Garbology's High Priest
In the book "Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are," authors William Rathje and Robert Lilienfeld note that the ancient Mayans and Summerians, like today's Americans, were great recyclers.
What do those two ancient cultures have in common? They're both extinct.
Rathje, America's
foremost garbologist, feels source reduction is just as important as recycling
when it comes to extending existing landfill space. If we think recycling
is all we have to do, we're headed for trouble.
Rathje is the founder and director of the Garbage Project, which conducts archaeological studies of modern refuse. Since 1973, the University of Arizona professor and his students have studied and documented waste.
Viewing the trash people threw out, Rathje said there was a noticeable difference between what people consumed and what they said they consumed. He said alcohol consumption was underreported by 40 to 60 percent, while asparagus consumption was overreported by 200 percent.
Since 1987, they have conducted archaeological digs in 15 landfills in North America. Rathje said those studies also produced results which differed from common perceptions.
Rathje said the average household wastes approximately 15 percent of the foodstuffs it buys. Out of over 160 million tons of waste that enters American landfills each year, approximately 20 percent is food-related. Twenty percent of all household waste is food-related; 10 percent are items that were once edible.
Construction debris accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the materials in the landfills they study, with paper products taking up 40 to 50 percent.
He said most people think Styrofoam, fast food packaging and disposable diapers account for great quantities of landfill space, but the three items together actually make up less than three percent.
"If they were banned tomorrow, the people who manage landfills wouldn't know the difference," Rathje said.
He said source reduction is a key to reducing the need for landfill space.
He noted that when Toronto first started its curbside recycling campaign in 1983, it found markets for materials collected. As more communities have recycled, the markets for those materials are shrinking. He said Canada has saved 25 percent of its landfill space over the past 12 years through its recycling efforts, but consumers need to not only buy recyclable materials, but also those made from recycled materials.
"We have to close the loop," he said.
Rathje said only 35 to 40 percent of materials consumers buy are recyclable and consumers also have to work on source reduction. In Tucson, he said the average amount of garbage produced by a household has increased from 30 pounds per month to 50 pounds per month.
While people are recycling aluminum and plastic, they are throwing away more discretionary items, such as old clothes, household hazardous waste and yard waste.
"Recycling is cleaning up the mess we made in the first place," Rathje said. "Let's see if we can cut down on the amount we produce in the first place."
He noted that some manufacturers have helped with source reduction by repackaging materials. Where a 20 ounce glass container once was used to carry 32 ounces of juice, consumers now buy that same 32 ounces in a one ounce plastic container.
He also suggested consumers could preserve landfill space by buying items such as coffee in foil packs rather than cans.
"Recycle your steel, but make sure you buy crushable items," he said.
While some packaging helps, other trends are contributing to the increase in refuse, he said.
He felt items such as Lunchables created too much superfluous packaging that eventually ends up in the trash.
Rathje also recommends buying concentrates, refills, flexible packaging and bulk and dry items.
Other suggestions include bringing a magic marker on picnics to identify everyone's plates and cups. He also suggested turning down the heat before guests arrive at a party; the extra body heat will keep the room warm.
Discussing his landfill excavation efforts, Rathje noted that landfills were massive undertakings. He described a landfill outside San Francisco that was bigger than the Temple of the Sun near Mexico City. By the time it closes in 2003, Rathje said the Fresh Kills Landfill outside New York City would exceed the Great Wall of China, the largest manmade structure in the world, in cubic feet.
To study landfills, Rathje and his students use a bucket auger to dig from 15 to 25 wells in each landfill. Each hole produces 25 tons of garbage, which are studied for content.
Rathje noted that landfilled garbage is hot, with temperatures of 80 to 140 degrees. He said about half of food and yard waste biodegrade, producing heat and methane. The rest stays in the landfill.
Rathje also discussed odors.
"After ten minutes (in a landfill), the smell goes away," he said. "More accurately, your ability to smell goes away, as we found out that first day when we went to lunch at Pizza Hut. Within a half hour, we were the only ones left in the restaurant. To this day, I think we helped Pizza Hut come up with the home delivery concept."
Rathje said properly constructed landfills greatly retard the rate of degradation for most materials.
Every three foot bucket of trash produces 10 to 30 readable newspapers, which does make it east for Rathje to date materials. In 15 landfill digs, Rathje said he has recovered 2,425 datable, readable newspapers.
They have also recovered lettuce that was thrown out in 1991, a kaiser roll from 1981 and an 18-year-old ear of corn. Hot dogs often last 15 years.
"Once they're in a landfill, not much more happens to them," Rathje said.
He said the Fresh Kills Landfill, which started in 1948 in a tidal swamp on Staten Island, has less paper, yard waste and food waste as a result of the fluids moving through it.
One professor is experimenting with a biodegradation system, called a bioreactor landfill. Leachate collected at the bottom of the landfill is pumped to the top where they start to seep back down. The one-acre test site in Delaware has been operating for ten years and has produced noticeable results in biodegrading food debris. Rathje said the process involves collecting and reusing hazardous materials such as leachate and he did not know how much longer operators would need to manage and control landfills with this process.
"It's not workable now; we don't know if it ever will be," Rathje said. "It's important to recycle and keep materials from getting into landfills in the first place."
Rathje has also co-written "Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage."
He is also host of the computer-interactive video "Our Garbage Dilemma," which is a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He also serves as technical consultant to Use Less Stuff, a newsletter on source reduction.