Matter cannot be created nor destroyed so whenever we discard something it continues to exist and change in the world even though we forget about it. The problem with the way the world has been dealing with trash is that the people who contribute the most waste are the people who will not have to confront it. Not only does the way we are handling trash pollute the air, soil, and water it also pollutes the souls, bodies, and minds, of the people who have to live in and around toxic trash. I believe that the benefitting parties will soon have to contend with the repercussions- and the trash- we have created; or at least I hope so.

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I learned that I have participated in ‘toxic colonialism’ wherein wealthy countries and companies send their waste to the third world at a massive profit to them and major detriment to the inhabitants of these places.

 

I also learned that aluminum is much more widely recycled that I thought because it is much more expensive to extract from ore than it is to recycle it again.

 

From my own project I learned about the paper manufacturing process, how the products it produces at various stages of recycling vary, and how many times a piece of paper can be recycled. Namely 6 times.