper, can’t be turned into new paper.

Can Wood Be Used Again?

Yes, most wood trash can be used to build things, recycled into mulch or pulp for paper, and used as a fuel. Also, reusing & recycling reduces the need to cut down trees, which saves trees.

It’s called wood waste recycling when you turn old wood into new things that can be used. Paper, panel board, wood pellets, energy, and many other things are made from scrap wood that has been recycled.

Waste wood recycling is becoming more important because it costs more to dispose of waste and because people are more concerned about the environment.

Often, people think that by recycling wood trash, there will be less demand for “green timber.” This is good because it will help the environment.

Waste collection at home

The diversity of habitat encountered within the same city requires different collection methods, such as:

• Residential area collected in individual or collective bins;
• Vertical housing in collective bins (with layout of the premises cleanliness) ;
• Isolated dwellings in collective bins….

In 2019, for a population of 3,936M4, 845,843.63 T of O.M. and 334,723.64 T of bulky items have collected in Los Angeles. The waste produced by families is dumped in wheeled bins in the framework of three service contracts; a collection of bulky and large waste
plants is also carried out door to door.

This collection is made in part by the staff and resources of the city with rented trucks and partly by refuse tampers 16 m3 housewives which have the advantage of having a yield of at least three times superior to others but they are expensive. Then the waste is deposited at the recycling transit centers, then picked up and transferred to the warehouses of waste operated by the state: 498,232 tonnes of waste
from all over the territory are buried at a cost of $130,510,395 including tax.

In 2018, in order to better manage waste management in Los Angeles, the number of households dumpsters has gone from two garbage bins, one for recyclables (1505.51 T i.e. 27.05 kg / inhabitant / year) and the other for waste produced by households.

Composting of fermentable waste in the garden

This method of waste management consists of extracting the waste fermentable products (garden plants and kitchen waste) from the production of household waste by providing them with a bio-composter.

This has been operational since 1999. As of December 31, 2019, 670 biocomposters with a capacity of 350 liters as well as 1,930 bio-composters of 750 liters capacity are in service on the territory, of which 534 and 1,395 in the territory of the municipality of Los Angeles.

In total, 222,600 households and establishments are concerned. Since the distribution of these bio-composters, plants, sent to the local waste reception centers, passed 2,085 m3 in 2019.

However, this operation, carried out since 1999, is running out of steam as the as the staff hired to promote this equipment is not properly trained in modern waste management techniques.

In addition, the population no longer adheres to this practice. To succeed the compost, the population must scrupulously respect the fermentation process of its waste, which is not acquired even if it has been sufficiently sensitized and this approach requires, in particular, regular monitoring in order to avoid possible foul odors.

The residents of Los Angeles must be more aware of sustainability, pollution and recycling. It is the duty of the government to spread the word about best waste management practices. Use less plastic, consume reasonably, rent a dumpster for Spring cleaning to declutter the house, etc.

Many local residents do not know that it is very easy to remove old junk from your home or office. Type dumpster rental near me in google and they can find local providers in recycling and waste disposal services.

When black smoke escapes from the refinery across the road, local residents have only one way to protect theirlungs from this toxic attack: they are closing the door. South of the United States, Texas is the state that emits the most greenhouse gases in the country. This record is explained by the massive combustion of coal to produce electricity and by an economy which rests essentially on dirty industries like petroleum and chemistry.

What makes people sick is part of the picture, and for many officials such as Governor, it is even local folklore. The latter has just declared that he would abolish the Ministry of the Environment if he accessed the White House. His opponents point out that the legislation is lax, light controls and companies have little incentive to comply with environmental rules, fines of anecdotal amount being rarely applied.

Wild emissions of contaminants

State control bodies respond that results on the ground are the best way to judge the effectiveness of environmental measures. If everything they say was true, the air quality would not improve according to the spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. But if greenhouse gas emissions are actually decreasing, they are still at a worrying level, as is the number of illegal dumping. Recently there were 2,553 wild emission acts that released 2.73 million kilos of contaminants into the sky. The State initiated proceedings in 123 of these cases and drew up an offense report in 172 other cases.

The decision by oil tanker BP to continue refining after the Texas City facility fire burned out pollution controls for 40 days last year. Rare fact, it also pushed the State to introduce civil penalties, beyond the fines generally limited to 10.000 dollars per day. However, in this example, no action was taken to ask BP to cease operating, rather than simply burning the gas flares, or reporting to local authorities on the progress of the pollution.

The local authorities encourage people to recycle and employ better waste management practices. Residents and businesses can rent a dumpster in Tyler and other cities in Texas like Houston and Austin, so they can discard junk in bulk. This is a way to reduce pollution. Another way is also to consume more responsibly and use less plastic bags .

A small band of environmental activists take samples

Since regulation is very loose in matters of the environment, the people who are supposed to monitor all this, do not examine the situation adequately according to the director of the Texan antenna of the defense organization of the environment Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. On the strength of this observation, the inhabitants of Port Arthur, a city tainted by its centuries-old refinery industries, decided to take matters into their own hands. Armed with air monitoring devices made with buckets and plastic bags, a small band of environmental activists take samples for testing in independent laboratories.

And they have already reaped some substantial victories, such as forcing Motiva to install new pollution control procedures, funding an annual air test, and setting up a $ 3.5 million economic development fund. But children remain sick while factory owners postpone maintenance that would reduce the frequency of toxic air emissions. At least three times a month, one of these factories will be damaged which will release tons of toxic products into the air according to environmental activists.

Most of the time, the state looks elsewhere and tells us that it is nothing. Even if the locals are forced to put a wet towel over their faces just to breathe. People are concerned about the long-term consequences. But at the same time, they do not want the closure of refineries, a major provider of jobs in the region.