With a significant amount of it going to the ocean and other places, the world generates an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of solid waste a year. With a lot of trash comes a lot of facts. Today, we at Mickey’s Carting would like to share some surprising facts about trash.
Interesting Facts About Waste
A Lot of Trash – Every day Americans throw away enough garbage to fill 63,000 garbage trucks, which is enough that if we lined the garbage trucks end to end they would reach half way to the moon. This averages to about 7 pounds per person each day.
Garbage is Categorized into Two Forms. Garbage is either biodegradable or non-biodegradable.
Biodegradable – This garbage will decay and can become soil. Soil is decayed plants and animals, so biodegradable items are plants, plant parts, and parts of animals, like hair, skin and muscles, as well as animal waste. Although they may take a lot longer to degrade bones are also biodegradable. A good biodegradable material is paper, and paper is a plant part. Paper will decay and in approximately three months’ time, you will not be able to find it if you bury a piece of paper in the flowerbed in your back yard.
Non-biodegradable – Non-biodegradable garbage will never decay, or it may eventually after thousands of years. While the piece of paper will be decaying or maybe even gone depending upon how much time you gave the process, aluminum foil could be buried next to that piece of paper in your back yard and it will look almost like it did the day it was buried. A few examples of non-biodegradable trash include plastic, glass, rubber, and aluminum cans.
Where Garbage Ends Up. Trash doesn’t just sit in the garbage can when we throw things away. The garbage employees collect your trash at least once a week. These employees are known as trash collectors, waste handlers or sanitation workers. The trash is dumped into the garbage truck, which is then hauled to the landfill in many communities. Because the trash is dumped there, the landfill has also been called the dump.
What Happens to Garbage? Some of the trash might be burned, some is buried under the soil and some is recycled once it is brought to the landfill. The work done at a landfill comes with a lot of planning. Part of the plan is to ensure decomposing trash does not harm people or the water system. To find ways to do all of this efficiently, safely, and cost effectively, they work hard to keep hazardous waste out of the landfill. The garbage ends up in the landfills is only a little more than half of all. About 33% is recycled and the rest is burned in incinerators. Special facilities that burn the trash down to ash are incinerators. The ash is then buried in landfills. During the burning process, scrubbers and filters are used to make sure that the incinerators do not release pollution.
Waste Management & More in Amagansett, Aquebogue, Baiting Hollow, Calverton, Cutchogue, East Hampton, East Hampton North, Greenport, Jamesport, Laurel, Mattituck, Montauk, Nassau Point, Northville, Northwest Harbor, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southold, Springs, Wading River, Westhampton Beach in East End of Long Island, New York
We hope this was a fascinating look about mundane trash. For garbage and dumpster services in New York, call Mickey’s Carting and let us take care of you.
