Why is garbage a problem

Ingestion of plastic debris by seabirds, fish, and sea turtles has been widely documented, and ingestion has been reported from marine mammals as well. The potential for plastic ingestion is largely associated with situations where plastic particles can be mistaken for food. For example, sea turtles readily consume plastic bags and other floating debris that appear similar to their gelatinous prey, jellyfish. Predatory organisms, such as fur seals, may indirectly consume plastics through consumption of ocean fish and other prey that have consumed plastic particles mistaken for food.

In addition to degrading the habitats and ecosystem services that humans use, plastic aquatic debris can directly interfere with navigation, impede commercial and recreational fishing, threaten health and safety, and reduce tourism.

Large debris, such as derelict fishing nets and lines that float at or just below the surface, pose the greatest threat to vessel navigation. Lines and nets can become wrapped around propellers and entrained in intakes of motors, and vessels may strike large items, damaging hulls and propellers. Additionally, "ghost fishing" by lost, drifting nets and pots can kill fish and invertebrates valuable to local commercial and recreational fisheries.

It was estimated that derelict crab pots capture approximately , pounds of Dungeness crab in Puget Sound annually. Ghost fishing can compete with active fishing for limited resources, undermining economic opportunities while also decreasing the reproductive capacities of fish and invertebrate stocks.

Immobilization of commercial and recreational vessels can result in increased costs of navigation due to lost time, costly repairs, as well as the loss of human life.

In a tragic example, derelict fishing gear contributed to the sinking of a Korean passenger ferry in that resulted in the deaths of passengers. Humans can also be directly harmed by aquatic trash, becoming entangled in nets and lines while swimming or diving, or being injured by sharp debris that accumulates on beaches. In most instances they are able to free themselves. The problem is how to integrate the technology with a system of household-level segregation so that waste does not end up in landfills, but is processed and reused.

It is clear that there will be no value from waste, as energy or material, if it is not segregated. But this is where our waste management system stops short. It is the responsibility of the urban local body to ensure segregation of waste at source as per the Municipal Solid Waste MSW Rules, This means the body must get citizens to segregate waste at the household level and then ensure that this segregated waste—wet and dry, compostable and recyclable—is collected separately and transported separately for processing.

The easier solution is to collect and dump. Or to believe that unsegregated waste can be sorted out mechanically at the processing plant itself and burnt. Officials of urban local bodies have been given to believe this is the magic bullet: collect, sort and burn.

But as experience across India—and from the rest of the world—shows, if waste is not segregated then it will make poor quality fuel. This will not work. The toxic substances in air contaminated by waste include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

In everyday life we identify the polluted air especially through bad odors, which are usually caused by decomposing and liquid waste items. Garbage and liquid waste that end up in water bodies negatively change the chemical composition of the water. Technically, this type of pollution is called water pollution. It affects all ecosystems existing in the water, including fish and other animals that drink the polluted water. Hazardous household waste items such as batteries, computer equipment and leftover paints can be particularly dangerous for surface waters.

For waste collection staff the risks of picking up and handling overflowing garbage include infections, chronic diseases and accidents. Direct contact with waste can result in skin and blood infections through infected wounds, various illnesses resulting from the bites of animals feeding on the waste, and intestinal infections transmitted by flies feeding on the waste.

Picking up overflowing garbage is also risky due to sharp objects, needles and potentially hazardous waste. Besides causing all sorts of health and environmental issues, overflowing garbage is a public nuisance and eyesore.

A primary challenge for AMP Robotics is that sorting garbage is endlessly complex. The result is that you have to build exceptionally tough and high-performance pieces of equipment.

He's aware of the historic insufficiencies of recycling. The problem is that the cost of sorting erodes away that value," Horowitz says. That's precisely what our technology does, and how we go about our mission of enabling a world without waste. Horowitz is optimistic. Consumer brands can help increase the success of the recycling supply chain, too, according to Steve Alexander , the president and CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, by designing packaging that can be recycled.

A label on a soda bottle that has a lot of adhesive or ink may not be consistent with other recyclable designs in the soda bottle category, and might in the fact contaminate that stream. The first thing we have to do is ensure the products we buy be compatible with recycling. Brands are being pushed to be better and more transparent about their package recyclability by consumer demand.

Troy Swope, the CEO of Footprint, a technology company focused on eliminating single-use plastics through development and manufacturing of compostable containers, says to focus on improving recycling for plastics is chasing the wrong solution. Swope pointed to CarbonLite Holdings, a large plastic bottle recycler that filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

It has no value," he said. Arizona-headquartered Footprint, which ranked No. The goal is for all products to be biodegradable or compostable in 90 days or less. And they're doing so at scale.