Do U.S. landfills grow bigger every day and is so, what can we/are we do about this?

Question

Also any garbage info you have is appreciated.. theres hardly any on wiki.

i am wondering

1. how much garbage in landfills COULD HAVE been recycled?

2. how much garbage is unnecessary?

3. Is it possible for one person to not leave an eco- "footprint" but if this is possible, how much of a pain in the a** is this to accomplish??

Answer 1

Recycling is the answer. But American consumers are geared up to just throw everything away. We need to separate plastics with # 1 and #2 on the bottom for recycling. Plastics are made from petroleum. If we recycled plastics, there would be more petroleum to make gasoline and medicine out of. If we recycled more paper, we would not have to cut down as many trees. It takes a tree 50 years to grow; we chop it down and make toilet paper out of it. Makes no sense at all. I have seen giant paper manufacturing companies. Tree logs are stacked 10 stories high outside the plant. It is an atrocity what they are doing to our forests. There is no check on cutting down the American forests. Instead the focus is on the rainforest in S. America. There is no public awareness of what companies are doing to the North American forests. Companies like it when we focus on the Amazon rainforest.

Answer 2

Landfills are not a problem.  They look big when you stand next to one, but they are incredibly small compared to the size of the landscape itself.

Landfill objections are largely symbolic - they are easy to get the 'not in my back yard' crowd shouting about.   They have no real effect on anything.

Answer 3

Of course they grow bigger each day. Without the cooperation of everyone there is very little only one person can do.