43
3.2.2 Pre- and Post-Consumer Solid Waste Components Travel
From the public’s perspective, solid municipal waste is perhaps the most visible
form of the problem. Consumers have direct experience with individual components handled at the moment they lose value. Solid waste byproducts at every previous stage supporting a product’s existence up to that point can be orders of
magnitudes larger and more harmful than the enormous waste footprint represented
in the final disposal phase.
To accurately estimate the number of tons per person per year we must add to
what goes into the landfills, the tonnage of all toxic or radioactive tailings produced
Fig. 3.1 Individual solid waste graphic. (Data Source: US EPA)
Fig. 3.2 Family of three solid waste graphic. (Data Source: US EPA)
3.2 Earth
3.2.2 Pre- and Post-Consumer Solid Waste Components Travel
From the public’s perspective, solid municipal waste is perhaps the most visible
form of the problem. Consumers have direct experience with individual components handled at the moment they lose value. Solid waste byproducts at every previous stage supporting a product’s existence up to that point can be orders of
magnitudes larger and more harmful than the enormous waste footprint represented
in the final disposal phase.
To accurately estimate the number of tons per person per year we must add to
what goes into the landfills, the tonnage of all toxic or radioactive tailings produced
Fig. 3.1 Individual solid waste graphic. (Data Source: US EPA)
Fig. 3.2 Family of three solid waste graphic. (Data Source: US EPA)
3.2 Earth