How It All Began...

It all started when a friend of mine stated, "It's actually cheaper to throw stuff away than to recycle." This comment bubbled inside me as my frustration with the ignorance of Americans grew. Americans tend to not realize the environmental implications that go beyond taking out the trash. Believe it or not, when the garbage men drive away, the trash they take with them doesn't just disappear. Here are the current options for American disposal methods. 

The most common solution is landfills. What people need to realize is that 1. we've run out of room in our landfills and 2. all our trash just sitting is killing the environment as well. Animals eat plastics and paper, which kills them. All the trash keeps plants from growing, which inhibits oxygen from being produced, which in turn raises the carbon dioxide levels around the world. 

Another method of trash disposal is dumping into the ocean. Now let's think about this for a minute: seafood is some of the most expensive food on the market. Simple economics will tell you that as availability decreases, price increase. In the current state of the economy, mixed with the gravitation for Americans to eat healthier, why would we self-create a situation where we have to shell out (no pun intended) more money because we're ruining the aquatic environment  and therefore decreasing availability of fish?


The final way that garbage is disposed of often is by incarceration. When burning plastics, glass, metals, and cardboard, cancer-causing toxins are released into the air for people to breathe in. You tell me what is cheaper- recycling something or hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and an early death? Yeah, that's what I thought. 


Now that I've completely undermined the way the entire United States Waste Management system is set up, let me make a couple things clear. First of all, I do not blame the government or the American people for the environmental issues we currently face. When this system was set up, no one was yet knowledgeable of the harmful affects trash has on the environment. Everyone is just doing what they know. Secondly, I am not a person to complain without coming up with solutions. Complaining only hurts people's ears, solutions can save people's lives. Now that we are very knowledgeable of environmental issues, it's time we take charge. It's time to stop thinking about America's today and to start thinking about how small changes truly can make a big difference. 


This blog is going to track my journey through Copenhagen, Denmark, rated one of the Greenest city in the world. I will talk about all my findings, and how being environmentally friendly has a huge impact on the happiness of the Danish people (rated the happiest people in the world). 


And thus the journey begins...