For my final civic issues blog, I will add a final part on my sustainability series. I have covered energy sources and modes of transportation, and for my third installment I would like to take a look into waste management and disposal. Obviously we all produce excess waste in some ways, but do you ever think about where it all goes? The main destinations for waste include recycling or compost, waste-to-energy facilities, and landfills (https://www.texasdisposal.com/blog/where-does-trash-go/). These systems may sound obvious and seem like common sense, but a lot of them are more complex than most people know. Recycling is not as easy and common as many people believe, and landfills have a much more intricate design than just an empty pit to dump stuff in.

I would first like to dive a little deeper into our recycling system and compost, but mostly focus on recycling since that system is a lot more complex and varying. I think most people can see how composting is better for the environment than landfills since it gets broken down and turned into soil or other natural materials. There are many different types of recyclable items including paper, glass, metal, plastic, and more. These all have different processes to be recycled and need to be sorted in order to be truly recycled. Just because something gets put into a recycling bin and gets picked up to go to a center, does not mean it is going to get recycled and turned into something new. A lot of waste must be clean and properly organized in order to even make it to a recycling facility. This means a lot of waste just ends up in a landfill anyways, but once the actual recyclable materials are sorted, they get sold to different manufacturers depending on the materials where they hopefully get turned into something else (https://brightly.eco/blog/recycling-process).  As mentioned, the different materials also have different abilities to be recycled. When thinking of recycling, most people think of plastic first, since it is one of the most common materials around us, but it is actually pretty difficult to recycle. The most recyclable material over all is steel, but aluminum cans are second as they are actually 100% recyclable (https://www.acorecycling.com/blog/what-are-the-most-recyclable-materials/). They are one of the few materials that can actually be recycled multiple times, while plastic can normally only be recycled once and normally get turned into much weaker, flimsier plastic. Next is PET plastic bottles, followed by newspaper, and then glass (https://www.acorecycling.com/blog/what-are-the-most-recyclable-materials/). I do not want to discourage recycling in any way, but I must state that the best way to truly decrease landfill waste and pollution is to reduce the production and use of these materials overall. After all, according to NPR, only around 5% of plastic actually gets recycled. This is likely because a lot of plastic can not be recycled if it does not match a certain shape requirement like a jug or bottle with a skinny opening or is not a specific number of plastic like a 1 or 2 (https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-is-practically-impossible-and-the-problem-is-getting-worse).

(https://vvdisposal.com/services-pricing/recycling/plastic-types/)

Even though many people throw anything they think can be recycled into their bin, a lot of it just gets thrown out at the facility anyways and can even cause more damage because it can cause the whole load to just get thrown out to avoid the trouble of sorting out so much trash. This is why proper recycling education is needed so people can actually recycle properly and avoid making matters worse.

(https://www.drugplastics.com/an-introduction-to-advanced-plastic-recycling/)

Waste-to-energy plants are another waste management option, but I won’t get into them too much because they are not as common as other methods so I won’t waste time and space talking about them. There are a couple different ways this can be done, but the most common is burning waste to produce steam that can be used to generate energy. It is not an awful method, but it does produce a lot of air pollution and can have some negative effects on the environment. I do not think it is the best way to dispose of waste especially since we have many other, more sustainable, ways to generate energy that I mentioned in my previous blog post, but it is an option to be aware of.

(https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biomass/waste-to-energy-in-depth.php)

Now for the most obvious and most common method, we have landfills. While landfills may just seem like big pits or areas to dump garbage, there is actually a lot more thought behind them. All regulated landfills have a generic structure and design that varies slightly. This normally includes a thick, non-permeable liner like clay covered with a flexible membrane (https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2941-structure-of-landfills). There are then collection systems that contain and get rid of leachate, which is water that has been contaminated by the waste and contains chemicals and other constitutes that can be dangerous to humans (https://www.epa.gov/landfills/municipal-solid-waste-landfills). The garbage is then dumped into the pit and covered regularly with different layers of dirt, stones, and clay. There are also gas vents to release methane gas that builds up from some of the compostable waste, which is sometimes used to capture energy. When the pit is completely full, it will be sealed off with clay, sand, and topsoil to keep all the trash in.

(https://www.in.gov/idem/iee/classroom-lesson-plans-and-resources/where-trash-goes/student-page/)

Overall, landfills are pretty effective and are definitely much better regulated and safer than they used to be, but they still pose some issues. They can release toxic gases and mostly affect poor income neighborhoods that they often get placed near. Not to mention they take up a lot of land space and if humans keep producing as much waste as they do now at the same rate, eventually we are going to run out of places to put it. I want people to consider how much waste is produced and how we can deal with it in the best way for everyone. It can be overwhelming when you realize how much waste you produce yourself weekly. If I could, I would challenge everyone to keep all their personal garbage for a week to see how much they really make. Personally, I think the main problem lies in big corporations that manufacture items that can not be reused or recycled easily and must end up in a landfill. Fast fashion and large industries cause a lot of excess waste and I believe if we really want to cut down on our impact on the environment, we need to cut down on our waste in general, which means producing and manufacturing more sustainable products.

To stick with the theme of sustainability, I am going to focus this civic issues blog around the idea of transportation and sustainable methods to transport both people and cargo. There are many different methods of transportation around today, including motor vehicles, trains, planes, and ships. All of these methods can further be broken down into different types that have different sources of energy such as electric cars compared to gas cars. The questions that I want to think about are: what transportation method is most sustainable and efficient to transport human being across long distances and also short distances? And what transportation method is most sustainable and efficient to transport cargo and materials?

The first method that I want to look into is planes and air travel. As I am sure many of you know, traveling by air is not very sustainable as it directly emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further increasing global warming. Despite this, it is a very efficient way to travel long distances for many people as it is both quick and direct while being within a reasonable price for most people (let’s pretend this is all pre-pandemic for simplicity). It is also a great way to transport mail and other large cargo in a shorter time than a truck or ship. There are many advances being made and suggested to make planes more environmentally friendly like electric planes or planes powered by hydrogen. The honest truth however, is that planes are not very sustainable and will likely not become green for a very long time, if ever (https://flygrn.com/page/sustainable-air-travel). On this note, I want to consider if planes should still be a common option for travel for all people or should it be reserved for special circumstances like going international? There are ways to try to travel more sustainably by planes, like taking direct flights or choosing better airlines, but the best way to cut down on these emissions is to cut out air travel more frequently or all together. I will go on to discuss other types of transportation, but I still want to think about whether taking a plane is really worth it.

The next method I would like to dissect is cars and road vehicles. Once again, I don’t want to be repetitive and I know most of you are probably aware of the impacts of gas cars on the environment, so I won’t go into too much detail on that. As shown in the graphic below, road vehicles are responsible for almost 75% of CO2 emissions worldwide (https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/how-sustainable-are-electric-cars/).

Obviously, the ideal situation would be switching to electric vehicles, but this would require a big change in infrastructure everywhere, and would still need to be improved if we wanted to apply it for freight vehicles like semi-trucks. Personally, I do not see a big disadvantage to switching to electric cars as long as they are reasonably priced and more electric charging stations become available. It is more environmentally friendly, and does not cause any real inconvenience besides needing to charge your car instead of putting gas in it (which I personally think is actually an advantage with gas prices). The biggest issue with electric vehicles, is that they are not currently ideal for long distance travel, with the average distance possible with one charge being about 250 miles (https://www.cusocal.org/Learn/Financial-Guidance/Blog/how-far-can-an-electric-car-go#:~:text=Electric%20vehicle%20(EV)%20driving%20range,%2C%20battery%20size%2C%20and%20more.).

This is plenty for local driving and short trips, but may be a problem for road trips or people who need to travel long distances for work. I think this is a good alternative for people who want to have their own transportation, compared to public transportation, but do not want to have as big of an impact on the environment. In this case, if this switch to mostly electric cars becomes possible in the future, I think cars can remain a reliable source of travel for the general public along with public transportation and other alternative forms.

I want to touch very briefly on local travel and alternatives for it. While electric cars are an improvement, using public transport like buses and subways can also be decently sustainable as they transport a very large amount of people with only one source of power. It is much more eco-friendly to have 30 people on one gas powered bus, than 30 people, each driving their own gas car. If you live in a city or easy to travel area, you can also consider options like walking or riding a bike. This is not always feasible, but if everyone did this every once in while, it could have an impact.

The final method I want to talk in more detail about is trains. Overall they are pretty sustainable, but just like everything could use some work. The average train emits about 100 grams of CO2 per mile (https://www.carbonindependent.org/21.html). Similar to a plane, it can transport a lot of people and cargo, but is much more environmentally friendly. In this way, it is both efficient and sustainable in many ways compared to other modes of transportation. For these reasons, I think this is what I would consider the best transportation for long distances without crossing water ways, but people have different priorities and this might not be ideal for everyone. I would like to consider the idea of bullet trains and making them more common in the United States and other countries. I’m sure most of you are aware of the bullet trains in Japan, but the Shinkansen, as it is called in Japan, has been operational since 1964 and has a total of 1,717 miles of track. In this time it has carried over 10 billion passengers and can reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour (https://planethome.eco/what-japans-bullet-train-can-teach-us/). I think the US could learn from this as it is electrically powered, so it is relatively eco-friendly, and is also extremely efficient and fast. This could be a very realistic replacement for planes in many circumstances and uses much less energy.

I hope this provided some insight into transportation and how it effects the environment and people. I can not provide an answer to satisfy all people for my previous questions, but I think the use of air travel and gas vehicles needs to drastically decrease in the coming years. I think focusing on electric modes of transportation is ideal for efficiency and sustainability, and that other options should only be used on occasion and for certain circumstances.

I think most people can agree that energy is important for a lot of things and a lot of people daily. Along with this ongoing need for energy, is the issue of where to get this energy from. A lot of the sources that we get our energy supply from right now, are not renewable, meaning once they are used, they are gone and can not be used again. Nonrenewable energy sources include coal, oil, uranium, and natural gases, and these make up about 89% of energy consumption (https://www.goadtsolar.com/education/renewable-vs-non-renewable-energy-sources/). Not only are these energy sources not great for the environment as they release lots of green house gases and often leave behind a lot of waste, but they are eventually going to run out and we need a new way to produce energy. There are many different renewable energy options including solar, geothermal, wind, hydropower, and biomass. As renewable energy options, they are naturally occurring and are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed (https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-renewable-energy). This potentially means that they could be used to contain energy for an unlimited amount of time. A downside to many renewable energy sources is that they take more time to harvest and many require new technology or machines, like wind turbines and water dams, to harness this energy. This can take a lot of time and money to build and get into operation so many large corporations would rather stick with the cheaper options, that make them more money.

As mentioned there are many types of renewable energy and all work better in certain conditions and geographical locations. The most common known ones is likely solar power and I don’t think I really need to explain this because most people are aware of solar panels and how they work. It has many advantages like low emissions and potentially cheaper energy in the long run, but it also has some drawbacks like being expensive to install and needing direct sunlight, so not being ideal in cloudy cities or at night.

Another fairly common renewable energy source is wind. Once again, I assume most people are relatively familiar with wind turbines and the general way that they work. Advantages to them include being low cost to operate and the land that they are installed on can still be used for other activities like farming. Some disadvantages include being expensive to install, needing to be placed in areas with lots of wind, and causing visual and sound pollution.

Hydropower is another renewable energy source that works by using flowing water to spin the blades of a turbine similar to wind energy, that thus produces energy. This is a relatively reliable option on large bodies of water like rivers because it is not necessarily weather dependent and can create energy at all times. It causes no emissions and releases no pollution. However, building dams and reservoirs is very expensive and requires a lot of time and commitment. It can also interrupt the natural flow of water and will not work if climate change continues and worsen and droughts become very frequent.

The final renewable energy source I will mention here, even though there are others, is geothermal energy. This process is a bit more complex, but basically wells are drilled into the ground, steam from deep in the ground turns a turbine, and this generates energy. This is a good energy resource because it is constantly functioning and the earth has an unlimited supply of heat to provide energy.  The restrictions of geothermal energy include the fact that it must be done in certain geographical areas and can not be done everywhere. It also requires drilling into the earth and sometimes releases small amounts of carbon dioxide (https://www.geothermal.org/our-impact/blog/pros-and-cons-renewable-energy-sources).

There are many differences around the world concerning energy production and how it is acquired. For example in Iceland, geothermal energy accounts for 66% of their primary energy use (https://nea.is/geothermal/). This is highly dependent on geographical features like tectonic plates and fault lines. Due to being very tectonically active, Iceland is able to use geothermal energy much more than other places like the US which only generate about 0.4% of energy from geothermal resources (https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/energy/geothermal-energy-factsheet). This is due to geothermal energy not being as available in the US, but there are still many other ways that the US could use renewable energy. The main reason why it is not as common is due to infrastructure and cost. Unfortunately, resources like fossil fuels are cheaper, reliable, and are what we have been using for a long time. Hopefully, a change will start to come once renewable resources are more affordable, reliable, and the infrastructure for them grows (https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/blog/clean-energy-101/why-dont-we-use-more-renewable-energy). Another factor that could increase demand for renewable energy is for consumers to ask for more renewable energy options from companies. Obviously, most individuals can not just decide to use wind power to power their life from now on, but if more people switch to sustainable power companies that use solar, wind, water power, etc., and show a demand for this, larger corporations will be forced to adjust to this and switch to different energy sources. An example of this is Uruguay. They are one of the most electrically connected countries in the world, with 99.9% of homes being connected to the electrical grid. Despite this, they generate over 98% of their energy from renewable resources (https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/uruguay-renewable-energy-equipment#). They started this transfer to renewable energy in 2005 and their main contributors are hydrogen, hydroelectricity, and wind. They produce so much renewable energy that they often have a surplus and transfer it to other countries like Argentina and Brazil (https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/uruguay-renewable-energy-equipment#). This just shows that it is possible to rely on renewable energy and stray away from the more harmful nonrenewable energies.

Obviously, energy is an important part of our world and is something that people will continue to rely on for a long time. Energy production is a big issue and one that needs to be solved sooner than later. I believe it is possible to convert to mostly renewable energy sources and create a world where humans have less impact on the world that we live on.