One man’s trash is another man’s treasure; that’s the mantra that kept running through my head as I read the book by Minster. This book is about the complicated yet fascinating intersection between globalization and the environment. I personally was not really aware of the worlds recycling industry, but thanks to Minter, he was able to bring fourth and bring individuals into the world of trash. Minter is a Journalist and a son of a scrap yard entrepreneur from the United States and because of this he believes there’s more to the global scrap trade than a tale of villain and victim. Minter thinks the global scrap trade is a great eco friendly business that is the core component of the world’s economy.
Minter uses his vibrant words and fascinating
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The problem with consumers Is that, most of us want to throw away what we don’t need / anything that looses our interest and forget about it, all the while waiting to be excited about something new without thinking about the waste that we’ve banished into societies margins, people who have better options like Minter said, do not go into the waste processing business and consider it an the profession of outsiders. “The richer you are, and the more educated you are, the more stuff you will throw away.” --Adam Minter, Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash
The book I choose for my book report was “Garbology” a book written by Edwards Humes. I found this book a very interesting book and was quite influential. The book “garbology” focuses on many concerns that are still relevant in society today. Each of these issues circles around the fact that the people in the United States produce way to much garbage. Americans produce more trash than anyone else on the planet throwing away 7.1 pounds per person per day, meaning on average each American is on track to generate 102 tons of trash a year. Many wonder if each American can accumulate this much trash in his/her lifetime will this become a problem. The answer is yes; this is currently a problem, has been a problem in the past and will continue to
In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?
Eigner, Lars “ On Dumpster Diving” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology Ed. Samuel Cohen. Fourth Edition Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Page 139-151. Print.
In the Essay “On Dumpster Diving” Lars Eighner focuses specifically the way dumpster diving happens and how people don’t understand the reality of it. Reality is he made a living off of dumpster diving. He put himself in other people’s shoes and there were some hardships with scavenging, living, and understanding.In this essay you can see how wasteful people are and how much he was able to live off of. Also, it helps you as a reader to be able to understand the hardships of dumpster diving and how its done.As he explains on the craft of “Dumpster Diving, Eighner sets an informative tone to emphasize how humans can be wasteful in society.
In conclusion I believe that Melanie Scruggs uses many different approaches such as logos, and ethos to effectively persuade her audience to believe that she is in fact correct about recycling, and landfills. Although Scruggs fails to apply pathos, and address her opposing argument I believe her argument is still
Ever found something in the trash and taken it home? While many partake in dumpster diving leisurely, there are a special few who get everything they need from garbage: clothes, electronics, and even food. "Cultivate poverty... like a garden herb. Don't trouble yourself to get new things whether clothes or friends," (Thoreau, Generation 25). This brilliant quote relates very closely to the freeganism movement which fights wastefulness in our consumerist society.
A) Lars Eighner, in “On Dumpster Diving”, portrays the waste that is accumulated due to modern consumerism and materialism. He also demonstrates the issue of the wage gap. Consumers of the modern age spend too much and therefore waste too much. In the essay, Eighner describes life as an scavenger and demonstrates how people are able to live by the minimal resources. “Scavengers” are able to survive on the waste of the consumer. Eighner presents this scenario as a contrast to the life of a modern consumer, in order to portray it’s unnecessary wastefulness. Mainly, food seems to be taken lightly by society, as Eighner as a scavenger finds “a half jar of peanut butter”,
Also recycling as spoiled societies in well developed regions. I Believe we consume way more then we need because we know it 's will be reused for a good cause but all that waste is generating more working for recyclers which in way is counterbalancing the environmental benefit. In Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter he spoke on a study that was done at the university where they observed the paper towel usage in a men 's restroom over a period of time. First with just a trash can and then the second time the recycling bin included the study found that that people used about half a hand towel more where there was a recycling bin (pg 266). “The increasing consumption found is partially due to the fact that consumers are well aware that recycling is beneficial for the environment: however the costs of recycling are less salient”(Minter 267). I believe the reason why recycling isn 't technically working is because we consumer see recycling as a first option when it 's actually should be sacred process that should be used in rarity. We as consumers need to think conserve instead of
According to Gale opposing view points, “the cost of collecting, sorting, and proceeding recyclables can, for some materials, be higher than that of creating new raw materials” (Gale). This goes to show that even sometimes, recycling an item such as steel or paper or whatever, can cost more than actually make a new material from scratch, aka raw material. Not only that, but the places where the give mentioned provides a recyclable bin, they cost money also. A different type of trash machine comes to pick it up, more money there. The driver gets paid. The employees at raw recycling factor, which probably don’t do much, also get paid. All these unnecessary funds going to waste while the are people starving in the nation. While there are people around the world who don’t even have safe, clean water to drink; yet the government goes and spends on recycling
People need to think about the objects that they throw away, those items can affect the animals around the world. For example, when people throw away the plastic rings that go around pop cans, can kill animals by being stuck around their little necks. So, before people throw those plastic rings out, they need to make sure that they cut a slit into each ring so in case an animal does get stuck in one of them, then they can get out safely. Recycling does not just have to be about plastic, but when the plastic is recycled, Americans can use it for many different things. For example, the plastic can make park benches, plastic crates, and wire tubing. Many people do not understand where all of the recycled objects go, but the objects do not go anywhere they are just recycled to make other things, recycled objects also help reduce the price of the objects that they make. The best part about recycling is the fact that people can recycle almost anything and turn it into something completely different. For example, Keen’s Harvest makes bags, wallets, and totes from recycled airbags that come from automobiles. Another example is Looptworks uses cotton jersey, nylon, vinyl, and recycled polyester to make their upcycled leather iPad cases. Skateback is another company that uses recycled material to make iPhone backs; they use the discarded post-industrial skateboard materials. Vinylux
Our world is getting to the point to where we will be surrounded by trash. There are hazards happening because of the excess trash, which could have been recycled. Although the government is not doing their best to make these hazards stop, surprisingly it is the non-governed organizations that are trying to make the difference. Proven studies and facts have been made about these issues, so people should take this into consideration and start recycling more. Recycling is a beneficial process that is not required globally like it should be because citizens are uneducated on the process and what it can do. People who are not recycling do not know the hazards they are causing everywhere.
There are many people in the United States today that are unemployed due to our economy. Therefore, recycling could create jobs for those people. Recycling is a complex process that needs multiple workers. First, the plastics and other recyclable items have to be collected. Next, the plastics have to be separated into categories. This might seem simple but it is a three step process. The first separation is made directly by the codes on the plastic. The second separation makes smaller categories of like plastic materials. The third separation is made by determining certain properties of the plastics that are comparable. The categories are then shredded, sanitized, and then melted down. Finally, the factories then mold the plastic into direct items or palletize them for use in the future (Manrich, 9). The recycling companies could make their money by making deals with major corporations. For example, they could collaborate with Pepsi by creating their plastic soda bottles. The recycling companies would be able to sell and create these bottles for cheap since they do not have to pay for the materials to make them. Also, they use less oil than a plastic production factory would use. Thus, it is a cheaper way to create new plastic items. Therefore, there are endless possibilities that allow the recycling business to
People should know the negative impact throwing away a water bottle or newspaper, purchasing meat from the grocery store or consuming gasoline has on the environment, and many do not. By informing society about how their decisions affect the environment, we can help save our planet and change our attitude toward the land we live on, the water we drink and the air we breathe” and truly show respect for the stuff that we depend on. The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid waste each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and the environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet.
Efficient waste managing approaches help with reducing and avoiding unpleasant impact on the environment and human health, while allowing financial development and progress in the quality of people’s life. People do not even imagine what is the size and capacity of their activities and the impact they produce on the environment. Garbage is an important ecological problem. It is seems amazing that approximately all of the citizens of the world identify rubbish as a major environmental problem and yet these people still litter. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different family. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on ...
Recycling is such a fantastic way for us to reuse the waste we once throw. Yet, not everything is easy to be done in this world. There many difficulties that face recycling process economically and socially. Usually In order to recycle, waste paper needs to be sorted and treated from any Impurities. Which means that companies will loss finance because there must be someone or something that could sort or treat these papers. Another problem is that to start recycling, companies needs a lot of good recyclable supply to pick it up; after all, they need good economic benefits (Problems with Recycling, 2014). According to the Waste and Resources Action Program, there are some barriers p...