We all are certain that over the years, consumerism has drastically increased lending to massive trash generation. In order to protect humanity, it is time to take action towards this problem.
The problem begins at home or at any other local business where human beings throw away their trash either into a container or on the streets. Later on, this trash will be taken away into trucks that take a specific route to reach a Transfer station where the local trash is dumped. After being compacted, the waste is loaded into larger trucks that take it to Landfills designed to store this waste as it is buried and left to decompose, but this is a process that will take years as the percentage of oxygen is reduced. Two options are taken into consideration. Either garbage is selected into Recycling Composters where only a specific part of the waste will be useful to make other products. Or the garbage is taken to Energy Plants where all of it is burned, reducing the need for landfill space. Some burned garbage is useful to generate electricity, either way the garbage always comes back to our homes, becoming a cycle. (Budget Dumpster, 2018)
It is known that trash causes a lot of issues, but health wise have consequences that we do not take in consideration. Diseases begin since the trash reaches the dumps, or worst, when trash is thrown away in the streets. It can cause respiratory diseases because of the polluted air that contains pathogenic organisms and toxic substances and if it is not threated it can develop into a chronic disease like lung cancer. Another health issue, is the gastrointestinal disease caused by ingesting food in bad conditions that have parasites and bacteria, as a example, a very common way of getting contaminated the food is by preparing it beside a trash can. According to World Health Organization, it is calculated that 1.3 million people died because of air pollution caused by the community and that number excels is bigger in the cities. Furthermore, throwing away the trash in the streets instead of the right place like the trash can, let rodents get reproduce and transmit diseases easily, causing another healthy and hygienic problem. Therefore, it is very important to have in mind all of these dangerous consequences in order to have more in consideration for the future generations and the sake of the planet.(OMS, 2018, p. 1-3). The environment has been contaminated and affected negatively for years and it’s got nothing to favor for us. Certain types of trash may cause more damage than others, “Metal scraps and broken glass can cut the flesh of birds and other animals” (Revermann, 2018, p. 2), for example, but some may change the environment to make conditions harmful for living beings, such as organic waste attracting algae to ponds or flammable items fires and intoxication. Health Issues may become a lot more common in the future, as waste has changed the environment and attracted several bacteria and viruses that are hazardous not only for animals, but for humans as well. Wind and environmental phenomena don’t help to keep waste off the streets, in some cases they even pile it up or move it to places where it’ll have an even worse effect, such as the sea or natural environments, making these take all the damage from the object’s decomposing process. All kinds of waste have been polluting the environment, affecting or even killing animals and nature, which, as many may know, are part of our well-being.
The mainly problem with trash in Mexico City is the big amount that it produces 12, 920 tons of garbage are recollected per day (2016). Citizens, complain about the problem, but do not do something about it. Mexico City have a big garbage dump where all trash generated in the city is desposited. The closure of Mexico’s biggest garbage dump has remarked the lack of a comprehensive policy for urban waste collection, disposal and processing, a failure that comes with serious consequences for health and the environment. Moreover, 70 million tonnes of waste are buried underground at the dump, causing serious water and air pollution problems. To understand the size of the problem, is important to talk about the consequences or the impact this has on people and the environment. The mainly problem in Mexico City is not the recycling, it is the excessive amount of garbage produced. Salvador Meneses, President of the organization Basura Cero, said that the mainly issue is the lack of culture and social conscience from the citizens about the consequences of the generation of garbage. (México garbage stats, 2018, paragraph 2 and 8)
In conclusion, it is important to have in consideration all of the consequences that the generation of trash has and how to improve this situation. Some of the solutions to improve it are to recycle items that do not belong to trash as they can be reused, try to not use plastic bags, consume products that are packaged in biodegradable and separate the garbage. As it is known, there are many solutions to improve this issue and stop getting worst the planet.