Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash (32 page)

12.
   “Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 2, 2006.

13.
   “What We Actually Know About Common Marine Debris Factoids,” FAQ, NOAA Marine Debris Program,
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/faqs.html#5
.

14.
   “Hilex Poly and ChicoBag Reach Settlement over False Marketing Claims,” PR Newswire, September 13, 2011.

15.
   “Advance Polybag and Superbag Support Hilex Poly’s Victory in Settlement of ChicoBag Suit,” press release transmitted by Reuters, September 15, 2011.

16.
   “An Overview of Carryout Bags in Los Angeles County,” staff report to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, August 2007.

CHAPTER 11

1.
    “How Denmark Paved Way to Energy Independence,” Leila Abboud,
Wall Street Journal
, April 16, 2007.

2.
    Amagerforbrænding website,
http://amfor.dk/English/Incineration.aspx
.

3.
    “Is It Better to Burn or Bury Waste for Clean Electricity Generation?”
Environmental Science & Technology
, vol. 43, November 6, 2009.

INDEX

Advance Polybag, Inc., 210, 216

air pollution

backyard and industrial incineration, 47–51, 88

Clean Air Act (1970), 70

landfill methane, 23, 31, 230

transportation-related emissions, 88, 176, 223, 227, 235

waste-to-energy emissions, 88, 89, 230, 232

Alcantara, John, 55–56

American Chemistry Council, 127, 197, 203, 210

American Chung Nam, 10–11

artist-in-residence program, San Francisco dump

artists and works, 169–72, 180–84, 185–86

inception of, 172–73

mission of, 171, 177

residency application, 177–78

supply of art materials, 169–70, 181, 184–85

Bach, Peter, 226

backyard trash burning, 47–51

Baekeland, Leo, 124–25

bags.
See
plastic grocery bags

beaches

cleanups, 112, 252–53

plastic trash on, 65, 102–3, 123–24, 127

Bennett, Robert Glenn, 55–56

Berkeley Ecology Center, 167

beverage bottles.
See
bottles

Beyer, Jon, 204

Bic pens, 66

BioCycle
/Columbia University study, 7–8, 198

biodegradable packaging, 4–5, 158, 217

bio-magnification, 119–20

bottled water, 258, 261

bottles

biodegradability, 4–5

BPA leached from, 258

energy savings in recycling versus new, 233

environmental and economic costs of, 67, 258

invention of disposable plastic, 67

one-way glass containers, 66

sinkability in seawater, 102–3

volume of trash from, 67–68, 258

Britter, Rex, 134

Buntrock, Dean, 78

Burke, Ben, 181

burning, residential and industrial, 47–51, 70–71.
See also
waste-to-energy

California.
See also
Los Angeles; San Francisco

diversion of waste from landfills, 173

embrace of waste-to-energy concept, 84, 86–87

proposed statewide plastic bag ban, 193, 203

census data deduced from trash, 153–55

ChicoBag

inception and growth of, 188–91

in-house waste-reduction strategies of, 218

lawsuit against, 209–16

school fundraisers, 191

China

hazardous materials recycling in, 11, 138

plastic bag ban, 200

U.S. export of trash to, 9–11

waste-to-energy projects, 231

Clean Air Act (1970), 70

closed loop system, 76, 77, 175, 236

Coca-Cola Company, 66

cogeneration heating, 228

Cohen, Steven, 235

Collyer, Homer and Langley, 3

Columbia University/
BioCycle
study, 7–8, 198

Connecticut waste-to-energy program, 235–36

consumer culture and disposable economy

company and product images, 60–61

creating artificial needs, 58, 64, 66

credit card debt, 61–62, 64

disposable products and trash generation, 5–6, 52, 66–68

low rate of saving, 61, 62

market infiltration by plastics, 196

prosperity and, 5–6, 58–60

recreational shopping, 244

shopping as patriotic act, 6, 58–60, 65

short- versus long-term costs of goods, 261

subliminal and manipulative advertising, 62

television as selling tool, 58

wasteful mind-set and habits, 161–64, 179, 217, 219, 236–37

Corona Dump, New York City, 45–46

credit card debt, 61–62, 64

Crowley, Mary.
See
Project Kaisei

degradable packaging, 4–5, 158

Denmark

Copenhagen as green city, 225–27, 231

waste-to-energy system, 227–31

wind energy, 229

DiCioccio, Lauren, 182–84

Dickens, Charles, 36

dioxins, 49, 89, 230

disposable economy.
See
consumer culture and disposable economy

disposophobia, 3

district heating, 228

Dixie cups, 66

Dow Chemical Company, 66, 125, 126

downcycling, 197

dumps versus landfills, 30.
See also
landfills

DuPont Company, 66, 125

Ebbesmeyer, Curtis, 106

electricity generation.
See also
waste-to-energy

from landfill gases, 20, 23, 31, 80, 94

plasma gasification, 224, 237

solar power, 234–35

wasted energy, 259

wind power, 229

electronic trash.
See
e-waste

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

on average daily trash load, 5, 8, 256

on food waste, 161

on packaging as waste, 127

recall of Scotts Company pesticide products, 208

on reckless generation and disposal of waste, 77

on recycling rates, 7–8, 198, 213

Superfund program, 27, 83

on volume of plastic trash, 65

e-waste

Chinese recycling facilities, 11, 138

as normal and necessary, 64

rate of offshore disposal, 142

tracking project, 142

volume of, 140, 142

ExxonMobil Chemical (formerly Mobil Chemical), 195

fishing nets, 112

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 45

5 Gyres research group, 121, 214

food chain, 99–100, 118–20

food waste

amount of, 15, 35, 52, 95–96, 159–60, 258

edible food discarded, 56

fertilizer from, 204

in landfills, 161

municipal composting, 175, 238

as pig feed, 38, 68–70

versus reported consumption patterns, 155, 157

in school cafeteria, 166

during times of shortage, 148–49

U.S. Army analysis of, 147

France

medieval trash regulations of, 28

waste-to-energy plant, 230–31

Fresh Kills landfill, New York, 12, 48, 73

garbage crisis as recurring problem, 26–29

Garbage Project

concept for, 144–46

findings of, 144, 148–52, 155–60

household occupancy data from, 153–55

insight for cities, 160

landfill excavations, 143–44, 157

procedures of, 147–48

as scientific inquiry, 144, 146–47, 152

garbology

classroom curriculum, 165–66

definition of, 152

gases.
See
air pollution; landfill gases

Gaston, Jesse and Thelma, 1–2

Germany, solar power in, 234–35

ghost fishing nets, 112

Gogan, Rob, 251–52

Goldstein, Miriam, 115–19, 122–23

Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
See
ocean trash

Greece, ancient, waste management in, 27

Greenpeace, 79, 102

grocery bags.
See
plastic grocery bags

Grocery Sack Council, 196

Hagedorn, Jim, 207

Hanson, Jo, 129, 172–73

hazardous materials.
See
toxic chemicals and materials

high-tech waste.
See
e-waste

Hilex Poly Company, 210, 212, 215–16

hoarding, 1–4, 12–13

Huizenga, H. Wayne, 78

incineration, 47–51, 70–71, 88.
See also
waste-to-energy

Ingels, Bjarke, 231

International Coastal Cleanup Day, 65

Irish grocery bag tax, 198–200

Jobs, Steve, 167

Johnson, Bea

avoidance of accumulation, 13–14, 245–46, 248–49

blog, 250

family’s embrace of wasteless philosophy, 249

former lifestyle, 243–44

household trash generation, 242

money savings, 242–43

public responses to, 250–51, 253–54

transition to low-waste lifestyle, 240–41, 244–45, 260

waste-reduction strategies, 245–48, 255

Junge, Andrew, 171

Kaisei
.
See
Project Kaisei

Keller, Andy

bag ban campaign of, 203

Bag Monster program of, 192–94

ChicoBag company, 188–91, 209–16, 217–18

on disposable plastic as habit, 217–19

green awakening of, 187–89

on shift in consumer culture, 237

Korot, Matt, 225, 237

landfill gases

collection system, 31

danger posed by, 23

escape into atmosphere, 230

power generation from, 20, 23, 31, 80, 90, 94

landfills.
See also
Puente Hills landfill, Los Angeles County

closure of municipal incinerators and, 70–71

compacting trash trucks and, 70

contents of, 24, 34, 35, 56, 161

development atop, 23, 45–46, 125

versus dumps, 30

endurance of trash in, 144, 157–59

escape of grocery bags from, 53

food waste in, 161

at Fresh Kills, New York, 12, 48, 73

invisibility of wastefulness, 57, 139

landfilling rates of, 8, 25

maintenance of, after closure, 94

opaque trash bags and, 70

privatization of, 76, 80

rats and, 32

sanitary landfill technique of, 21, 30

seagulls and, 32–33

space for, 26–27, 71, 77, 161

toxic leachate from, 24, 83, 158–59

toxic materials in, 30, 56, 149–50, 158

transportation-related emissions, 88, 176, 223, 227, 235

unintended expansion of, 73–74

value of materials in, 92–93

landfill worker national trash Olympics, 54–55

Lanham Act, 205–6, 211, 212

lantern fish, 99–100, 118–20

leachate from landfills, 24, 83, 158–59

Lippincott, J. Gordon, 59–61, 258

Los Angeles.
See also
Puente Hills landfill, Los Angeles County

backyard incineration in, 47–51

Garbage Power Wars of, 29

mandatory recycling in, 29

open dumps in, 51–52

Pellissier family farm, 71–72

piggeries in, 69–70

Puente Hills range, 72–73

smog, 48, 50–51, 88

trash train, 27, 90, 92

waste-to-energy vision of, 82, 84–90

Love Canal, New York, 83

manufacturers

and closed loop concept, 76, 77, 236

external costs of, 67

invention of plastics, 124–25

of plastic grocery bags, 193–94, 196, 200–201, 202–4, 209–16, 218–19

responsibility for product waste, 209, 224

shift toward disposable products, 66–68

marine trash.
See
ocean trash

Masoner, Kim, 252–53

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See
Trash Track

mass burn technology, 230

Materials Recovery Facility, 44

Mendoza, Hector Dio, 172

methane.
See
landfill gases

Miracle-Gro products, 205–8

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
See
Trash Track

Mobil Chemical, 195

Moore, Charles, 104–7

Munk, Deborah, 172, 174, 179–80, 185

New Horizon
.
See
Project Kaisei

New York City

cost of waste management in, 7, 235

early waste management practices of, 36–38

Fresh Kills landfill, 12, 48, 73

incineration of trash in, 48

landfill development projects of, 45–46, 125

long-distance trash hauling of, 42, 45, 48

mandatory recycling in, 29, 41–44

materials sorting facility, 44

ocean dumping of, 28–29, 37–38, 46–47

sanitation reforms of, 39–44