On the other hand, landfills leak contaminants to the soil and water, produce a lot of methane, and probably other things too. I’d also argue that they give a illusion of a problem solved, and lead people and companies into not wanting to reduce trash production.
There’s also the fact that a lot of your trash doesn’t go to landfills, but instead gets shipped to developing countries where they often dump it into Wall-E style open air trash mountains.
When I was a kid, it was “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle”. The order was quite intentional.
Nobody ever talks about the first two anymore. Probably because they are wildly anti-consumption and thus bad for business.
I went on vacation recently. Visited Houston, Austin, and Dallas by EV. I was, and still am, amazed that the giant gas stations along the highway (Buc-ees, Road Ranger) are still using Styrofoam cups at the soda fountain. I can’t believe those are even still being made.
It does help in a pretty big way - every piece of trash in landfill is one less in the ocean.
Plus landfills will be literal goldmines in 50 years as we development advanced recycling technologies and robots.
On the other hand, landfills leak contaminants to the soil and water, produce a lot of methane, and probably other things too. I’d also argue that they give a illusion of a problem solved, and lead people and companies into not wanting to reduce trash production.
There’s also the fact that a lot of your trash doesn’t go to landfills, but instead gets shipped to developing countries where they often dump it into Wall-E style open air trash mountains.
Removed by mod
When I was a kid, it was “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle”. The order was quite intentional.
Nobody ever talks about the first two anymore. Probably because they are wildly anti-consumption and thus bad for business.
I went on vacation recently. Visited Houston, Austin, and Dallas by EV. I was, and still am, amazed that the giant gas stations along the highway (Buc-ees, Road Ranger) are still using Styrofoam cups at the soda fountain. I can’t believe those are even still being made.
Found the capitalist.