Trash talk

Warning: This post is going to be a long one!

During dinner tonight I caught another interesting, fact full documentary on tv. This time it was about trash, ooh-la-la. I traveled along with Carl Quintanilla as he embarked on a trash-filled adventure around the world in Trash Inc. The Secret Life of Garbage.

As you may know, China's economy is growing extremely fast, about 11.9% in the first quarter from a year earlier (WHOA!). As Chinese citizens become richer, they also start to consume more, and the more they consume the more trash there will be. The landfills in Beijing can only take 70% of the garbage produced (I'm not sure if this is trash produced only in Beijing or throughout China), the rest has to go somewhere right? Anyhow with a little investigation, there were about 461 illegal dumps revealed (bet you there's more!)
And as the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" photojournalist Wang Jiuliang began documenting all the landfills he was able to find and document a whole bunch of landfills around Beijing.

Here's an image of all the sites he found surrounding the city!

Wang Jiuliang's photo journey on trash Click on this to check out some of his photos! I really admire what he is doing, documenting these landfills to enlighten people about the growing trash problem in China. So many people out there do not realize the consequences of heavy consumerism.

This is so nasty
The streams of garbage will eventually make its way to the oceans...

Click here for more pictures, there's one where this little child's hands are black from.. I am not even sure what... digging through garbage for his family for recyclables?

This documentary also featured businesses that profit from recyclables, yes the waste stream can indeed become a revenue stream. I learned that 10 plastic bottles = 1 lb. of flake = $0.50
This flake can be used to make carpets or clothing and more...

This one waste management company calculated how much their waste collected (per day) sells for === 10 billion dollars!!!

Here's a detailed journey of your plastic bottle, so cool right?
So my friend, put those recyclables in the recycling bin!!!!