Garbology Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Garbology mainly addressed about a sixty year old woman named Mary Crowley and her experiences throughout Project Kaisei. During her time at sea, she had seen our trash floating in the ocean, from floating detergent bottles to lawn chairs to cracked pieces of plastic. What grabbed my attention was when Crowley mentioned that it wasn't what she saw that terrified her, it was what she couldn't see. She talked about how she couldn't see anything from the surface but when she got samples of the sea water, she found tiny pieces of plastic, "trash confetti" that is too small to be pointed out by the naked eye. She refers to the ocean as plastic chowder. The chapter referenced different scientists that had worked with Crowley through her discoveries and examined the intestines of fish that lived around the areas that had the most pollution. Researches found more than 9 percent of the fish had plastic in their digestive tracts. A two year old whale, located in the San Francisco Bay Area contained 450 pounds of debris in its digestive tracts and later died from starvation. We are causing deaths in order to live comfortably. Bar soap alone, Humes explains, contains tiny grains of plastic. Each time we take a shower with our favorite scented shampoo, we are draining down grains of plastic that eventually land inside a baby whales intestines. All our illegal dumping add up. An engineer named Norton Smith, worked with Crowley in inventing The Beach. This device was used to collect plastic from the sea by being careful not to suck in marine life with it. After multiple tests, the device was successful. I truly agreed with Crowley's point of how building such a time consuming and expensive device is pointless, when what we should really do is have a "worldwide reduction in disposable plastic garbage, and an end to the constant flow of plastic that goes missing every year, and ends up as marine chowder"(Humes 123). Although The Beach was successful, we didn't have a need for that. What we need is to correct our mistakes in order to not make it worse. We need to use less plastic in our products and try to find another source. If manufacturers internationally decide to make their products safer, we could put an end to this unintended plastic chowder.

Response to the " 19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans" Article

          The article "19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans" by Timon Singh talked about a 19 year old named Boyan Slate that created a device called the Ocean Cleanup Array. This device is made up of floating tunnels that force plastic into its direction. It filters and stores things that could be recycled, and separates trash from marine animals that get sucked into the machine. The cleanup process was estimated to be about five years. I think that this was the revolutionary discovery the world was waiting for. More people should be aware of this device, for it could create an end to this plastic epidemic tremendously. I cannot believe a nineteen year old student constructed such a device that could change the world. What I really liked most about this project is the fact that it is designed in such a way that the workers have the ability to keep track of what the ocean cleanup array collects. It collects and also stores products that could possibly be recycled. One device could clean up more than 7 million plastic particles. The world was waiting for Boyan Slate.

Response to the "Scripps Study Shows Plastic in Pacific Patch Has Increased 100-Fold" Article

This article talks about how plastic in the Great Pacific increased 100 times from the estimations they had concluded forty years ago. Researchers had found insects that had laid eggs in these pieces of small plastic. It is really sad because we are harming not only harming our environment, but also the habitats that animals depend on. The shores that animals use to lay their fertilized eggs on are filled with tiny particles of plastic that marine animals confuse for their eggs. This article explains how people assume that the plastics that are found in oceans are just plastic bottles and other sorts of trash but rather, it consists more of tiny particles of plastic broken down to sizes that are impossible to be seen by the naked eye. It is disappointing to hear that the Pacific Ocean, the closest ocean to the U.S. has an increase of the amount of plastic it consumes. Our trash crisis is worse than I thought.

Response to the "Even If We Stopped Polluting Today, Ocean Garbage Patches Would Linger For Hundreds Of Years" Article

          I just finished reading the article "Even If We Stopped Polluting Today, Ocean Garbage Patches Would Linger For Hundreds Of Years" by Beth Buczynki and was absolutely amazed by what I came across. The article talks about the cycle of plastic and how it ends up in the ocean. An attached video in the article explained how researchers tossed surface drifter boards into the ocean. The boards were specially designed to act like plastics. This allowed them to estimate the amount of time plastic remains in the ocean and demonstrated the way they move around and travel all around the world.

  I was truly amazed to hear the cycle of plastic and the way they land in the oceans, how the sun breaks its particles down over time, and how plankton and birds eat this plastic that may even contain toxins. As they eat the toxins, they add toxins into the food chain. It was discussed that getting the plastics out of the ocean is impossible because of how small and diverse it could be. In order to get rid of this issue, we need to go to its source. Companies that manufacture plastics internationally should make them in a way that it could break down and disintegrate over time, so that even if they do end up in our oceans, they won't cause problems like they do today.
          There is more plastic in the ocean than marine life. This is impossible to comprehend. After reading this, I am not sure if the fish I purchase is fish or fresh plastic from our oceans. What interested my attention the most was how our ocean water circulates through eddies, sending our pollution to other countries and vice versa. I feel that people are just waiting for the last minute to actually do something about our world's trash crisis. In order to not forever live in a world of rubbish, we must contribute from all around in order to decrease the use of plastic and littering to not only our oceans, but also to the rest of our environment. As I get deeper into this issue, I get more concerned and terrified. It is crazy how much trash we accumulate, yet we have no idea what we are leading our world into.

Garbology: Chapter 4

           Chapter 4 talked mostly about the history of landfills. He began discussing about Waste Management Inc, the hottest investment prospect in the country. In 2004, America decided to create power plants that had the ability to convert landfill gas to electricity. Beneficial as they are, they do not get rid of landfills, but instead are dependent on trash in order to function. For many years, residence around the San Gabriel Valley protested against the production of power plants. In some ways, I feel that processing trash into a gasoline substitute for cars is not such a bad idea. Sure, transporting trash to the deserts through trains seems expensive, but shouldn't we put that aside and look at the benefits? We could actually put an end to this crisis. This could maintain our trash, refrain us from finding gas or oil from different resources, and could also make us a lot of money. Power plants could reduce the volume of trash by 95 percent. It has the ability to absorb 100 million tons of garbage. Its a shame because we didn't even bother because landfills sounded cheaper. For now it seems that "contingency plans became [our] only plans"(Humes 96). I really don't understand how people during 1983 organized strikes that stood against the production of power plants, but are okay with our mountainous Puente Hills. Why aren't we finding solutions for this? We've reached the point where Puente Hills is looking at closing down for good. Where are we going to put our now? We can't put it behind our ears and just wait for someone else to figure out what to do with this. We need to work together.

Response to the "My Exhibit...In the Museum of Trash" Article

I have just finished reading the "My Exhibit...In the Museum of Trash" article by Dave Chameides, "Sustainable Dave". Dave shared his story of how for one whole year, he had collected up his trash in his basement instead of throwing it away.  Dave Chameides had created 28.5 pounds of trash in one year by himself! When the year came to a close, instead of throwing away all that trash he collected, he had decided to enter it into the Museum of Trash in Connecticut. It kind of made me think of doing something similar in order to count how much trash I accumulate every year. I'm actually kind of curious.

Response to The Story Of Stuff Video

I just finished watching The Story Of Stuff video by Annie Leonard. Throughout the video, Annie was talking about how those who are in charge of managing trash create a pretty picture of their actual dirty work. They affect much more than what they say they do. That statement automatically interested me to continue watching. She thoroughly explained how we are losing forests in order to make room for landfills. It's come to that. Natural forests all chopped away. The part that interested me the most was when she mentioned how by just going "green", bringing reusable bags to the grocery store or recycling bottles and cans is resolving our problem completely. Sure, it is helping, but that does not come close to saving economic and political structures of our waste. Following on that statement, I feel that we need to start our improvements from the core of the issue. We need to set companies,small businesses, and restaurants on standardized regulations that gives a limit to how much trash they should throw away. Setting a certain limit like this could drastically change the amount of trash we make daily.

Garbology: Chapter 3

       In Chapter 3, Humes continues talking about Puente Hills, this time introducing us to the common and unusual things one finds at dumps. What really grabbed my interest was the story of the fifty five year old man’s, Robert Glenn Bennet’s, body being found lying with the trash at Puente Hills. The amount of trash we throw and what is really found in dumps has crossed my mind, but I have never pictured a dead body mixed with a city’s trash. It must be really difficult working under those conditions every day. You never know what you could come across.

      The chapter had also mentioned Lippincott and his beliefs that the more we waste, the more stuff his clients could sell, the more customers would buy, and the more prosperous America would become. “He mastered the art of making a product or a company or a concept appear to be something it was not,” as Humes said. I personally do not believe that this concept is the best way to make an economy prosper. While Lippincott’s idea is benefiting America’s economy, it is causing more trash, pollution, and contamination. Isn’t the whole concept of his idea to make money? Well, as their polluting the environment with their 'benefits for America', the government in return has to spend millions of dollars for research and environment safety precautions due to the crisis we’re facing with so much trash and so little acceptable ways to get rid of it. We waste so much money on local landfills, garbage truck and recycling companies, when all we need to do is learn how to waste less. This idea had caused large amounts of consumer debt in 2006 and yet we can’t help ourselves. I feel that there should be a balance. We do need to spend, but not so excessively. Vance Packard, in his book The Waste Makers, wrote about how Lippincott's ideas are wrong and that wastefulness has become a part of the American way of life. He would mock those who had just one telephone, a TV, and a car. Now each family member in an ordinary family has a cellphone and a car and a television in each room. My family is even guilty of this. 

      Lastly, the third  important topic discussed was our crisis with plastic. Humes explains in Chapter 3 how we have become dependent on plastic so much that practically everything is made with plastic these days. 

I feel that our economy has based themselves upon what they could do to pay less for their products and make more profit instead. Take Coca Cola as an example. Coca Cola used to sell their soft drinks in glass bottles that allowed a refill option in the 60s. Now, soft drinks are filled in plastic bottles instead because plastic costs less in manufacturing. Plastic can never be decomposed or recycled. Our country is filled with soft drink drinkers. That says how much plastic we add on to our waste. Another example is unnecessarily over packaging. A simple microwavable pizza is packaged with a cardboard underneath, a plastic wrapper covering, a plastic wrapper on top of that, and all that placed in another cardboard box. 

I feel that people make these mistakes because of lack of education. If everyone had an idea of how much we waste per person daily, we would change our ways.

Interesting Facts

Was I the only one that was kind of surprised about the fact that "The Valley Of Ashes" mentioned in Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby was actually a mountainous waste dump in New York? Crazy.

Response to the article by Terry Gross

           I have just finished reading the article about an interview with Edward Humes, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Garbology. Throughout the interview, Humes was answering several questions about his book and the research he had collected while writing. After reading Humes’ responses, I began to think that the idea of using sources of methane from our wastes and creating energy with it is not such a bad idea. I feel that this could maybe help us get rid of a lot of our trash while putting it in good use. Because America is not looking at this idea as an option, I feel that it’s our responsibility to try and waste less. After reading the first three chapters of Garbology, I got an idea of the amount of trash we throw every day. I feel that since we are capable of throwing away so much, we are capable of cleaning and saving equally as much. The more we clean after ourselves, the more we’ll see a difference in our environment. We should learn to recycle more by easily reusing plastic plates, cups, or utensils instead of picking up a new one as we switch from eating dinner to desert. We need to stop leaving garbage behind during our picnics at the beach in order for it not to wash into the oceans and eventually to the digestive tracks of a fish. I feel that maybe this should worry some people, considering the fact that this could be the fish we consume as food. It definitely worries me. Edward Humes mentioned that, “The amount of garbage patches encompass about 40 percent of the global ocean surface, more territory than all of Earth’s dry lands put together.” This statistics put me in a complete shock for this is just regarding patches of plastic! Where do we fit the rest? 

      I had also really liked Humes’ idea of each company having responsibility towards their products and for them to buy back a broken product, use its pieces to make a new product instead of having warranty policies. I hope they actually enforce this because it could really help recycle thousands of electronic devices.  This way we could recycle broken items by using its parts to build a new product. After finishing this article, I have decided to keep a tote bag with me at all times in order to stay away from wasting so much paper or plastic. This book really opened my eyes. Our world has many flaws, but this is the biggest one yet.