Planet Of The Year: Waste A Stinking Mess

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Some experts believe local governments should hike cash refunds to people who return disposable items. Said Nicholas Robinson, who teaches environmental law at Pace University School of Law: "If we could persuade legislatures to increase the recycling price for a bottle from, say, a nickel to maybe a quarter or 50 cents, then that bottle would be a very valuable commodity."

But even with more efficient recycling, there will still be refuse. That means landfills and incinerators, however harmful their emissions, will be needed as part of well-managed waste-disposal systems for the foreseeable future. Where possible, landfills should be fitted with impermeable clay or synthetic liners to contain toxic materials, and with pumps to drain liquid waste for treatment and disposal elsewhere. Landfill waste can also be burned to generate electricity, but the U.S. uses only 6% of its rubbish to produce energy. By comparison, West Germany sends more than 30% of its unrecycled wastes to waste-to-energy facilities.

Knowledge of the whole refuse cycle is imperative. Of the more than 48,000 chemicals listed by the EPA, next to nothing is currently known about the toxic effects of almost 38,000. Fewer than 1,000 have been tested for acute effects, and only about 500 for their cancer-causing, reproductive or mutagenic effects. Funding must be increased for such research.

In the last analysis, the waste crisis is almost always most effectively attacked close to the source. There should be an international ban on the export of environmentally dangerous waste, especially to countries without the proven technology to dispose of it safely. In the past two years, some 3 million tons of hazardous waste have been transported from the U.S. and Western Europe on ships like the Pelicano to countries in Africa and Eastern Europe. Observed Saad M. Baba, third secretary in the Nigerian mission to the U.N.: "International dumping is the equivalent of declaring war on the people of a country." And if such wastes continue to proliferate, man will have all but declared war on the earth's environment -- and thus, in the end, on his own richest heritage.