NO TRASH
ALL TREASURE
When Trash Is Waste
1.1 Trash = Landfill = Carbon Emission
Amount the Unite State of America, 34% of our daily waste goes to landfills which produce a great amount of greenhouse gas emission.
​
But how did we get here?
1.2 Causes of Current Situation
Consumption Culture
Economic growth in the US is based on a never-ending cycle of production and consumption, pushing people to buy new items instead of repairing the ones they already own. As shown in the chart, the household consumption growth in the US has been more stable than wealth growth from year to year, and never stopped increasing except for a few years after 1970.
Consumption culture led to a phenomenon where people rather buy new things than repair what they already had. The logistics, mass manufacturing, group psychology, loss of repairing skills, the price to repair, and the inconvenience to repair push people to buy more and more new stuff.
To be specific, paper was the material that got mostly recycled. However, the recycling rates of many other materials, like organic waste, plastic, and glass, remained below expectation.
Ulster County Waste Stream
Currently, Municipal Solid Waste takes almost 60% of the total waste stream in Ulster County. Even though the existing waste management system has been implemented and some material that is traditionally regarded as recyclable got managed, many others were ignored.
1.3 Zero Waste Future
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT
NOTHING IS WASTE?
In Ulster County, the Zero Waste 2020 Action Plan shows a great ambition to reduce MSW waste to 90% by 2030. The plan envisions a future of 'NO WASTE', where all the wastes have their 'second life'.
​
In order to achieve this, Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency puts great effort to expand its current waste processing facilities.