USA risks being Buried in its own Garbage

While the USA makes up 4% of the global population it produces 12% of its trash, more than both China and India with populations over one and a half billion people.

To make matters worse, it is also terrible at managing its garbage output, recycling a small percentage of waste. Unlike Germany, where 68% of waste is reused, the USA recycles 35%, making it particularly dependent on shipping the problem elsewhere.

As trash continues to saturate the world’s oceans and mount in developing countries where waste from the first world is dumped, the USA could be headed for crisis as more and more countries begin to refuse to take America’s mountains of garbage.

The USA is the only developed nation whose waste generation outstrips its ability to recycle, underscoring a shortage of political will and investment in infrastructure.

The disturbing statistics come from research by the UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm Maplecroft, who measured the waste generation and recycling performance of 194 countries to produce a profile of the world’s worst polluters.

While China unsurprisingly produced the most trash by volume, it was among the few major countries that actually produced less than its share of waste by percentage of world population.

Despite having been one of the world’s worst polluters for many years, China has recently made major environmental investments, greening its economy, whereas the USA has been comparatively slow to adapt.

And the United States environmental issues extend beyond its quickly amassing mountains of trash; in terms of climate change.

President Donald Trump has been notoriously skeptical about the issue, even calling the idea a “Chinese plot” against American manufacturing. Last month, another report revealed that the US military is the “single largest producer” of greenhouse gases in the world.

RT com. / ABC Flash Point Garbage News 2019.