Ontario Waste Disposal Case Study

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Pages: 7

The Issue with Waste Disposal
In Ontario, many people don’t know where their waste goes. They do not know that all their waste put in garbage bags are hauled out to a rotting land of waste that is everyday contributing to global warming. Landfills along with incineration are the most detrimental to the environment(Bowden 25). Most people may not see it, but landfills are the main source of all the garbage produced in Ontario. Landfills are areas filled with rotting waste and garbage that produce methane, a greenhouse gas(“Too much of Ontario’s waste going to landfill: enviro watchdog.”). Most citizens of Ontario do not take the proper precautions to dispose of their waste and just throw it out for a garbage man to take to be disposed. As a
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Firstly, as Ontario is a North American province, citizens have access to many commodities, allowing many residents of Ontario to easily replace their old stuff with new. With new products being produced everyday, most people in Ontario end up replacing most of their commodities within 2 to 3 years, subsequently making more garbage and waste. Moreover, many of the goods that Ontarians buy are single-use products. This further adds to the waste as we have unneeded goods going to the trash bin in which eventually leads to a landfill(“Ontario has a Waste Problem.”). Secondly, many citizens rather not send their goods to the recycling bin as it is much more complicated to find out which items can be put in the Blue Box rather than just throw it away in a garbage bin. In fact, it is estimated that 85% of all the items put in the Blue Box are not items that can be recycled by the program(“Ontario has a Waste Problem.”). Besides the amount of confusion in what goes in the Blue Box, the Blue Box program does not divert as much waste as thought by everyday Ontarians. Many citizens of Ontario use the Blue Box program as their main source of diverting waste, yet the Blue Box program only covers 8% of all waste produced in Ontario only producing a small environmental impact. Furthermore, only part of the waste recycled in the Blue Box program …show more content…
There are also many other new technologies that we recently developed to help counteract the amount of waste we produce. Right now, recycling is the easiest option to decrease waste going into landfills. Recycling is the act of using materials found in a product for other uses. Many products that Ontarians use everyday are able to be recycled such as wood, plastics, glasses, and metal products. This leads to less waste in landfills and another use for that product(“Trash, Garbage, and Waste Removal Systems that Don’t Involve a Landfill.”). Due to the amount of organic waste we produce, a process called anaerobic digestion has been developed. This process allows methane gas to be produced naturally, being a renewable energy source while letting waste be decomposed naturally(“Trash, Garbage, and Waste Removal Systems that Don’t Involve a Landfill.”) . A last solution to the waste problem is a recent technology that is still under development called plasma gas gasification can turn organic waste into slag, which can then be used for construction purposes. As a result, waste can be used for even more uses outside of just rotting away(“Trash, Garbage, and Waste Removal Systems that Don’t Involve a Landfill.”). However, the main, simple way that Ontarians can use to solve the waste problem, is to just be more energy efficient. Instead of buying single use items,