A few examples of what people in the North throw away

• The British dump 2.5 billion nappies/diapers a year.
• The Japanese use 30 million 'disposable' single-roll cameras annually.
• North Americans annually throw away:
  • 183 million razors,
  • 2.7 billion batteries,
  • 140 million cubic metres of Styrofoam packing,
  • 350 million pressurized spray-paint cans,
  • 1.6 billion kilos of carpet
  • 13 billion kilos of food

Where does it all go?

Landfills:
Traditionally, countries with a lot of space like the US, dig huge holes in the ground and fill them up with trash and waste. But landfills can cause problems:
they can give off the gas, methane;
they can become too hot;
they can leak into the surrounding land and water - which is particularly dangerous because of the chemicals that are dumped in landfills.

Burning:
Countries with less space, like Japan, burn a lot of their trash and waste.
This can cause even worse problems than using landfills because it creates air pollution, putting dioxins and other poisonous substances into the atmosphere. Even when filters are used to reduce this problem, burning trash leaves toxic ash which must be burried somewhere.

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NAPPIES or DIAPERS: cloth or paper that babies wear before they can use the toilet.
Something is DISPOSABLE if you throw it away after using it.
STYROFOAM: a soft light white plastic

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