My Trusty Garbage Can?

Have you ever thought about how many times you use a garbage can in one day? Overconsumption isn’t just about buying things we don’t need. It’s about the 2.1 billion tons of global waste we produce annually. Target destination: landfills.

Why exactly are landfills so damaging to the planet? First, they can be massive. The Fresh Kills landfill in New York is about 22 stories tall and 1,600 football fields wide. Even just the average size landfill is about 450 football fields.

Oxygen is inaccessible in that monstrous heap of garbage, but microbes that break down matter need it for decomposition. So anaerobic bacteria develop to do the job, and in the process, generate methane. Methane is about 30x more powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.