#4 ODD Fact: Daily Post: December 4, 2017

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Since a few of you commented on the facts about the garbage situation and the disposable diapers, I thought I would stick with that subject for a while. I found some information about other items that are piling up the earth with things that people dispose of and yet are not really being disposed. Instead, while some things are being recycled, many things end up in landfills and in other places where they shouldn’t be. For instance: Every two weeks, it has been calculated, that Americans wear 50 million pounds of rubber off their tires. Multiply that number by 100+ countries and you can imagine the growing crisis. This rubber can be seen on the edges of the highways and floats around in the air we breathe. Many treads of tires are also seen laying on the highways and that’s just part of the problem. Did you know that approximately 250 million tires are discarded every year in the United States alone? Again, multiply that number by 100+ countries and consider the impact on our environment. Some tires end up in landfills, but some landfill operators won’t accept scrap tires. WHY? Because they trap gas and float to the top of the landfills. They don’t decompose and they provide places for mosquitoes to breed. Tires take up an estimated half-million cubic yards of landfill space each year in New York City alone. Multiply that by hundreds of big cities who have a similar situation. Recycled rubber is being used to produce adhesives, pipe and wire insulation, conveyor belts, carpet padding and many other products. When rubber is added to asphalt for paving it can increase the pavement life, thus reducing the amount of resurfacing materials required. We should support local and regional efforts to recycle tires. What do you think?