{"id":97773,"date":"2023-04-03T16:47:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T20:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=97773"},"modified":"2023-04-06T11:07:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T15:07:39","slug":"impact-of-waste-on-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/impact-of-waste-on-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Impact of Waste on the Environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does plastic ever degrade? Have we taken care of the CFC problem? What’s the worst byproduct of modern living?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garbage leaves a mark on our planet. That’s because much of our modern garbage never leaves the planet. In The World Without Us<\/em>, science journalist Alan Weisman addresses the problem head-on. He explores the impact of waste on the environment and identifies the major culprits we need to tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to learn what Weisman discovered in his investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Impact of Waste on the Environment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For all of our history, humanity has generated waste. But, in the current age, we\u2019ve reached a point where the things we created don\u2019t simply fade away after they\u2019ve been used and tossed aside. Weisman discusses the impact of waste on the environment, identifying several forms of long-lasting waste that accumulate and persist as a result of our modern lifestyles, including plastic, airborne chemicals, and radioactive material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petroleum-based plastics have been with us for less than a century, and, as much as they\u2019ve revolutionized the consumer and industrial landscape, they\u2019re already affecting the natural world. Though plastic only makes up 20% of what\u2019s in landfills, a great deal of plastic washes out to sea, where it collects in enormous oceanic regions such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Weisman says the problem is that plastic doesn\u2019t truly degrade\u2014it breaks down, but only into smaller pieces of plastic, and as it grows smaller it becomes even more dangerous. Plastic has been found clogging the digestive tracts of countless sea creatures and birds<\/strong>, and smaller plastic particles can be ingested and kill creatures even further down the food chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: More recent data than Weisman\u2019s shows that floating oceanic garbage dumps, though massive, comprise only 1% of the ocean\u2019s plastic waste\u2014meaning there\u2019s a lot more plastic trash out there than we can see<\/a>. The rest either sinks to the bottom, is eaten by wildlife, or gets buried along coastlines where it eventually resurfaces. Though measures to curb waste (such as bans on single-use plastic<\/a>) are growing in support, studies show that plastic production is steadily rising<\/a> while nearly a quarter of the world\u2019s plastic waste<\/a> isn\u2019t properly disposed of at all<\/a>. Meanwhile, unused plastic consumer products\u2014such as $30 million of excess Funko Pop toys<\/a>\u2014are sent directly from the warehouse to the landfill in order to manage inventory<\/a> levels.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve polluted the oceans, so we also pollute the air. The primary contaminant that people are concerned with today is simple carbon dioxide, the driving contributor to global warming and climate change. But, it\u2019s not the only one of concern. Another relic of the past century is CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon gasses), which were introduced as coolants in the 1930s and had many other home and industrial uses. Since the 1980s, we\u2019ve known that CFCs deplete the atmosphere\u2019s ozone layer, exposing the Earth to harmful ultraviolet rays. Even though the production of CFCs has been widely curtailed, and the damage to the ozone layer has slowed, there are still vast amounts of CFCs still in use or in landfills, waiting to leak into the atmosphere<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: In a rare bit of environmental good news, scientists have discovered that CFCs don\u2019t linger as long in the atmosphere<\/a> as was thought at the time of Weisman\u2019s writing. However, the same study showed that more CFCs are still being produced than was previously believed. China was the source of many of these emissions, but after a Chinese government crackdown on illegal CFC production, the UN reports that atmospheric CFC levels are once again going down<\/a>. Unfortunately, due to climate change, the world\u2019s oceans\u2014which serve to remove CFCs from the air\u2014will begin returning CFCs back into the atmosphere<\/a> in approximately 50 years.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weisman argues that the deadliest byproduct of the modern era is our growing stock of radioactive waste and the difficulty of safely storing it so that nature and future generations are protected. At present, there is no permanent storage for the spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors\u2014most power plants store them on-site in huge cooling pools before sealing them in steel and concrete drums. Most nuclear waste is of a different sort\u2014machine parts, metal casings, protective clothing, and the like\u2014that\u2019s been irradiated by contact with nuclear fuel through power plants, research, or weapons manufacture. Most of this is stored in sealed caverns on land closed off for thousands of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disposal of Radioactive Waste<\/strong>

In Apocalypse Never<\/em><\/a>, Michael Shellenberger suggests that because of the measures taken to shield them, spent nuclear fuel rods don\u2019t present the level of danger that most people think<\/a>. However, whereas Shellenberger focuses solely on radioactive nuclear fuel, there\u2019s far more low-level nuclear waste of the kinds that Weisman discusses, as well as \u201cmixed\u201d low-level waste that also includes toxic chemical components<\/a>.

For low-level radioactive material, there are four disposal sites<\/a> currently available in the US and several others in use or under construction around the world<\/a>. In 1987, Nevada\u2019s Yucca Mountain was proposed as a permanent nuclear waste repository<\/a>, though work toward that goal remains in perpetual limbo due to political opposition from various sources<\/a>, now including the Biden administration.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does plastic ever degrade? Have we taken care of the CFC problem? What’s the worst byproduct of modern living? Garbage leaves a mark on our planet. That’s because much of our modern garbage never leaves the planet. In The World Without Us, science journalist Alan Weisman addresses the problem head-on. He explores the impact of waste on the environment and identifies the major culprits we need to tackle. Read more to learn what Weisman discovered in his investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":87012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,160,24],"tags":[962],"class_list":["post-97773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-science","category-society","tag-the-world-without-us","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's the Impact of Waste on the Environment? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Garbage leaves a mark on our planet. That's because a lot of it never leaves the planet. 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