One-third? Where did you get that figure? That seems a
rather low actually. I've seen figures as high as 50%. The
United States produces over 150 million tons of landfilled
solid waste per day. It also consumes a good third of the
raw materials produced in the world. It also has the
largest GNP of any country in the world, and supplies more
of the world's finished goods than any country.
But as for your question: I suppose America will continue
to do what it's been doing for the past thirty years:
Promulgate and enforce regulations to abate pollution,
including programs to encourage pollution prevention, waste
minimization and reduction, resource conservation, and the
use of alternative materials and technology. For example,
thirty years ago 1,1,1-trichloroethane (trichlor) was widely
used as a degreaser in metal finishing processes. It is
carcinogenic and depletes the ozone. Today most US
industries have voluntarily switched to a citrus based
aqueous degreasing solution that is both non-toxic and
biodegradable. So what is the rest of the world doing?
Trichlor is still being used in third world countries, along
with hundreds of other chemicals banned in the US. Foreign
governments often do not have environmental protection laws,
and those they do have rarely enforce them. For example,
I've seen foreign companies that move to the US express
astonishment that US environmental inspectors actual enforce
the law! Back in their own countries inspectors just
collected bribes. Contrast that with US regulations that
mandate US-owned industrial facilities in other countries to
meet US environmental regulatory standards, even if the
local government has absolutely no environmental standards
whatsoever!
So the US is doing quite a bit. Compared to thirty years
ago, the US has cleaned up the environment tremendously. My
own jurisdiction has seen a 99.3% across-the-board reduction
of water pollution in the past 21 years! For example,
mercury used to be at 600 parts per billion in city wastewater
going to the local river. Now it is below detection limits
(less than 0.2 ppb). And we've actually seen the number of
industrial facilities increase in our area! In comparison
how is water quality around the world? In MOST other
countries, if a US company filled a tanker with the local
drinking water straight out of the tap, transported it to
the United States, and then dumped it down the drain, it
would be in violation of most of the pollutant limits
contained in US environmental regulations!
As for solid waste, the future is waste reduction, not waste
recycling. For example, take disposable diapers which
account for about 2% of all solid waste in US landfills. It would seem ecologically sound to switch back to regular diaper service. But such thinking ignores all the other factors. Washwater must be heated, detergents and fabric softeners must be
used, the diapers must be dried, and if you're using a
diaper service the diapers must be transported to and from
the home, and the diaper has to be disposed of eventually
when it wears out. Add the background cost of energy to
heat the wash water, the manufacturing of the detergent, the
treatment of the wastewater, etc. and you'll find out that
disposable diapers are actually the more ecologically sound
alternative! Take another example, that of styrofoam versus
paper. McDonald's was gigged unjustly on that. A styrofoam
plate takes less energy to make, produces less waste in its
manufacture, and uses less raw material than paper. And it
takes up less space in landfills. But people argued that
paper is biodegradeable and styrofoam is not. But they
neglected one fact: In a landfill that is run according to
federal regulations, paper does not biodegrade! Solid waste
is packed down in clay in a waterproof liner and covered
over with more clay and another plastic liner. If there's
any biodegradation, it's because there's air pockets in the
backfill, and if there's air pockets, then the landfill has
not been properly and legally sealed!
Pollution is a global problem Yes, the US, because it is
the largest producer of finished goods for the world,
produces more waste than any other country. But it has also
has done far, far more to cleanup, reduce, and prevent
pollution than any other country in the world.
Finally, I assume that you are on a computer with at least
some US made parts, posting over telecommunication lines
consisting of material manufactured or developed in the US,
onto a US-made server in a US facility. I remember
Socrates, speaking through Plato in the Crito, who said that
if one is willing to enjoy the benefits of a society, then
one must accept responsibility for the actions of that
society. So, what are you doing to reduce pollution?
