Biodegradable's Dark Side
By: Eliana Osborn
August 26,2011
The Enviromental Magazine
Summary
Recently there has been an argument about new biodegradable products. Biosegradable products were created to decay faster to lessen our waste problem but there is a downside to the decomposition that these products bring. All trash produces methane gas -which is a potent greenhouse gas- when dumped in landfills. Methane gas is 25 times more potent in its heat trapping abilities than carbon dioxide. In landfills, they allow about two years to trap the mathane gasses and in some landfills, they turn the gas into energy. Biodegradable products decompose faster and realeses methane gas into the air befor it can be trapped. Researchers from North Carolina State University have concluded that using biodegradable products that decompose slower is more heathy for the enviroment.
Reflection
I agree with the article that fast decaying biodegradable products could be harmful to the enviroment. We have been talking about carbon dioxide in science class and how too much of it cannot be good for the enviroment. I can imagine how 25 times that can be even more harmful to the enviroment. I have heard about these new biodegradable products and I was thinking of how these products could be good for the enviroment. After i read this article i am thinking that biodegradable products just aren't the best.
Questions
1.) What are some ways that you can prevent this problem?
2.) What can you do to raise awarness to your community and maybe some companies that use biodegradable products?
3.) Do you think that biodegradable products are good or bad?
As for an answer to question there, I would say that anything that humans make are typically bad for the environment, so it would not really make a difference if I say bad or good, but I would suppose that if I were to say which side I lean more towards, I would say good. We can only ever make things that use LESS natural resources than usual, but at least it is a difference in the amount we use overall. I find it hard to think of anything that we make that does not use natural resources. Unlike animals, we do not try to find ways to adapt to where we are, rather we MAKE our environment adaptable. Nonetheless, biodegradable products are still a step towards us humans becoming more environmentally friendly. We could have never known before-hand that these products would release such gas. We will just need to work out the kinks as they reveal themselves to perfect our work.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking on ways that we could prevent the problem or at least help it out a little bit and I thought of a few good ways. One way could be that we showed some of this research to the public so that they can see for themselves what these products are doing to the environment they're living in. Another way could also be that we could conduct our own small experiment on this (like simulating the biodegrading process) and make the results well known so that again, the public can see exactly what's going on outside their own homes.
ReplyDeleteObviously, this is a very serious topic. In class, we learned that carbon can be trapped in the atmosphere and can be potentially dangerous to the environment. After reading that methane is 25 times more worse than carbon, we have to rethink in our biodegradable ways. One way to fix this problem is to use biodegradable objects that will decompose more slowly in landfills.
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