Solid Waste and Recycling
This indicator describes the disposal and diversion of solid waste (also known as "municipal solid waste/ MSW," "trash," "refuse" or "garbage") in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin from 1999 through 2003.

	In 2003, the citizens and businesses of the Puget Sound Georgia Basin sent 6,023,104 tons of garbage to landfills or incinerators. This is enough to fill Interstate 5 from Olympia, Washington to Whistler, BC, 1.18 feet deep in garbage. Read more…
	Waste generation is a function of social demographics and economic factors that are unique to each society. Read more…
	When physical goods are made less efficiently, more waste is associated with every phase of production. Each phase of manufacturing involves emission of chemicals and other harmful substances. Read more…
	The most successful strategy to reduce solid waste is to decrease the overall amount of waste generated. Read more…

Introduction to the Solid Waste and Recycling Indicator

This indicator describes the disposal and diversion of solid waste (also known as "municipal solid waste/ MSW," "trash," "refuse" or "garbage") in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin from 1999 through 2003.

As an indicator, solid waste represents the environmental impact of our consumer lifestyle, both in terms of disposal costs and natural resource extraction. Solid waste can also be considered "wasted resources" and, as such, it also is the measure of material inefficiency in our industrial civilization.

Solid waste is largely an untold story, like the tip of an iceberg. In the 'wasteberg', only about six percent of materials flows – such as chemicals, metal and mining ores, trees, fibers and petroleum-actually end up in a product, the remaining 94 percent or so is transformed in the manufacturing process into wasted heat and energy, non-specified materials or industrial trash.¹ Manufacturing inefficiencies offer us unparalleled opportunities to become better designers.

When you hold a newspaper over your morning coffee, playfully tug with your child over a newly minted plastic toy, or marvel at the alloy superstructure of a new library or corporate center, you are at the end of our story. By this time, a majority of that substance's usefulness has already passed.

The Secret Lives of Stuff

The story starts with the stuff out of a kid's imagination – massive earth moving and extraction equipment that dig minerals and other ores from below the surface of our Earth – and transforms them into products and waste in a largely unseen manufacturing process. These raw extraction processes are followed by refining processes, and then, product composition and packaging brought together and then to us through a multitude of freight and transportation routes.²

Manufacturing processes, including many industrial farming practices, involve astounding volumes and intensity of resources such as water, energy (from coal, fossil fuels, natural gas, nuclear or hydroelectric, the latter of which pose issues for fish migration) and synthetic chemicals that natural systems cannot readily break down.

Think about your choices when you are finished with that consumer item. That is where we make a decision – too much trouble? Throw it out with no further thought? Recycle? Is it recyclable where I live and do I have the energy? Reuse it? Only if I have the skills to fix it or someone else wants it.

Manufacturing Flow Chart

This flowchart reveals the relationship between the flow of materials and energy used. Click on the image at right to view the larger image.

This inefficiency is largely what precedes everything you touch but it also offers us unparalleled opportunities to become better designers.

"I believe we can accomplish great and profitable things within a new conceptual framework – one that values our legacy, honors diversity, and feeds ecosystems and societies… It is time for designs that are creative, abundant, prosperous and intelligent from the start" (William McDonough).³

 

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