Category Archives: Fall 2015 Teams

Yesterday afternoon our group had a table out in the Gaige building on campus and were able to share our research on the impact of environmental waste with the community. We also had the chance to talk with some of the students and others who stopped by and tell them about the mural work we did with Glenside Elementary School. We are so glad we got the chance to talk with everyone who came over to our table. Many were shocked to find out that food waste is one of the biggest source of problems with landfills as it can release methane gas. They were also shocked to see just how many landfills Pennsylvania’s counties have and that over 60% is sent over from other states into Pennsylvania. In Berks County alone, there are 4 landfills and the county continues to take in trash from other counties in Pennsylvania!

As our team has continued our research on environmental waste, we have found some very concerning issues that occur as a result of the waste we dump into landfills. We found out that when different types of waste are continually dumped into landfills, the trash releases greenhouse gases into the air. One of those gases, being methane, which is even more harmful to the environment than Carbon Dioxide. Although this information feels extremely concerning, there is still hope! There are steps everyone can take to help prevent further harm to our environment. One of these steps include, (as obvious as it may sound) simply reducing the amount of trash we are throwing away and in general trying to use less. We can also continue to recycle as much material as possible and reuse items whenever we can. While researching we found that there are actually companies out there that have the mission of reducing other large scale companies’ waste! This is a great step in the right direction to protecting our environment!