garbage and global warming

by dharamveer singh
(sydney)

What do we do about garbage and global warming - how can we save our planet

Barry's Response - We first determine whether it needs saving and whether there is anything we can do about it. If so, then take it one step at a time. Replace polluting industries and vehicles with more efficient ones one at a time. Recapture floating garbage in our waters and put an end to further releases of this sort. Educate consumers about the environmental ramifications of their activities. It won't be fast but it should work over time.

So, does garbage have much to do with global warming? It decays in landfills, or wherever it exists, microbes digest it and release carbon dioxide and methane, more than twenty times more powerful than CO2. Some landfills are a bit smarter. They extract the otherwise wasted methane for its energy.

In some of the world's regions, garbage is such a significant contributor to global warming. They will do well to find additional ways to reduce this emissions from this type of source. Maybe we will be able to breed a specific type of bacteria that breaks down waste quickly and cleanly. This could reduce the amount of surface area allocated to landfills as well as the amount of undesirable gases released at these sites.

What about burning it? Most of us know that combustion converts almost any matter into airborne matter, in the form of nitrogen compounds (NOx, for instance), carbon mon- and dioxide, and more frightening stuff such as dioxins and furans as well as poly-aromatic hydrocarbons.

No thanks! What about composting and recycling? Now, there's an idea...

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