Pollution
(Student Activity #1, Appendix D)
Britannica encyclopedia defines pollution as follows: "The addition of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy, (such as heat, sound, or radioactivity), to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. 1 This definition covers a wide range of activities that most individuals do every day, that we usually don't consider to be pollution. Our trash is pollution. If I throw out my used paper and deposit it into the trash receptacle, a trash company transports it to the landfill. I am certainly adding substance to the environment quicker than it can be decomposed. As to whether it can be stored in a harmless form- that is certainly a matter of opinion. However, considering the out of control growth of landfills, I doubt anyone could accurately call it "harmless storage". Of course random discarding (littering) of items we have no further use for, would also be considered pollution, since we are, once again, adding items to the environment faster than it can be decomposed and not controlling their storage in a harmless form either. It has been estimated by the American Forest and Paper Association that 20.3 million tons of paper were sent to landfills in the United States in 2010. 1 As for plastic water bottles, only 24% are currently being recycled, leaving 76% as either going to the landfill or other waste. 2 Only about 2% of all the plastic bags make it to recycling, leaving a whopping 98% in the landfill or the environment. 3 So, it would appear as if a lot of us pollute.
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