Throwaway must go away.

• Author: Brown, Lester R.
• Position: EYE ON ECOLOGY

THE STRESSES IN OUR early 21st century civilization take many forms--social, economic, environmental, and political. One distinctly unhealthy and visible illustration of all four is the swelling flow of garbage associated with a throwaway economy. Throwaway products first were conceived following World War II as a convenience and way of creating jobs and sustaining economic growth. The more goods produced and discarded, the reasoning went, the more jobs there would be. What sold throwaways was their convenience. For instance, rather than washing cloth towels or napkins, consumers welcomed disposable paper versions. Thus, we have substituted facial tissues for handkerchiefs, paper towels for hand towels, disposable table napkins for cloth ones, and throwaway beverage containers for refillable boules. Even the shopping bags we use to carry home throwaway products become part of the garbage flow.

The throwaway economy is on a collision course with the Earth's geological limits. Aside from running out of landfills near cities, the world quickly is depleting the cheap oil used to manufacture and transport throwaway products. Perhaps more fundamentally, there is not enough readily accessible lead, fin, copper, iron ore, or bauxite to sustain the throwaway economy beyond another generation or two. Assuming an annual two percent growth in extraction, U.S. Geological Survey data on economically recoverable reserves shows the world has 17 years of reserves remaining for lead, 19 for tin, 25 for copper, 54 for iron ore, and 68 for bauxite.

The cost of hauling garbage from cities is rising as nearby landfills fill up and the price of oilclimbs. One of the first major cities to exhaust its locally available trash-holding venues was New York. When Fresh Kills, the local destination for New York's garbage, was closed permanently in March 2001, the city found itself hauling refuse to sites in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Virginia--with some being 300 miles away.

Given the 12,000 tons of garbage produced each day in New York and assuming a load of 20 tons for each of the tractor-trailers used for the long-distance hauling, some 600 rigs are needed to move the garbage dally. These tractor-trailers form a convoy nearly nine miles long--impeding traffic, polluting the air, and raising carbon emissions. Fiscally strapped local communities in other states are willing to take New York's garbage--if they are paid enough. Some see it as an economic bonanza...