Garbology: Chapter 11

Chapter 11 of Garbology talks about Portland, Oregon. It discusses how Portland is one of the most greenest cities in America. They are so obsessed with staying green that bicycle lanes are found everywhere and even some businesses offer more parking for bikes than cars. I can't imagine a world like that, considering the fact that I've been living in a busy city like L.A. all my life. Although Portland has established an environmental friendly environment in their city, they lack the ability to keep the trash they throw to a minimum. They make a lot of trash. Humes states that they waste about 7.14 pounds a day per person. Portlanders had organized ways to use up their trash for composting or to generate electricity from the methane found in the trash. Due to the fact that getting energy from trash is unpopular in America, generating energy from trash will practically never happen. 

What I really liked most about this chapter is Nickolas Themelis's views on on our trash crisis. He says that the best plan that would get rid of this problem completely is the plan to change our cultural habits. If there's a change in the way people think, then we would be able to buy less non-biodegradable items, and companies will stop making less of those items. I feel that some day that change will come, but unfortunately it will be too late. It will come to a point where it will not only be a choice but something we have to do in order to not ruin our planet completely. We need to do something now.