'Trashed', a documentary

Helping Raise Awareness of Waste Problems in Rhode Island

by Barry Grand
A New York Times review of the documentary, "Trashed" said that by the end of the movie, "that plastic water bottle in your hand will feel as dangerous as a Molotov cocktail." The film by Jeremy Irons follows trash around the world and explores how it is destroying our air, sea, and land as well as our own health.



A recent screening of the film in Rhode Island gave roughly 300 area residents and a group of trash professionals a chance to talk about the risks of trash and alternate ways to deal with this pandemic. The screening was followed by a panel discussion, full of people from the recycling industry as well as people from academia.

No More Room

The excess waste problem exceeds America's boundaries. Beijing's landfills are full, France exceeds its emissions standards each year, and the rivers of Jakarta are brimming with garbage. At home in Rhode Island, landfills are filling up, and Environmental News from Southern New England suggests that the Central Landfill in Rhode Island will reach capacity in just 25 years.

Finding Solutions

Bret Emerson, a professor at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, calls for better designs. Ingenuity, he claims, could lead us away from using plastic and toward more sustainable materials. However, while some are thinking their way out of their out of this pandemic, others are really getting their hands dirty.
At the Tip Facility, landfill crews actually sift through commercial waste looking for recyclable items. Cardboard, metal, and certain plastics are pulled from the rest of the waste and recycled, according to the Rhode Island Recovery Corporation.


Photo by Steve Snodgrass via Flickr

Recycling

According to conclusions made by the documentary "Trashed," if Americans recycled everything they would ordinarily throw away, it would have the same effect as taking half of the cars off the road. Currently, Americans are recycling only a third of their trash. Increasing that number would reduce our trash burden, but it would also create thousands of jobs.

More R's?

When recycling was brought up as a solution at the "Trashed" panel discussion, Sarah Kite, director of the recycling services for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, interjected that recycling alone is not enough. She calls for adding more R's to the classic list of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Rot was the R in particular that she identified, and she cited composting as the perfect way to utilize rot while saving room in the over-burdened landfills.

Be the Change

Photo by Andrea Westmoreland via Flickr

Although you personally may not have the ability to save a landfill or the capacity to invent trash-reducing technology, you can make significant changes in your personal life. At home, recycle everything that you can, compost food scraps and small bits of paper, and stop buying things that are over-packaged. Instead of buying individually wrapped items, buy in bulk and reuse containers.

Community Change

Once you've established change at home, take it to your community. Bring neighbors together and set up an educational, neighborhood clean-up event. Consult a service like Next Day Dumpsters that offer Rhode Island dumpster rental, and talk about the difference between standard waste, recyclable material and items that need special disposal like propane tanks and batteries. If you have a child in the Rhode Island schools, get involved reducing the waste there. The EPA has ideas on how to implement a waste reduction plan on the individual or district level. Its tips cover everything from setting up recycling to the best way to find a recycling market.

Barry Grand

Barry commutes by bike, buys local, composts, eats vegetarian and brews his own beer. He refuses to wear hemp clothing, however.