Argument Essay

Garbage Problem in New York City

Every day, a lot of garbage from New York City is carried to landfills in other states. According to Sara Kugler (2005), there is enormous garbage, as huge as the weight of the Empire State Building in one week, and this garbage is carried to another place by many trucks, because New Yorkers cannot dispose of their own garbage by themselves. Naturally, most people are afraid of living near the landfill because of pollution, but some states keep receiving New York City’s garbage because they can get some money from New York City. According to David B. Caruso (2005) and Sara Kugler (2005), to solve this problem, there are some solutions. First, we are already protected from the pollution of the garbage in the landfill, because the landfill has protective liners. They prevent the pollutants in the garbage from escaping to the ground, and we do not get a bad smell or see it directly. But these have also some troubles. That is, liners cannot keep forever, and rotting boards cause a stench, so we have to remove vapors from the garbage. Second, the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, proposed that they create their own waterside transfer stations. This plan can reduce the pollution from exhaust of trucks, let the city traffic condition get better, and help protect low-income people from air pollution.

New Yorkers have responsibilities to dispose of their own garbage by themselves and people in other states must not receive garbage from New York City with risk of illness of pollution, and so, we have to devise some effective resolutions.

Now, New York City has become one of the biggest and highest technology cities in the world. But with this development, there are a lot of problems, of pollution and garbage, because New York City is not big enough to fit all the buildings, people, and
garbage into one city. So I plan three solutions. First, we have to reduce garbage itself. Some garbage can be reused or recycled, so we need to think how to dispose it before we throw it away. The law about garbage disposal on the present government is relatively easy. Even if someone throws away illegal garbage, they may not receive any punishment. We should make more strict law, like imposing some penalties or fines, to protect from throwing away and making a illegal garbage. And, the campaign by companies or stores is more effective to improve recycling. If we could get some little prizes to recycle from companies or stores, most people would get to recycle more. For that reason, the company or store should make some campaigns, and they can remake some merchandise to use this garbage from consumer. In Japan, it is more developed to recycle or reuse than U.S. Japanese have been taught that to throw away is bad thing, from their family since they were children. So Japanese tend to think that throwing away garbage at once is waste and also they can reuse things. These ethics improve their recycling or reusing and make the prompt to reduce their garbage.

Second, we have to work to reduce the garbage before products are made or we get them. For example, we can reduce the wrapping or bags of products. When we get goods from a clerk, sometimes goods are wrapped too much. But after we go back home, these wrappings are only thrown away. This is only waste. The company or store has to improve more simple wrapping, and also consumer should reject those with too much wrapping.

Third, we have to devise ways to dispose of our garbage, and we need to create some safe landfills or garbage disposal centers with high technology. We still do not have enough technology to protect from pollution from landfills and garbage disposal centers. To protect us from pollution, we have to make permanent protective liners. If this technology develops, pollutants from garbage would not escape the ground, and also we can prevent again water pollution. And then, we have to improve technology to remove vapors from garbage. It can protect air pollution from garbage. And, people who live near the landfill or garbage disposal center can live more safely.

We are already faced with this serious problem about our garbage and environment. So, humans have to make some solutions to solve this problem and work some actions to reduce our garbage which causes pollution immediately. To improve human’s thought about garbage, the government needs to be more strict about illegal garbage or recycling and reusing. And also, we have to improve our technology to prevent pollution. You may not see the harm by this garbage problem directly, but it is fact that there are many people who are suffering from this pollution and our garbage. People need to start some actions to prevent this. These actions do not have to be big actions, but we can do them in our daily lives. It is important we start to think and work on what we can do now for them.

References:

Caruso, D. B. (2005, Jul. 12). As landfills close in big cities, garbage travels farther. The Associated Press State & Local Wire. Retrieved on Oct. 27, 2005, from Lexis-Nexis.

Kugler, S. (2005, Jun. 20). NYC squabbles over daily trash management. Associated Press Online. Retrieved on Oct. 25, 2005, from Lexis-Nexis.