Waste
The essential data about waste explained in 11 infographics. Detailed charts and tables covering nuclear waste toxicity over 10 milllion years, mismanaged plastic waste, estimates of global plastic waste, food loss and waste and more. Learn the truth about waste and how it relates to the state of the world on The Global Education Project website with un-biased facts from the most reliable sources.
Both the USA and Canada have over 200 million tons of uranium tailings which retain 85% of their original radioactivity.
The amount of plastic debris that ends up in the oceans from the land is mostly determined by population size living within 50km of a coast and by the amount of plastic waste that is mismanaged—either littered or disposed into uncontained dumps or landfills....
"Recycling delays, rather than avoids, final disposal. It reduces future plastic waste generation only if it displaces primary plastic production; however, this displacement is extremely difficult to establish.
"Second, plastics can be destroyed thermally....
Approximately one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption—nearly 1.3 billion tonnes—gets lost or wasted every year.
"Loss" refers to any food that is lost in the supply chain between the producer and the market from problems...
Packaging represents 26% of the total volume of plastics used. Even when managed adequately, the process of recycling plastic ultimately produces a lower quality product and the required shipping, washing, chopping and melting also has a detrimental...
This section is an overview of the steep and rapid rise in the production and use of plastics; plastic waste management and mis-management; recycling; and the prevalence of microplastic debris in the environment.
"60% of the most hazardous liquid waste in the United States, 34 billion liters of solvents, heavy metals, and radioactive materials, is injected straight into deep groundwater via thousands of injection wells..." [1]
"The industries requiring the...
"90% of the developing world's waste water is still discharged untreated into local rivers and streams."
"In 2015, an estimated 2.1 billion people lacked access to safely managed drinking water services and 4.5 billion lacked access to safely managed...
Rivers are a major pathway for plastic transport into the seas. Ten rivers: the Yangtze, Indus, Yellow, Hai He, Ganges, Pearl, Amur and Mekong in Asia; and the Nile and the Niger in Africa contribute about 90% of all river-driven plastics into the sea.
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