Picture the last thing that you threw away. A water bottle. A sandwich. An old sofa. Now think about where that item will ultimately land. If you don’t know, you’re not alone. When we throw things away, we’re not usually conscious of where precisely “away” is.
Too often, our trash goes to landfill. According to the most recent data from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than 146 million tons of municipal solid waste went to landfill in 2018. As we all know by now, these mountains of garbage are growing environmental hazards, whether due to leakage that causes water contamination or because of the release of dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane.
