American garbage: What to do with our trash

It’s day seven of the Philadelphia blue-collar municipal union strike, and trash is piling up across the city. This has residents thinking about the amount of garbage they create and looking for ways to minimize their footprint. 

It begs a larger question: Why do we produce so much garbage? Americans make three times the amount of waste as the global average. And when it comes to recycling, only about 5% of our plastic gets reused while the rest ends up in landfills, incinerators or in the ocean. According to one study, a garbage truck’s worth of trash ends up in the sea every minute.  And then there’s all the food waste, something like 40% of the food produced globally gets tossed out.  

So, is there a better way to handle our trash? Why has recycling fallen short? What are your solutions? We’ll talk rubbish in this episode of Studio 2.

Guests:

Kate O’Neill – professor of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley

Nic Esposito – Founder and CEO of Circa Systems

Resources:

City of Philadelphia

Resource Philly