Waste

It is a “trashy idea”, and yet, it is one with great potential. Don't start sentences with 'this' or 'these'. you do it four times in a row here.This is because all forms of life produce waste and therefore, the act of turning waste into energy may prove to be a key mitigation strategy in the fight against global warming. This is crucial because in 2006 alone, the United States produced 251 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and although some of this waste is unavoidable, much of it can be reused or recycled. This, however, is not occurring in the United States where 55% of the MSW in 2006 was disposed of in landfills, and consequently, major problems are arising at these sites. These problems include the buildup of greenhouse gases, such as methane; and yet, in these problems, there also lie solutions delete this sentence after the semi-colon. Waste reduction, as put by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has the potential to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to global warming, and therefore, we need to act – now just state the fact that you say at the beginning of this sentence and then cite it formally.. Landfills are creating problems, and yet through waste reduction and waste management, world nations may finally begin to see a viable solution to global warming.

With a rise in the global population and a prediction for it to only increase further, consumption and wasteare inevitable. Waste is a part of life; however, the traditional landfills, which have been used as sites to store such waste, have also become sites that store greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide Try not to put words like however and therefore in the middle of sentences. if you feel like you have to do that, it usually means you should just split your thought formally into two sentences. In addition, there is also now less space for landfills, and consequently, the already preexisting sites are becoming overused. There subsequently is a lack of decomposition and ventilation of waste material, and as a result inefficient landfills are being seen in all parts of the world. These are landfills that have also been termed “carbon sinks”, and thus, there is a duel problem at these locations. This is because landfills both store carbon waste and emit carbon dioxide in the air; and yet the solution to this cycle does not lie in producing more waste to capture the carbon gasses that being emitted. Rather, there needs to be a change in the human perception of waste, because only then will these hazardous landfill sites be seen a problem that is not just going to go away.

Therefore, with landfills proving to be such an imminent threat in the fight against global warming, solutions to this problem can be seen in a twofold answer: waste reduction and waste management. This, furthermore, needs to occur on a global scale, and yet first there needs to be a change in mentality in order to turn a wasteful society into an environmentally conscious one. Such a switch, as a result, would turn the notion of recycling and reusing materials into an attractive alternative, which consequently is a switch that could significantly benefit the planet. Hence, as stated by the EPA, “if just one household generated 5 percent less waste – including newspapers, aluminum, steel cans, and plastic containers – and then recycled what remained, it could reduce 367 pounds of carbon equivalent”. Individuals, thus, have the opportunity to significantly reduce the greenhouse gases that are accumulating in landfills, and yet, in the last decades, there is also “growing consensus [… among government, international agencies, and companies that now see that] there is money to be made in garbage”. This is a growing worldview that has led to the emergence of “green” projects, and as a result, efforts are being made to reduce the trash generated, and turn existing garbage into useful byproducts. These are byproducts that include the development of cellulose-based energy, which would create major benefits at a time in which everyone is worried about rising gas prices. Cellulose-based ethanol, thus, is based on “the idea [to] combine household garbage and other urban trash - known as ‘municipal solid waste’ (MSW) – with after-harvested leftovers from fields, orchards, and vineyards to create ethanol and other forms of bio-energy.” It is both friendly to the environment and the economy, and as put by Bill Ortis, this “kind of ‘green’ biorefinery that we’re developing would reduce the volume of existing landfills, decrease the need for new ones, and minimize greenhouse gas production”. It is a sound byproduct and yet, it is not the only alternative to managing waste, and therefore, coincides with the idea of capturing the methane that is “seeping out of landfills [and using it for] energy production”. These are both managing strategies that would help reduce the large amounts of waste that are being transported to landfills and so “why not burn it for inexpensive energy”. The alternative is to just let the waste accumulate in these landfill sites, and hence, this “large-scale garbage ‘recycling’ may turn out to be a win-win situation for society” and the environment.

Nevertheless, as stated before, in order for waste reduction and waste management to have its most significant impact, such changes will have to be implemented on the global level. This is crucial because these problems with landfills are seen across the planet, and therefore, the United States is not the only contributor to this problem. In fact, as stated in the article “Trash Talk”, “households in the United Kingdom recycle only 12 percent of their waste”; and consequently, the United Kingdom is debating a bill that would “stipulate how much biodegradable municipal waste is eligible for disposal and penalize landfills that exceed their allowance”. This bill would subsequently create ‘stabilized’ landfills; a term used to classify landfills, which have been screened and removed of “materials that should not be landfilled like recyclables, compostables, household special wastes, electronics ect.”This as a result, would greatly reduce the amount of waste being transported to landfill sites, and in addition, will help alleviate the gas build up that has been proven to be a direct contributor to global warming. ‘Stabilized’ landfills consequently have the potential to alter our perception on what we deem as waste; a prime example of this occurring in the city of Indiatuba, which is located in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The city of Indiatuba has already taken the initiative to create ‘stabilized’ landfills, and thus, they are trying to change the statistic that stated that “about 90% of [their] waste was found to be potentially recyclable and only 10% requiring landfills.”This is in striking contrast to Japan, which has only about 25 to 30 percent of its waste going to landfills; and consequently, there is “recycling potential” for the city of Indaiatuba.

At a pivotal time in history in which global warming has become the defining problem of our era, garbage may in fact be a key mitigation strategy. It can create solutions; and yet, when waste is overlooked, it looses the potential to be a solution and instead turns into a problem. This is a problem that is seen in landfill sites; and thus, societies need to embrace the ideas of waste management and waste reduction. These are solutions to an international problem; and therefore, these ideas are perhaps not so “trashy” after all.

Try to cut out about half of the 'therefore's, 'hence's, and 'furthermore's. they get a bit repetitive