Waste and trash has always seemed to me as a problem that really can’t be solved and can only be reduced to a certain level because trash will always be generated at a consistent basis faster than we can get rid of it. The article mentions how trash is usually concentrated in one area after it is transported such as in the Fresh Kill’s Landfill dump and how residents in those areas where the trash is concentrated often complain about it because of the negative effects of the noise and also too much stray garbage floating around. However, this problem really won’t be solved because if you move the plant to another location, then you just have another area’s residents complaining about the plant, which shows how difficult it really is to find a good location for a waste management plant. Even when the waste plants reach full capacity, the waste there still takes a while to deteriorate, while new plants are built at new locations, which will cause complaints for more people.
The recycling habits of the city also shows how everybody contributes to generating excess waste. The article mentions a drop in 8% of recycling from 2001 to now, which is a significant drop off and shows that New Yorkers aren’t properly disposing their trash. One thing that really surprised me was that large commercial entities are not required by law to recycle. In this modern age, where protecting the environment is so emphasized by corporations, how can they make these statements when they aren’t even saving the environment in the simplest ways. Shouldn’t these commercial entities be required by law to recycle their waste since they produce nearly 75% of NYC’s waste? Even New Yorkers at their homes are required to recycle a lot of their waste by law, so why do these commercial entities get exemptions.
Recycling seems to be a “free rider” problem where people have mindsets like what is the harm I can do for not recycling this bottle if everybody else recycles, we should be fine. Well, if everybody is thinking like this, then most people will not recycle and the trash just continues to pile up. One final point that I found interesting was when the article mentions the 5 cent reward for bringing in a recyclable bottle and how that sum is too measly for people today. I totally agree with this point because if people aren’t motivated to recycle based on conserving the environment alone, then there is no other choice but to put in a monetary reward to get people motivated, but 5 cents for bottle is definitely not motivating enough. You can barely get a meal for $5 in NYC and that would take 200 scavenged bottles to accumulate. It would probably be faster to collect coins on the ground to get to five dollars then go around looking for 200 bottles in trash bins. Overall, trash is just another one of the piling issues of the environment that will never really go away, and if we don’t find any solutions soon, we might live in a city where trash fills the streets and everywhere else.
