Dump it or recycle it
550C-
New York - and its rubbish
Rubbish produced each week Los Angeles 21 kg New York 13 kg London 6 kci
Mexico City 3 kg
New York - and its rubbish
I low much rubbish do you throw out every week? If you live in Los Angeles, you probably throw away about twenty-one kilograms of rubbish every week. Every man, woman and child in London throws away six kilograms of rubbish every week. The figure for Tokyo is seven kilograms. Mexico City throws away only three kilograms for each person. Imagine the mountains of rubbish in a big city like New York, which throws away 170,000 tonnes of rubbish every week (more than thirteen kilograms for each person)! Most of this rubbish is useful, valuable, recyclable material.
In some countries there are laws about pollution and recycling. Their governments punish people who pollute the environment. Their governments also try to teach people about recycling. In other countries, there arc no laws against pollution and their governments do not encourage recycling. This is why Europe and the USA send a lot of their waste to some Asian, African
Mexico City 3 kg
550C-
Rubbish produced each week Los Angeles 21 kg New York 13 kg London 6 kci and South American countries. Rich countries have laws against polluting the environment. Many poor countries have no laws against pollution - and they welcome the money which richer countries give them for dumping waste.
Laws against pollution make people and companies think carefully about the way they dispose of their waste. But governments need to encourage recycling too. Oregon in the USA is a good example. Several years ago, their government made a special law which encourages five things:
1 Reducing the amount of waste that is produced
Sometimes a small change in the way you make things can reduce waste and save you money too. A company which makes birthday and Christmas cards produced a lot of toxic waste every year - until it started to use different chemicals for its colours. The new chemicals did not damage the environment. The company did not have to spend a lot of money on special waste disposal.
2 Reusing materials when this is possible
Two good examples are recycling paper and reusing scrap metal from old cars.
3 Recycling non-reusable materials
For example, it is possible to make old car tyres into other things.
4 Using waste which cannot be recycled or reused to make energy For example, you can burn waste to produce energy - electricity, gas or heat.
5 Disposing of 'useless* waste carefully and sensibly
After you have reused reusable waste, recycled everything recyclable and used other waste to produce energy, there is not much 'useless' waste to dispose of!
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