Trash. Just about all of us produce it, maybe a lot more than you realize. And many throw things out, then forget about them. A new report, Trash in America, details how much trash the US produces, as well as the often-hidden costs, both financial and to our environment and health. What if we took a new look at trash, reducing it, finding different ways to recycle or repurpose it?
On this episode of Deeper Shade of Green, Environment America's Celeste Meiffren-Swango who runs their Beyond Plastics program and is one of the report's authors, and Janet Domenitz with MASSPIRG who heads up their Zero Waste program. They share some of the shocking statistics from the report, as well as the many waste pipelines that could be drastically reduced. Strategies and solutions exist, they argue, to deal with many types of trash that are swelling landfills and being burned in incinerators. Not only would environmental and health threats be minimized but, they suggest, society could eliminate much - if not all - of the trash produced.
Research and production help for this episode by Hector Perez. Music from the Syracuse-based Jazz Group E.S.P.
