Summary of “the Conquest of Garbage”

Heather Rogers argues in “The Conquest of Garbage” (Kirszner LG, Mandell SR eds. The Blair Reader, 7th ed. 2011) that although waste and garbage have many negative effects on the environment, it is still good for business. Of the many monuments of civilization, the Fresh Kills Landfill is one of them; it is the largest landfill. The United States is the world’s biggest producer of garbage. It is now harder to avoid producing waste and garbage. There are questions about garbage and where it goes that remain unanswered such as: will we run out of places to put garbage? An abundance of garbage means an abundance of decay and filth, and yet waste is a necessary part of the consumer society. Foe every ton of household waste, there are seventy tons of industrial waste. Not only does garbage have a negative effect on the environment, but the way we deal with garbage also has a negative effect on the environment. Since the national set of standards was implemented ten years ago, there are garbage graveyards now that are struggling to meet new standards. There are also landfill gases in addition to landfill liquid waste. Waste incinerators were responsible for producing sixty-nine percent of the worldwide dioxin emissions. Thirty percent of municipal waste is packaging; forty percent is from plastics, though we know that plastics stay intact for centuries. The output of throwaways is still enormous after the introduction of recycling. Most recyclables still end up as garbage. Our consumption of raw materials and our production of waste speed up the destruction of the earth’s natural systems. Global warming is occurring faster than predicted because of the increase in burning fossil fuels. Extreme weather has already occurred as an effect of emissions. Both developed and undeveloped countries have an effect on the environment. Second and third world countries are turning to the use of plastics such as the plastic shopping bags causing an increase in the