Aj Miller
APES
Ms. Schap
April 19, 2015 Conclusion The purpose of the Personal Solid Waste Inventory lab was to inventory all solid waste items used in a 7 day period which would enter the waste-stream or otherwise be recycled. For this lab we had to carry around a trash bag to help show just how much we actualy throw away in a week. One of the main after effects of the lab could help leave a lasting impression and even help you reduce he amount of the trash you throw away. While also remebering to throw away our solid waste we had to remeber to put it on the tally sheet, the tally sheet was orgaized onto different catagories of solid waste; plastic, paper, paperboard/cardboard, aluminum, glass, mixed metals and styrofoam. As a class we determined that we throw away mostly plastic whether it be plastic bags, plastic forks, or whatever. The motto "We do not have the luxury of creating ever-more landfills" is true because as time goes on, . A main feature of sanitary landfills is that every day a layer of dirt is added on top of the trash to help control pollution, but the dirt takes up 20% of landfill space. The problem with this is that if the dirt takes up this much space there is less space for our trash. Some viable alternatives include finding an alternative material to put on top of the trash that dosent take up as much room, but is still environmentally friendly. Had my parents had to complete this assignment, I believe my dad would have had significant amount of aluminum cans. My dad, on average, drinks atleast 3 Pepsi's a day. Also because of my dad's job he would go through a good amount of papers too. With my mom she isn't really in the house that much, and she also dosen't throw too many papers throughout the day. So my mom's carbon footprint for this lab would not be big, unlike my dad's who's would be pretty big comparitvely. The Tragedy of the Commons, was a lab we did in the beginning of the year, in which we simulated catching fish and this also simulated the problem of over fishing. Some societies throw away everything, the problem with this is that we are running out of room to put al f our trash. This relates to Tragedy of the Commons beacuse if you don't proprly throw away your trash, it can enter waterways and pollute them. This combined with overfishing can seriously impact your food supply and living. When it comes to throwing away certain trash the three R's;reduce, reuse, and recycle, can be applied. Recycling can be applied to mainly aluminum cans and any glass bootles. They can be melted down and made into new aluminum or glass products. Also you can recycle paper, newspaper which are turned into new paper products. The second of he three R's is reuse. Some examples include reuseing autoparts, stained glass, even woodwork. In cities the biggest resued product is plastic and glass. But plastic can only be reused a certain amount of times before it is unusable. the third and final R, and probably the easiest to do , is reduce. This simply means reuce the amount of trash you produce. This is big because we're running out of usable room to put the trash. So if you