Above, one of three mounds at the Seneca Meadows Landfill in Waterloo, NY, as seen from the west side of Seneca Lake approximately eight miles away (through a telephoto lens). Credit: Kevin Colton, HWS.

EPA Region Map

EPA Region Map
EPA Region Map

Monday, February 21, 2011

Perhaps one of the most frustrating places to see profuse amounts of waste, is right at their source of creation. Every day, our library at HWS disposes of at least 1 blue recycling tub full of paper. The source of this paper is mostly mistakes or impatience. In a busy atmosphere where time is money, it is easy to see how students become annoyed with having to wait in line while the printer tediously pumps out one page at a time of the 300 page article that the person in front of them is printing. This impatience often prompts printing the same document to another printer in hopes that, this time, it will come out faster. The remnants of this sloppy practice can be seen above: piles of needlessly printed papers whose immediate fate is the recycling facility. "Well, that's great that all of this waste is being recycled," some would say. I choose to have a more proactive view: it is unfortunate that all of this paper must be wasted in the first place. While time may be money, we can't ignore the fact that paper and deforestation are money as well.


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