Don’t Mind the Trash in the Landfill
The mass-production of goods, continuous updates of products, and aggressive marketing are making it almost impossible to avoid the temptation to buy products. However, every product comes with packaging that immediately becomes trash. Within a few years the product itself will meet the same demise. The majority of citizens do their part by disposing of their trash in designated areas and containers, but this is where the responsibility ends. But what happens to the trash once it’s taken away by the garbage trucks? In her recent book “Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden life of Garbage,” writer and filmmaker Heather Rogers tackles the issues that accompany our capitalistic society and the environmental impacts of creating waste by manufacturing short-lasting products in order to stimulate the economy and keep the flow of money as steady as possible (132). In the excerpt “Hiding in Plain Sight,” Rogers more closely examines the process of trash management and the treatments of the trash in landfills, raising the important questions of what consequences the practices will have on the future as well as how having less trash would impact the process as a whole.
Due to waste not being a direct concern to most citizens, Rogers tries to give the audience a better understanding of what happens with their waste after it is picked up. She explains that in the U.S., trash has long been collected and discarded into large landfills which are eventually covered with dirt. The landfills are located away from populated areas in order to hide from the consumers what happens to the trash and how it is contained (133). Rogers implies that while this method is not the best, it is preferred because of its low cost and the country’s advantageous possession of large amounts of unused land. Inevitably, these benefits make the method more appealing for companies with the goal of having the lowest cost for the biggest profit.
Treatment of waste...