Permanent disposal means we must extract more from nature

Every pound of waste going into a one-way landfill means we must rely on natural resources like forests, petroleum reserves, and mines to meet the material demands of a growing population. There is an increasing amount of waste being generated in Washington, and an increasing demand on natural resources.

Currently, 6.8 pounds of waste are disposed each day for every person in Washington. In 2001, nearly 7.5 million tons of solid waste were disposed of in Washington landfills ¹ — enough to fill Safeco Field twenty times every year.
Continued population growth is rapidly depleting Washington’s mineral deposits. One example is the Steilacoom sand and gravel deposit, once one of the five largest mines in the country and mined for 100 years. It is now depleted.²
Overall per capita consumption in the US has risen 45% in the past 20 years.³ This escalating rate of consumption is outpacing the environment’s ability to replenish itself.

What we throw away as garbage has economic potential and natural resource consequences. Reducing our impact on natural systems will require each of us to purchase more smartly and support the infrastructure needed to put discarded materials back to use. Current technical advances can convert waste to valuable resources for future industrial use, providing more efficient material use with less environmental impact. Instead of hauling "trash" to the landfill to be buried, many "used materials" can be transported to distribution centers to be stored for future use and converted to products of value.

Sources

Solid Waste in Washington State - 11th Annual Status Report, WA State Dept. of Ecology publication #02-07-019, December, 2002
Our Changing Nature, Natural Resource Trends in WA State Dept. of Natural Resources, 1998, p. 15
State of the Community Report, Olympia Sustainable Community Roundtable, 1995, p. 18

It would be physically impossible for everyone currently on earth to live the lifestyle of the average American. It would require the resources and absorptive capacities of four additional planets.

"Our Ecological Footprint," Mathis Wackernagel

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