Chapter Five-Disposal

As I was reading The Story of Stuff I was constantly taken aback by the amount of "stuff" that we throw away. Obviously, this is not some recent discovery but it is still surprising to have the pure amount of disposed goods laid out for us in actual tonnage. Industrial production waste makes up a great majority of the totals disposal yet, in the US, very little is required of large producers to clean up their own messes and operate more efficiently. Much of the monetary burden for taking care of the waste lies unfairly on the American taxpayer. As can be imagined, the largest waste producers in the US have their interests represented strongly at both the state and national levels and legislation to meant to minimize industrial waste is seen by the industry as detrimental to their short term profits and thus fiercely opposed. There are a few large companies, namely Interface, that have taken substantial steps to reduce their own waste and develop innovative new means of operating in more sustainable fashions, but unfortunately the industry by and large lags behind these few shining examples. Legislation has proven to be an effective option for waste reduction reform in a wide variety of foreign countries, as well as our own, and we as American citizens and voters should make an effort to encourage our legislators to support further measures to protect our water, air and health as well as lessen the destructive power of our species' presence on our planet.