Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 910
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Elizabeth Royte, author of the new book 'Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash', went on a yearlong pilgrimage to Garbage Land, trekking through landfills, paddling through trash-filled waters and smelling sewage treatment plants -- all just to find out what happens to the things that people throw away.
Here are some interesting things she discovered:
+ Americans generate an average of 1.31 tons of garbage per person each year. Just under 27 percent of that is recycled or composted, 7.7 percent incinerated and 65.6 percent buried in the ground.
+ She went to landfills, water treatment plants, scrap yards and trash barges, where she picked up colorful slang like "disco rice" (maggots), "mongo" (valuable trash sanitation men save) and "Coney Island whitefish" (used condoms found in a canal).
+ Refuse collection is among the most dangerous occupations in America. There are 46 deaths per 100,000 garbage collectors, compared to an average fatality rate for all occupations of 4.7 per 100,000 workers.
More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050712/sc_nm/life_garbage_dc |
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