Waste Diary
Procedure Carry a trash bag around with you for 24 hours collecting all your waste, except:
· Food products
· Feminine hygiene products, bandages or anything else that would have bodily fluids or blood
Materials
- Your waste
- Trash Bag
· Food products
· Feminine hygiene products, bandages or anything else that would have bodily fluids or blood
Materials
- Your waste
- Trash Bag
Questions
1. What is done to control the amount of pollution created from a landfill?
Pollution is controlled through many different ways. A municipal solid waste landfill, for example, uses a synthetic liner to isolate the trash from the environment. Many landfills have rainwater control systems so the runoff doesn’t take the trash from the landfill and pollute the environment. Much of the trash is buried, burned, or recycled to limit the amount of trash in the landfill.
2. Many people think landfills should not be expensive since they are a hole in the ground. Explain why a landfill such as above can cost in the millions of dollars to build and keep up.
Landfills can be very expensive as trash isn’t just being thrown into a giant hole. Trash is recycled, harvested for energy, and requires investments to control the pollution. Much of the trash is recycled which requires large amounts of money to sort and ship it to facilities who can then recycle the trash. Many energy collecting resources are established around landfills to harvest the methane and other pollutants excreted from the landfilled and convert it into usable energy. It also takes investments to ensure that the landfills don't damage the environment.
3. How did the amount of waste you and your family each create compare with what you expected?
The amount of waste i collected was much more than what i though. I didn't expect that my parents and I threw away this much trash everyday.
4.What are some reasons the average could be different than your (or family’s) amount for one day?
I think that family size plays large role in the amount of trash produced. Smaller families tend to eat out more than larger families which create more trash in the form of food wrappers and bags. Larger famalies, such as my own family, tend to not eat out as much. Eating out becomes costly for each person who purchase a meal.
5. Calculate how much trash you accumulate in one month’s time: 27150g
6. There are approximately 1,300 students at our school. How much trash do you estimate would be produced by all the students in our school over the course of 10 months (one school year)? 63,570,000g
7. What was the total weight of your recyclable material? The total weight was 905g.
8. What was the total weight of your reusable material? The total weight was 905g.
9. What was the total weight of your compostable material? The total weight was 905g.
10. Now, calculate how much trash you would produce if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not in your trash bag? How much trash would that save over the course of one year?
I would produce 0g of trash if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable materail were not in my trash bag. I would save 330,325g of trash over the course of a year.
11. How much could the school save through the course of one school year if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not thrown in the landfill?
If each student has an average of 150g of recyclable, resuable, and compostable material, the school could save 58,500,000g of trash.
Conclusion
I was suprised by the amount of trash I produced. Though much of the waste I brought in was from the newspapers that my parents read, not me, I still threw away about 200g of trash without the newspapers. I did not expect that the trash produced by me was going to be that much. I expected a number around 150g.
There were some sources of error in this experiment. The trash collected was not an entirely accurate representation of the trash produced in the given time period. Food waste was excluded which accounted a good amount of my total trash which makes the predictions less accurate than what they are. Another source of error was human error during this experiment. Many trash items weren’t included in the trash bag that could’ve been included if the person had made a better decision. This makes the trash collected less than the actual amount of trash that could’ve been put in the bag.
This experiment was very revealing about the amount of waste that is produced. If an average person produces the amount produced by me, then imagine the trash produced by every single person altogether. An interesting part of this experiment was that the majority of these food items were recyclable. If each person recycled every piece of trash that could be recycled, we’d be looking at billions of pounds of trash reduced per year. This would bring the Earth into a more sustainable, environmentally friendly society as landfills can be potentially deadly. The trash is frequently burned which causes greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere which enables the greenhouse effect. The trash can also be swept by rainwater which carries potential toxins across the environment, poisoning the local lakes and streams from which we drink from. Solving our landfill problem by recycling waste would even cut our need for resources thus saving our nation money.
1. What is done to control the amount of pollution created from a landfill?
Pollution is controlled through many different ways. A municipal solid waste landfill, for example, uses a synthetic liner to isolate the trash from the environment. Many landfills have rainwater control systems so the runoff doesn’t take the trash from the landfill and pollute the environment. Much of the trash is buried, burned, or recycled to limit the amount of trash in the landfill.
2. Many people think landfills should not be expensive since they are a hole in the ground. Explain why a landfill such as above can cost in the millions of dollars to build and keep up.
Landfills can be very expensive as trash isn’t just being thrown into a giant hole. Trash is recycled, harvested for energy, and requires investments to control the pollution. Much of the trash is recycled which requires large amounts of money to sort and ship it to facilities who can then recycle the trash. Many energy collecting resources are established around landfills to harvest the methane and other pollutants excreted from the landfilled and convert it into usable energy. It also takes investments to ensure that the landfills don't damage the environment.
3. How did the amount of waste you and your family each create compare with what you expected?
The amount of waste i collected was much more than what i though. I didn't expect that my parents and I threw away this much trash everyday.
4.What are some reasons the average could be different than your (or family’s) amount for one day?
I think that family size plays large role in the amount of trash produced. Smaller families tend to eat out more than larger families which create more trash in the form of food wrappers and bags. Larger famalies, such as my own family, tend to not eat out as much. Eating out becomes costly for each person who purchase a meal.
5. Calculate how much trash you accumulate in one month’s time: 27150g
6. There are approximately 1,300 students at our school. How much trash do you estimate would be produced by all the students in our school over the course of 10 months (one school year)? 63,570,000g
7. What was the total weight of your recyclable material? The total weight was 905g.
8. What was the total weight of your reusable material? The total weight was 905g.
9. What was the total weight of your compostable material? The total weight was 905g.
10. Now, calculate how much trash you would produce if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not in your trash bag? How much trash would that save over the course of one year?
I would produce 0g of trash if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable materail were not in my trash bag. I would save 330,325g of trash over the course of a year.
11. How much could the school save through the course of one school year if all the recyclable, reusable, and compostable material was not thrown in the landfill?
If each student has an average of 150g of recyclable, resuable, and compostable material, the school could save 58,500,000g of trash.
Conclusion
I was suprised by the amount of trash I produced. Though much of the waste I brought in was from the newspapers that my parents read, not me, I still threw away about 200g of trash without the newspapers. I did not expect that the trash produced by me was going to be that much. I expected a number around 150g.
There were some sources of error in this experiment. The trash collected was not an entirely accurate representation of the trash produced in the given time period. Food waste was excluded which accounted a good amount of my total trash which makes the predictions less accurate than what they are. Another source of error was human error during this experiment. Many trash items weren’t included in the trash bag that could’ve been included if the person had made a better decision. This makes the trash collected less than the actual amount of trash that could’ve been put in the bag.
This experiment was very revealing about the amount of waste that is produced. If an average person produces the amount produced by me, then imagine the trash produced by every single person altogether. An interesting part of this experiment was that the majority of these food items were recyclable. If each person recycled every piece of trash that could be recycled, we’d be looking at billions of pounds of trash reduced per year. This would bring the Earth into a more sustainable, environmentally friendly society as landfills can be potentially deadly. The trash is frequently burned which causes greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere which enables the greenhouse effect. The trash can also be swept by rainwater which carries potential toxins across the environment, poisoning the local lakes and streams from which we drink from. Solving our landfill problem by recycling waste would even cut our need for resources thus saving our nation money.