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.