[] TL: Waste Generation - The Real Source of the Problem (GP)
SO: Greenpeace International
DT: September 18, 1991
Keywords: toxics garbage factsheets greenpeace gp problems
landfills /

                        WASTE GENERATION
                 The Real Source of the Problem

The land we walk on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink
are slowly being poisoned by the waste we create. In the process
of producing and consuming material goods, our society generates
mountains of waste.  Household waste and industrial toxic wastes
are often discarded with little regard for their harmful effects.
As a result,  we are now facing waste problems in proportions
beyond imagination.

We dispose of our waste by storing, dumping, burying or burning
it.  But it does not go away, and will most certainly come back
to haunt both us and future generations, whose problems may be
greatly magnified because of our failure to handle waste
appropriately. The irony of the problem is that the wastes we
throw away are valuable resources, for which we all pay the
price. The solution, then, lies with all of us to reduce the
amount of waste we create, and to recycle or re-use what remains.

The types of waste we produce are as diverse as the activities
that create them.  Solid waste, largely made up of paper,
packaging, food and garden scraps, generated by household and
commercial activities.   Hazardous waste is produced mainly by
industry as a by-product of manufacturing processes.  Some of
this waste is highly toxic, threatening human health and the
environment.


SOLID WASTE

Solid waste is consumer waste; we produce about a billion tonnes
of it every year.  It has become an enormous problem because of
growing populations, the need to preserve food for long distance
transport and the desire for convenience by using "disposable"
goods. Disposable consumer goods are produced with little concern
for the consequent loss of energy resources and environmental
damage.

While food and garden matter once formed the bulk of waste
produced in industrialised countries, a greater proportion of it
now consists of packaging. Much of this material does not decay
and cannot be absorbed into the environment.  In some countries,
as much as 50 per cent of the waste stream consists of packaging
material.  Industries have responded to consumer demand, and to
some extent created the demand, for greater convenience by
producing more pre-packaged foods. Unfortunately,  the use of
non-biodegradable plastic and foam packaging has grown fast and
is taking the place of other, less damaging, types of packaging
material such as paper and glass.


HOW IS SOLID WASTE DISPOSED OF?

Most solid waste is buried in community landfills. These holes in
the ground receive any type of domestic waste, much of which is
non-biodegradable or hazardous to the environment. In the case of
foam-plastic packaging it is both.  The manufacturing process
releases chemical compounds into the atmosphere which deplete the
earth's protective ozone layer, and the discarded product remains
intact for decades. As water filters through landfills, toxic
substances such as pesticides and household cleaners are released
from the unseparated wastes, and may eventually end up in
drinking water. However, as the mountains of waste grow in our
disposable society, landfills are reaching the limit of their
capacity.  For many cities, landfills are no longer a viable
option.

Unfortunately, as a quick solution to the problem, there is now a
growing movement to burn solid waste in incinerators, which
appear to make the waste disappear. However, they simply convert
household waste into hazardous waste.  Incineration transforms
waste, particularly plastic, into air pollution and highly toxic
ash containing cancer-causing compounds such as dioxins and
furans. These compounds are harmful even in minute quantities. In
addition to causing cancer, they are known to cause birth
defects, reproductive disorders, and damage to both human and
animal immune (disease defence) systems.

WASTE IN THE THIRD WORLD

In general, less waste is produced in developing countries
because fewer disposable products are available there. According
to the Worldwatch Institute, residents of Manila, in the
Philippines, produce less than a third of the solid waste that
New Yorkers generate. However, with the rapid rate of
industrialisation and urbanisation in many of these countries,
more waste is being generated, filling up the landfills. The
problem is compounded in these countries by the fact that
rainfall in tropical regions is heavier and more frequent,
causing rapid and sudden releases of toxins into ground-water and
frequent overflows from landfills, contaminating water supplies.

To further aggravate Third World waste problems, industrialised
nations are, in a desperate attempt to dispose of their own
wastes, looking to the Third World for a dumping ground.  Wastes
are exported in exchange for goods or money.  Some of this
exported waste is even promoted as useful material for
development projects. In one recent case, the City of
Philadelphia, which incinerates most of its solid waste,
accumulated a mountain of toxic ash containing dioxins, furans
and heavy metals, and attempted to export it to Panama as fill
for a wetlands development project.  A successful campaign by
Greenpeace and its allies led Panama to refuse the shipment, and
the poisonous ash was returned to the United States.

Greenpeace has initiated a campaign to expose the world-wide
trade in waste, to block attempts to import/export waste, and
ultimately to end the international waste trade.


THE ALTERNATIVE - REDUCE IT, DON'T PRODUCE IT

Prevention is better than cure. The waste problem must be
eliminated at source - before it starts. The first step in
confronting our growing waste problem is to identify unnecessary
products.  The most obvious example of this is the use of
packaging, which often serves only to advertise a product.  When
packaging is required, it is possible to return to materials that
are either biodegradable or can be recycled, which were used
before the introduction of plastics.

Waste does not become waste until we throw it away.  Therefore
waste reduction also means recycling and re-using resources that
are currently treated as waste.  According to the Centre for
Biology of Natural Systems in the United States, at least 88% of
household and commercial wastes can be recycled, re-used or
composted. Such methods are effective and proven and simply
require the separation of the various components of the waste.
Metals, glass, papers, plastics and organic wastes can all be
removed from the waste stream, leaving only that waste which is
biodegradable and safe to the environment. By so doing, we reduce
the demand for many of our natural resources. In the case of
paper, recycling uses only 30 per cent of the energy needed to
make paper from trees, and saves trees too.


THE BENEFITS OF SOURCE REDUCTION

The reduction of wastes inevitably reduces pressure on limited
natural resources and lowers energy consumption.  With less
reliance on landfills and incinerators, air, water and ground
pollution will be significantly reduced, and valuable resources
conserved.
The separation of wastes at their source would significantly
reduce waste management costs.  Recycling programmes can cost
one-half of the cost of landfilling and one-third of incinerator
operations.  Source reduction is easier to implement than any
other waste operation, and it creates more jobs connected with
recycling programmes.

There are numerous examples of successful recycling programmes,
some of which are capable of reducing the waste stream by as much
as 75 - 80 per cent. One of the most sophisticated can be found
in the city of San Francisco, where several community
organisations have joined together to form a comprehensive system
of recycling.  They provide street collections for separated
wastes, a drop-off centre for other items which can be recycled
and a re-use centre for household items and building materials.
The project makes profits of over $440,000 per month from the
waste.

Japanese recycling efforts have so far successfully reduced all
municipal waste by half. Both Japan and Mexico recycle about 50
percent of their paper. China claims to re-use 2.5 million tonnes
of scrap metal and one million tonnes of paper every year.

But recycling has yet to be recognised on a wider scale as a
solution to our waste crisis.


                        HAZARDOUS WASTES

Industrial, commercial, agricultural and domestic activities all
generate poisonous wastes which are referred to as hazardous
because of their toxicity to human health and the environment. At
least 75% of this waste consists of chemicals. Most of this is
generated by industry, but agricultural activities release
pesticide residues and households contribute a wide range of
toxins in the form of aerosols, household pesticides, cleaning
products and materials used in maintaining cars. In the United
States, the typical American community produces 23 kilograms of
hazardous waste per person per year.


HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL AND ITS EFFECTS

Once produced, hazardous waste becomes a long term problem.
Hundreds of thousands of tonnes have been generated in the world.
By a variety of routes, waste finds its way into the air, the
rivers, lakes and oceans, and our everyday lives. The waste that
is not stored in landfills, injected into deep wells, buried or
burned, flows directly into the world's water through discharge
pipes.  Waste disposal merely transfers waste from one medium to
another.

Searching for new ways of disposing of waste is the worst
possible way of dealing with the problem.  Toxic chemicals leak
from landfills, flow from sewer systems into waterways, and are
released into the atmosphere from incinerators.  Organisms may
die immediately from exposure to these poisons or their immune
systems may become weakened, making them more susceptible to
disease. Toxins, particularly synthetic organic chemicals which
do not break down, work their way up the food chain, eventually
reaching humans, causing cancer and other diseases.

Burning waste only aggravates the problem. Hazardous waste
incinerators have few limits on what may be burned, and release
hundreds of toxic compounds as gases through stack emissions or
as unburned metals and ash. They not only release some of the
original chemicals fed into the system, but due to the high
temperatures during incineration, they also act as chemical
synthesisers. Chemicals created during the incineration process
are often more toxic than the original chemicals.

Waste anywhere in our society is an economic burden, and everyone
pays for it. Hazardous waste is particularly expensive. It is
costly to produce, costly to manage and we pay a high cost for
the resultant environmental damage. "Waste" means inefficiency, a
loss of valuable resources and energy. We pay to protect
ourselves and the environment from wastes. We pay for increased
health costs and for the treatment of poisoned water and air
resources.


STOPPING HAZARDOUS WASTE AT ITS SOURCE

There is no safe way to dispose of toxic waste. The solution is
not to produce it in the first place. Environmentalists,
scientists, industry and governments alike agree that the best
way to manage waste is to eliminate it.

Industries can do a great deal to reduce their own waste and to
develop biodegradable and recyclable products.   Industries
should implement plans for waste reduction by improving
production technology, altering plant operations,  modernising
plants,  training workers, and obtaining technical support from
governments and technical institutions. Industries need to be
given strong incentives to reduce waste generation, and
governments need to adapt and formulate policies to promote these
kinds of changes.

Industries can reduce the amount of waste they create in three
basic ways:

I.  PRODUCT SUBSTITUTION

This involves the development of non-polluting products or the
substitution of non-polluting materials in the production
process. Selecting alternative fuels, raw materials, industrial
processes, finishes, parts, products and additives can have a
significant effect on waste creation.

For example, the use of chlorine to bleach wood pulp in the
manufacture of paper produces chemicals such as dioxins. To avoid
this, chlorine can be replaced by oxygen.

II. PROCESS MODIFICATION

Altering production operations can make industrial processes more
efficient.  Often waste can be reduced without high capital
costs, simply by fixing leaking valves and pipes and by using
better maintenance procedures.

III. RECYCLING AND RECOVERY

Toxic waste which cannot be eliminated may be recovered or  re-
used in the production process.

What cannot be recycled, or is too dangerous to handle, should
not be produced in the first place.

THE BENEFITS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE REDUCTION

Many companies have shown that they are fully capable of reducing
hazardous wastes at source. Making the necessary changes has
resulted in greater profits for these companies. There are
savings in fuel and raw material consumption, and on waste
handling, storage, transport and waste treatment, costs of
regulatory compliance, and insurance costs. Workers also suffer
less exposure to poisonous chemicals.  The dry cleaning industry,
for example benefits from pollution prevention.  Once a
substantial polluter of the environment, the industry has
dramatically reduced air and water pollution by installing more
efficient machinery.


             GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN FOR WASTE REDUCTION

Greenpeace is committed to preventing the irresponsible dumping
and dispersal of toxic wastes into the environment. In order to
persuade industries to eliminate the toxic wastes they produce,
Greenpeace is focusing on source reduction and non-production of
toxic substances as a waste "management" strategy.  Industries
must look to these techniques in order to stop the hazardous
waste problem before it starts.


                         WHAT YOU CAN DO

Although most industrialised nations have made some gestures
toward waste reduction, most governments still favour waste
management over waste reduction when it comes to making hard
choices about environmental problems. Thus, waste reduction is
not a technological or economic problem, it is a question of
human attitude. Therefore, it is up to the public to take
responsibility for waste reduction by reducing their own waste in
the home and by introducing waste reduction incentives into their
local community.

1. When shopping for foods and other products, buy those which
are wrapped in biodegradable or recyclable packaging.  Avoid
plastic and foam plastic. When storing food at home, use glass
jars (which are reusable), wax paper and paper bags (which are
biodegradable).

2. recycle as many items as possible in your own household, and
encourage friends and neighbours to do the same.  Compost food
and garden scraps.

3. Urge your city officials and local representives to adopt
recycling programmes. Organise a community recycling programme.

4. Stop the use of toxic products in the home, such as garden and
household pesticides, cleaning products and sprays. Ensure that
any remaining toxic substances are not dumped down the sink.

5. Work to stop the development and expansion of solid waste and 
hazardous waste incinerators, as well as new landfills.

6. Educate through meetings, advertisements, articles,
conferences, letters, billboards, bumper stickers, rallies,
pickets, sit-ins and banners.

(See the Greenpeace publication Stepping Lightly on the Earth:
Everyone's Guide to Toxics in the Home for more details on
alternative household products.


Greenpeace International
176 Keizersgracht
1016 DW Amsterdam
The Netherlands