Recently I was able to tour the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority's waste-to-energy plant operated by Covanta Energy.
At the Lancaster plant, refuse trucks on the tipping floor unloaded their cargo of rotting Jack-O-Lanterns and Halloween costumes into the storage pit. The crane operator used a massive claw crane to mix the waste and drop it into the feed hoppers for the three Martin incineration units. 36 megawatts of electrical power result. The facility is incredibly clean and does a remarkable job of dealing with solid waste. This does not mean, however, that excessive solid waste is "okay" and that source reduction efforts are to be forgotten. Seeing all of that garbage, especially the display of metal trinkets pulled from the ashes - medals, coins, jewelry, silverware - only makes me think more about the waste our culture loves to produce.
The sad fact about society: Prosperity Means Waste
The tour guide at the plant mentioned that when the economy "tanked" in 2008-2009, a quite noticeable decrease in the amount of waste reaching the plant occurred. People were not using as much, they weren't consuming as much. We started buying less take-out food, stopped showering in bottled water, and possibly resisted the urge to throw away perfectly good household goods because an advertisement told us that our lives were lacking without the newer, sleeker, more fashionable version.
Hence the difficulty we face: Being prosperous in this world means consuming more stuff. We're trying to reduce consumption in a world where growth and consumption is the indicator of quality of life. The more stuff you buy, the better off you are. The more energy you guzzle, the better off you are. I've had people seriously believe that climate change (as a result of moving prehistoric carbon to the atmosphere), persistent organic pollutants, soil depletion, and other environment problems are exaggerated. It will be interesting to see how exaggerated they become as 1.3 billion Chinese and 1.0 billion Indians and others vie for American "quality" of life. Planet Earth and all life upon it is in for a ride - assuming that the resources (fossil fuels) will continue to be extractable enough to provide a sufficient power level for such growth.