After nearly 15 years of working to get New Yorkers into the recycling habit--introducing composting, leaf collection, recycling centers and finally, in 1999, weekly pickups--the city's Department of Sanitation (DOS) announced last year [2002] that the program was too expensive and needed to be dumped. Fighting back, the City Council struck a compromise with the mayor: Glass recycling would be suspended for two years, plastic for one year, and metal and paper pickups would continue. This article presents the environmental and financial consequences now facing New York as a result of the city's suspension of its recycling programs.
The article I read is entitled Stewards of U.S. Land Are Talking Trash. This is about people illegally dumping their trash on land. People are taking things such as televisions, cars, heaters, radios, and other garbage and shooting them and leaving their pieces everywhere. This causes a lot of toxic waste because of the internal materials of certain things. This garbage was pilled up so much, it filled 4 dump trucks full and there were still scraps left over. Broken glass that could not be picked up is left there and any unlucky animal or human who walks on it could end up in a lot of pain. Also, some old machines have certain chemicals like mercury in them that if seeped into the ground water, could be very dangerous. There are current acts being initiated to solve this problem, for instance, jail time will be given to anyone convicted of illegally dumping trash on land. Also, landfills are refining their ways to make dumping more accessible for everybody.