{"id":912,"date":"2014-10-15T00:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T00:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/?p=912"},"modified":"2014-10-15T00:55:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T00:55:09","slug":"trash-talk-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/2014\/10\/15\/trash-talk-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Trash Talk in America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"from<\/a>
from U.S. EPA and http:\/\/www.wec.ufl.edu\/extension\/gc\/harmony\/waste.htm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight at Sociology Professor Barnum<\/a>\u2019s Soup and Bread discussion in Dickinson\u2019s Treehouse<\/a>: The Center for Sustainable Living, we covered a variety of issues, one of them being trash. In a consumer society where items are created to last no more than three years, trash has become a much bigger part of American society than most Americans realize. According to Forbes<\/a>, the U.S. is responsible for producing \u00bc of the world\u2019s waste, meanwhile making up only 5% of the world\u2019s population. That\u2019s way too much trash, and too much trash too responsibly remove from society.<\/p>\n

How did Americans become so unaware of their waste habits? After all, according to Edward Humes, author of Garbology,<\/em>\u00a0per capita waste levels have doubled<\/a> in the U.S. since 1960. Think of the phrase \u201cout of sight, out of mind\u201d. Once an American puts the garbage out on the side of the curb each week, the trash is no longer their problem and they can move on to collecting waste for the next week. The rest of the world, however, is not so ignorant toward the U.S.\u2019s trash problem. Just take the floating trash island<\/a> in the Pacific- an \u201cisland\u201d made of plastic debris deposited into the ocean which will never fully decompose.<\/p>\n

[youtube_sc url=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fKBWNVNzaPo”]<\/p>\n

When there were no municipal waste programs (granted there were, however, major health problems), people were reminded constantly of their trash- by its smell and its appearance. With American\u2019s desire for homes to look pristine and neat, trash could definitely get in the way of this. If American\u2019s were forced to deal with their trash for more than seven days at a time, actions and attitudes might be different. Disposable toothbrushes, Brillo Pads, and excessive paper handouts would feel more threatening once they needed to be stored for more than a week, making them no longer out of sight and so hopefully no longer out of mine. With a more \u201cin your face\u201d approach to America\u2019s trash, the disgusting and greedy extent of its waste products could possibly decrease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A good link to check out: www.zerowasteamerica.org.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonight at Sociology Professor Barnum\u2019s Soup and Bread discussion in Dickinson\u2019s Treehouse: The Center for Sustainable Living, we covered a variety of issues, one of them being trash. In a consumer society where items are created to last no more than three years, trash has become a much bigger part of American society than most … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Trash Talk in America”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100741,77135],"tags":[100933,22,100935,100934],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-society","category-mosaic","tag-barnum","tag-dickinson","tag-trash-island","tag-u-s-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}