Our water and air quality have fallen victim to trash pollution we release into the environment. Taking with it, our health and well-being. How did we get this way?
Trash Travels In The Ocean
We discard trash in so many places throughout our environment. We poison our air and water with our endless trash dumping. It can affect sea life at the surface and on the ocean floor.
Ocean currents empower trash’s ability to travel further and deeper.
Plastics and other trash that ends up in the ocean can be mistaken by fish and sea life as food.
Fish in the rivers and oceans that consume microplastics can suffer from malnutrition, stunted growth, and changes in their immune system. They can die.
They also can become trapped by the debris.
When we consume fish and sea life for food at our dinner table, we eat what they eat.
Just think year after year as the world population grows so does trash and the need for disposal. We are nurturing a time bomb. Detonation date unknown. But there still is time to diffuse the trigger.
Scientists have been tracking trash pollution in the water for decades. It is amazingly mobile traveling around the globe.
Hazardous trash is dumped or travels to our beaches polluting the waters where we and our children play.
Table of Contents
- Trash Travels In The Ocean
- Plastics Pollute the Air We Breathe
- USA States with Best Air and Water Quality
- Air Pollution from Landfills
- Pollution from Trash Burning
- Nuclear Waste Sites
- Finding A Resolution To Toxic Trash
Plastics Pollute the Air We Breathe
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastics that result from waste disposal. The kind of stuff that ends up in landfills. Yearly we throw away hundreds of millions of tons of plastics around the world. Eventually, they undergo a chemical change because of changes in the environment. This could be due to weather or interactions with other chemicals in their surroundings. The end product can lead to toxic substances and volatile organic compounds.
Microplastics are less than 5 millimeters and very mobile traveling great distances in the air and sea. Even smaller than microplastics are nanoplastics.
These tiny particles can end up in our lungs and blood vessels setting the stage for future heart attacks, strokes, and liver damage.
USA States with Best Air and Water Quality
We all would like to live where we can breathe the cleanest air. The best air quality index in the USA goes to Hawaii which ranked #1 for both air and water quality.
- The 2 states with the worst air quality were California and Arizona.
- Ranking 2nd for water quality was Tennessee and Alabama 3rd.
Air Pollution from Landfills
Of great concern is the trash in landfills, and its ability to contribute to air pollution and affect residents nearby. Landfills can produce a collection of gas emissions as bacteria begin to break down methane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and ammonia are just a few. Methane gas in high enough concentrations can cause explosions and fires.
It can also be a source of health difficulties causing nausea, vomiting, changes in mood, headaches, speech slurring, loss of memory, and vision changes. The severity increasing with the degree of exposure could lead to:
- Unconsciousness
- Restrictions in breathing
- Numbness
- Changes in heart rate
- Asphyxiation
- Fatigue
- Death
In some cases, the military had to evacuate those living near dump sites where the gases had migrated near people’s homes causing actual explosions and fires.
Pollution from Trash Burning
Trash burning is another source of pollution. It can pollute our air, soil, crops, and water.
The smoke from open trash burning can travel vast distances affecting humans and wildlife.
As trash burns it transforms into new and more dangerous chemicals and by-products that travel for miles through the air. Those along its path both animal and human can be harmed from ingesting the fumes. These pollutants cause:
- Asthma
- Emphysema
- Bronchiolitis
- Coughing
- Wheezing
- Aggravate existing heart, and respiratory problems
- Possible birth defects
- Skin rash and cancer.
- Chemicals in burnt trash may be consumed by animals.
In the USA there still are over 60 incinerators in active use, burning industrial and household trash.
Toxic ash is produced once burning is complete. This ends up in a landfill. Landfill leachate another danger forms when rainwater filters through landfill waste. This can leak into and contaminate our water supply. It’s all a toxic soup.
Here is a list of active incinerators across the USA.
Some of these facilities were built in the 1980s.
Today with concerns about how they affect the environment this as a viable option is disappearing. 51 trash incinerators between 2000-2024 have closed.
Nuclear Waste Sites
Currently, in the USA, there are 80 nuclear waste disposal sites. Hanover in Washington is the largest.
There are 94 active nuclear reactors across the USA, with Illinois having the most.
The largest nuclear power plant in the USA was the Palo Verde facility in Maricopa County Arizona. Plant Vogtle became the largest after the addition of reactors 3 and 4.
Plant Vogtle is located in Waynesboro Georgia. The new reactors became operational between 2023/2024 at a cost of around $35 billion.
The Hanford nuclear power plant (also known as Site W, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, and Hanford Engineer Works) located in Washington was a part of the Manhattan Project. It became operational in 1943. Producing plutonium for the first atomic tests (Trinity test) and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It had a significant role in creating plutonium for nuclear warheads during WWII and in later years. The last reactor was shut down in 1987.
But then after closure came the problem of safely cleaning up decades of:
- Plutonium production
- Solid waste
- Soil contamination
- Toxic liquids
- Contaminated groundwater and buildings
But a more troubling problem was the leakage of nuclear waste paid link from their tanks.
At the Hanford site, this has occurred on more than one occasion.
Age and fragile conditions of some containers, some have only a single layer of steel for reinforcement. They are now older than the 20 years they were designed to last. So, concern grows.
The plant at Monticello-Minnesota-Nov. 2022 also leaked, but there have been leaks in other plants over the years.
Finding A Resolution To Toxic Trash
Let us preserve and restore our fresh air and clean waters. Look for ways to improve and remove, microplastics, toxic trash, and gases from the environment. Enforce existing laws and enact better ways to track illegal dumping and penalize those who do. Get better control of nuclear waste.