The crime of having been maligned unjustly–resources are scares, in the all countries, and very few materials are discarded, expect for in America. Affluent counties, like the United States of America, especially, has a throwaway mentality, which prevails. Human capital uses something once, discards it, and then buys another one. Also, instead of repairing cars, many consumers drive them until they fall apart and buy a new one. In some countries, a person is lucky just to have one car, and in China, the license plate alone cost $5000.00 and many cars cost more than some homes. Only the wealthy people in China have nice cars.

As a result of consumer mentality– I have to have the best and newest product, billions of metric tons of solid wastes are dumped, burned, and buried annually, in the United States alone. In 2013, Americans generated about 255 million tons of trash. All of this trash is then taken to a landfill, where it is stored, until it decomposes. However, the problem is that much of the trash is toxic and is polluting the land and the water and making animals sick, who are feeding off of the waste. In addition, it is estimated that 60 billion beverage containers are part of the 255 million tons of trash, and one half of solid waste are paper (so much for the politically motivated plastic bag ban).

Many people believe that paper bags are an alternative to plastic, but half of the waste in landfills is paper. Furthermore, it takes more than 500,000 trees, which produce oxygen that cleans the air, just to supply the Sunday newspaper. Every week, if everyone in the United States of America recycled even one out of ten newspapers, we could save 25 million trees a year. Besides this, using recycled paper reduces air pollution that results from paper manufacture by 95 percent. And recycling paper takes 30 to 50 percent less energy than making new paper.

Associated with the throwaway mentality is a serious issue that is unique in the World of life what to do with solid wastes. I thought it will be a good idea to haul solid waste into space, and drop it back down to Earth, so it could disintegrate when it hits the atmosphere, but I am not sure if NASA or American Airlines likes this plan, as it could have some unintended consequences. Instead of recycling materials, as is done in natural ecosystems, we bury them in landfills or burn them in incinerators. Incinerators add some toxic pollutants to the air and leave a highly toxic ash that must be disposed of safely. In any event, land available and acceptable for landfills is scares because landfills eventually leak, and pose a threat to groundwater.

A transition from a throw away mentality to one based on recycling and reuse is feasible. Find ways to repurpose items before you end their lifecycle. It is affordable, and we have the technology to do it. Citizens can influence manufactures by refusing to buy good that are lavishly wrapped and boxed, packaged in indestructible containers, and designed for a one-time use. Remember McDonalds burgers used to come in those cute boxes? Well, now they are simply wrapped in wax paper. Individuals can ask the local post office to turn off their daily flow of junk mail (if we really want to save the environment, it goes beyond banning plastic bags).

Unsolicited mail wastes an astounding amount of paper, time, and energy—and it means higher postage rates and gasoline prices for everyone, also adds more pollution to the air and landfills. Finally, individuals can urge local governments to develop well-designed, large-scale resources recovery centers. Such a plant has been operating in Saugus, Massachusetts. With such systems, existing dumps and landfills would be urban mines, from which usable materials can be stored. After all, the will of sovereigns is generally admitted as a law.