American Wasteland

Americans are, as a nation, extremely wasteful. Some facts for you:

• The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
• Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year.

On average, every man, woman and child in the US generates 4.6 pounds of trash every day. That's more than three quarters of a ton of trash per person every year. Every minute in the US— yes, every minute— 60 tons— yes, tons— of edible food is thrown away by grocery stores, restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals, hotels, etc. for reasons ranging from the meat was overcooked according to the customer to the expiration date has passed to a dented can to a torn box.

I work in a nursing home and I'm constantly dismayed at the waste that takes place. Unfortunately, much of that is "forced" waste because of stupid laws. About sixteen thousand  gallon a year in water are wasted because, by law, every resident must have fresh water placed in a pourable container in their room every morning and afternoon. I'd venture to say nine out of ten are never touched by the resident because they either don't go into their rooms during the day, they're incapable of getting themselves water (and they get water from staff from a "communal" water pitcher that's at the nurse's station for that very purpose) or they simply don't like to drink plain water. Styrofoam cups are another big waste in nursing homes. Residents get a clean cup with their water each shift. I'd be willing to bet that our home throws out more than 200 Styrofoam cups a day that are never even used. But because they were in a resident's room, they must be thrown out. Even if a home uses reusable plastic cups, water must be used to wash these even if they don't get used during the day.

Food is another major waste. Portion sizes are, for the most part, standardized by law, and meal times are set by law. Breakfast is huge compared to what most people eat. Juice, toast, an 8 oz. carton of milk and oatmeal/cold cereal are everyday fare. Then tack onto that the "hot portion" such as french toast or eggs and bacon or waffles. In our home, the biggest meal of the day is lunch, which is what most of us would eat for dinner, and dinner is usually a much smaller affair. Unfortunately, lunch is served about three hours after the end of breakfast and most of the food goes to waste. Dinner is served four hours after the end of lunch and by that time, so many people want to go to bed because they've already been up for 12 hours or more that they don't eat much anyway. Any carton of milk that is placed on the dining room table for a resident to drink must, by law, be thrown away even if the resident never opens that carton of milk. When the tables are set for the next meal, each place gets two creamers, which, by law, must be thrown out even if they're not used. In a way, I understand why— milk sours and all that. Although, truth be told, it's not going to spoil in the hour to hour and a half it takes to serve the meal and clean up. It could be put back into the cooler without affecting it's quality or the residents' health. Rather than use bottles of condiments or salad dressing, plastic/foil packets are used, which are very wasteful and expensive.

I cringe at the number of plastic bags we go through every day. State law does not permit trash (soiled briefs) to remain in the room, so every time a resident is changed, the trash bag must be changed as well. I wouldn't be surprised if our home goes through 500 trash bags every day. If you have to go to the linen room to get some clean sheets, you can't carry them through the hall unless they're in a plastic bag. I understand the need to be clean, but the same halls the linens would have to pass through are the same halls the residents themselves pass through and then sleep on the sheets that came through the halls in plastic bags to prevent them from getting cross-contaminated by someone else's germs!

And I know the home I work in is only one of at least a dozen of comparable size within about a ten mile radius. And I know there are at least two within that same radius that are about five times bigger than our home. And there are three major hospitals in the same radius as well. The amount of waste is astounding and it's due, in large part, to lawmakers who have no idea what it's like to actually work in a nursing home/hospital. But I digress.

In the US, we've become a "disposable society". We have disposable cameras, disposable diapers, disposable eating utensils, disposable rain ponchos— you name it and there's probably a disposable version of it. And even if there's not, we treat it as disposable. I'd be willing to bet that probably 99% of Americans thrown used batteries into their normal trash can. Same with house paint and old electronic equipment like CD players or VHS players or video game systems. According to the EPA, an estimated 40 million computers are discarded each year in the US. Unfortunately, most of these computers end up either in landfills in the US or on container ships bound for third would countries like Ghana or Nigeria, where they are burned in open fires and their heavy metals sold for meager scraps of food. The one's doing the burning are mostly children who breathe in the carcinogenic smoke from the melting plastics.

And it's not just old computers and appliances that we're polluting the world with. The US invasion of Iraq has devastated that nation in more ways than one. Besides the destruction of the infrastructure, the loss of cultural treasures (Iraq is considered the "birthplace" of modern civilization and it's many museums were looted following the US invasion), there's a much more devastating and long-lasting legacy the US will leave behind: radiation poisoning from the depleted uranium used in US ammunition. Already in Iraq, the incidence of childhood birth defects has risen dramatically. Children born with missing limbs, skulls that don't fully form, organs growing outside the body, large tumors, missing eyes, facial deformities— due in large part to the contamination of the soil and drinking water from depleted uranium.

The sad thing is that there's no real effort by the US government to help solve these problems. In fact, a treaty signed in 1989 by 172 counties was aimed at stopping developed nations from dumping toxic waste in the form of old appliances and electronics in developing nations. The US was one of only three nations to NOT sign the agreement.

It seems to me that the US government, which is elected by the people of the US, would much rather continue to live their life in oblivion (or worse yet, denial) of the damage their lifestyle is causing to those in other countries. They're much too concerned about making the almighty dollar (according to one of the links below, Nike alone makes $36,000 every minute of every day) and padding their own pockets. And I am one of the culprits as well. While I attempt to lessen the "carbon footprint" I leave, I'm sure that there's more I could do. And I'm gonna keep trying to do more, even though it often feels pointless. Like putting my finger over one hole in a sieve and trying to use it to scoop water. But maybe this will inspire others to put their finger over a hole as well and someday....