What is the journey of garbage from house to final stage?

Answer 1

Garbage begins at the point of consumption -- eating or using the product, or casting away part of the item that is not used or consumed (such as packaging). From the point of use or consumption, trash waste baskets are used in the home. At least once a week (more or less), someone in the house moves the trash from wastebaskets to the outside trash containers. Then, on a predetermined schedule, someone at each house must move, push, drag, kick, lug, or tug the garbage cans or containers to the curb. Later, one of a fleet of garbage trucks turns down the street, and comes to pick up the garbage from the houses. Most modern garbage (waste) trucks are fitted with an automatic crusher; as one (or two) men toss in garbage or dump garbage cans, another man operates the crusher. The garbage is pushed toward the front of the truck, while at the same time, the materials are pushed downward or compacted. The men walking move on, already grabbing the next set of cans, before the truck pulls up alongside the next pick-up. At the point the truck is full, even if the route is not finished, the truck goes off to dump its load. Most municipalities have landfills nearby, although some trash ends up trucked to out of state landfills, or ends up on barges to be dumped far out in the ocean.

If taken to a landfill, front loaders move the huge piles and graders flatten the area. Dirt can be put on in layers between layers of garbage. More garbage is dumped; more front loaders move more garbage; more grading is done; and the process continues. Often, trucks arrive all night and through the day too.

People should recycle anything they can so these landfills don't get too filled up. Once a landfill is fill, big cities (especially) have no room to expand. Other States that contract to accept garbage from out-of-state end up with protesting citizens who are concerned about just what kind of waste is being brought into their communities. When some waste is radioactive or have high risks, the protestors become even more vocal. Slowly, human's material waste and gluttony is showing up in bursting landfills. Run-off pollutes the water table and nearby streams. Air pollution near waste dumps often exceeds the air quality standards set by the government. The more humans can focus on using organic products, without plastic or glass packaging, or use recyclable cardboard etc., the more humans will rescue our planet from the overwhelming burden of "waste".