6.+Final+Paper

A landfill is a designed structure built in or above ground which is composed of trash isolated from the environment (Freudenrich, 2000). Landfills can be built in valleys, quarries or above land to form hills. There are two types of landfill: sanitary landfills and municipal solid waste landfills. A sanitary landfill is a landfill layered on land containing non-hazardous compressed waste material covered with soil to divide the trash from the environment (Freudenrich, 2000). There are four basic conditions a site must meet before being viewed as a sanitary landfill: 1. The land must be segregated from leachate to prevent contamination in water and land 2. Scientific inspection is required to determine if it is suitable for a landfill to be developed 3. Preparation must be monitored for best outcome 4. Trash must be layered and compressed onto the site. Sanitary landfill is the major method in disposing waste in North America because it is the least expensive manner to dispose trash. A municipal solid waste landfill is a landfill containing various types of waste including recyclable garbage, toxic waste, non-combustible and combustible garbage and more. The biggest concern in building a landfill is leachate. Leachate is a combination of water and chemical waste. It can threaten humans and the environment by polluting ground water and soil. Landfills are threatening humans' and animals' habitats. To prevent world destruction, people ought to recognize the consequences of producing garbage in their everyday life. The oldest evidence of landfill can be dated back to 3000 BC, in the Cretan capital of Knossos (Waste Watch). This began the practice of landfill that would eventually become the cause of destruction of the earth. In the pre-industrial years, waste was mostly biodegradable and combustibles as the food and materials were based on the domestication of food plants and animals. When they were disposed underground, they acted as compost and as a result, were able to aid in improving the soil. Furthermore, people lived in smaller communities, leaving only little waste. The 18th and 19th centuries brought about change in the manufacture of goods as mass production became the dominant system in the capitalist economy. More toxic wastes that had the potential of damaging the environment were being produced. However, it was not until the rise of population in the mid 20th century that threatened the space of mankind. As the fertility rate increased, especially during the generation of baby boomers, the land space needed for garbage disposal declined, which made waste management a bigger concern. Numerous regulations were established in the 1990s such as the landfill tax to promote waste minimisation.

Despite the little effort of introducing waste reducing taxes by the government, people are still throwing away excessive amount of waste that could be avoided. According to Statistics Canada, each year Canadians create more than 31 million loads of garbage (Canada). For instance, in the case of plastic bags, Canadians would obtain 55 million of them per week with little likelihood of reusing them. The public is not aware of the consequences of poor waste management. A straightforward example that could be observed on how much waste people are producing daily is a regular sandwich meal in the well-known fast food restaurant chain, McDonald’s. A sandwich meal consists of at least five different kinds of garbage: the oily paper wrapper of the burger, the paper cup, plastic lid and the plastic straw of the drink, the paper container of the fries, the plastic ketchup package and the paper advertisement sheet that comes with the tray if one is to have the meal in the restaurant. All the different garbage will end up to a landfill as they are not recyclable. As for individual households, many families do not have the practice of recycling; in a survey done in 2000, Toronto, households reported only recycled 24% of the materials and 76% were treated as pure waste to the landfill (Canada). Individuals are responsible for these wastes but the ultimate stakeholders are the corporations who designed such products. Companies create products for the sake of revenue; currently, they are designing items knowing the fact that these objects will eventually be part of a landfill. At present, there are 10,000 landfill locations in Canada (Canada). If actions are not to be carried out immediately, there will soon be alarming environmental issues occurring. For that reason, the change should start which such companies who designed the waste by regulating the rules which will be further discussed in the Communication Strategy modal.

There are advantages and disadvantages of having landfills, nonetheless, we believe that the drawbacks outweigh the good. Landfills are one way of disposing trash, however, there are other techniques that people can employ to dispose of trash. Advantages of landfills include its low cost and valuable space. Landfills are low cost means of waste disposal compared to other techniques. Also, the space used for landfills, once restored, provide a valuable space for recreation or wildlife. On the contrary, the disadvantages provide more evidence as to why landfills may not be superior to other methods of waste disposal. Firstly, there is the potential for air, groundwater, and land pollution. The ill management of any waste components may lead to leakage of the toxic waste into groundwater. Leachate is a major source of groundwater pollution, and a major concern for the lives of animals and humans. Odour concerns can cause problems to existing and potential home owners in a given area. Methane is lighter than air, and it can exist within landfills. The production of methane gas in landfills are problematic, at high levels because they are highly flammable and can cause asphyxiation and at low levels, because they can be explosive. Researches were also done and have proven that adults who live close to landfills have a higher chance of developing liver cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer, leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, whereas children are more prone to have disabilities at birth (Oliver 2007). It is feasible to restore landfill sites into valuable space, however, it is difficult to use and redevelop them due to the fact that the trash under the land may cause harm to people and animals. On the whole, landfill sites are not pleasant to live near because they produce terrible odours, and they are not satisfying to the eyesight. We disagree with the use of landfills, and we feel that there are other methods of waste disposal. Though a little more expensive, they can be very beneficial in the long run, for the present and future generations. Total elimination of garbage is impractical, however, little steps in reducing the amount of garbage is manageable. A very evident alternative to landfills is recycling. Recycling is more beneficial due to its low cost, ability to extend the life of materials, and the fact that it consumes less energy, thus also reducing harmful environmental impacts. However, it does require a great deal of effort from everyone in the community, and in the world, yet not everyone will be willing to make this effort. That is why we propose to get everyone educated and work together to create a cleaner, safer, world for the future generations.

Landfill is a matter that can cause much destruction to the environment. It is a structure that contaminates the water and cause air pollution, which leads to threats to human health. To communicate and promote a message, one should determine the objectives, goals, audiences, key messages, strategies, tactics and measurements to structure one’s thoughts and ideas.

First, objective is a measurable goal. It is the amount one hopes to achieve during a certain amount of time. In the case of landfills, one way to prevent too much garbage from entering landfills is to charge customers for containers in fast food restaurants. For example, McDonalds is a fast food restaurant that creates a lot of garbage from soft drink cups to burger containers. To prevent excess garbage from being produced, the containers in the fast food market should be charged $0.25 per container or the customers are allowed to bring their own. Currently, many super markets are charging $0.05 per bag; however, many people are taking advantage of the low price and are still purchasing the bags. Therefore, to get more people to bring their own containers, the amount charged should be an amount that would allow customers to think about the reason for an extra cost. In 2006, Canada produced 27, 249, 178 tonnes of garbage, 18, 010, 801 tonnes being non-residential garbage and 9, 238, 376 being residential garbage (Statistics, 2006). On the other hand, the amount of recycled material produced was 7, 749, 030 tonnes, 4, 004, 187 tonnes being non-residential recycled material and 3, 744, 843 tonnes being residential recycled material (Statistics, 2006); therefore, people should work towards reducing the amount of garbage by 10% per year. By reducing garbage by 10%, there would be a decline of about 774, 903 tonnes of garbage less a year, this means 64, 575 tonnes of garbage less a month and 2152 tonnes of garbage less a day.

Secondly, goals are aspirations; it is the target one aims towards to fulfill. People required incentives to prevent disasters to the environment and work towards the reduction of garbage put into landfills. A goal everyone should continue or start engaging in is the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Another goal is to get companies and manufacturers to reduce the amount of garbage content and use more recycled material in a product. Also, a goal to get people involved in the prevention of garbage is to begin taxing garbage and stop taxing labour. Many people are working hard, but are not receiving what they deserve; therefore, people should be rewarded for their good deeds in areas such as working and generating less garbage.

In order to receive the best results, the target audience is important. In the area of excess generating, families, teenagers and young adults are the focus audience. Families are a main target audience due to the amount of garbage a family produces due to products such as furniture, utensils, food products, snacks and eating out. On the other hand, teenagers and young adults are also the target audience due to the amount they eat out and the amount of garbage produced from each items eaten, from fries packages and paper cups.

The key message in relation to landfills and garbage is to indicate how garbage in landfills are harming the environment and the actions people should take on to help make the world a healthier place. In order to communicate the main idea, a strategy is required to identify key ideas to explain to the audience. In this case, the key ideas that should be shared to the audience are the history of landfills, how landfills are harming the environment, and how people can make a change.

Tactics is how one communicates the message and get people involved. A main source to get people involved is through government engagement. When rules or laws are enforced, people are required to follow them; however, to get people involved and understand the idea the best way is through the media. The media allows people to broadcast ideas, comments, criticisms as well as spread ideas and situations to family, friends, acquaintances and the people around the world. The idea of the McDonalds example earlier stated in charging $0.25 per container for fast food restaurants on the internet can allow people to send links to friends or post it on websites where a large audience can view. On the other hand, there are ways such as holding community meetings to promote the cause and talk about the issue, this way, ideas, comments and criticisms are shared and understood. Also, small advertisements on flyers, schools, malls, etc, allows people to view the issue in different areas to allow constant recognition.

Lastly, to measure how much of the objective is met, each restaurant is required to complete a statement at the end of each year. In order to calculate the difference between the number of items that required an extra charge for containers and the number of items that that did not require containers, a calculation of the number of items purchased minus the number of times a container was charged is required. For instance, at McDonald sold 230 items one day and charged for a total of 105 containers; therefore, 230 - 105 = 125 items did not require a container, which means, the percentage of being that are bringing in containers is about 54%.

Landfills, for the most part, are hazardous to the earth and everyone wants to live in a cleaner environment, to make the world a better place for the future generations. Teamwork and co-operation is what will lead us there. With this proposal, we hope to engage and educate people about the harm they are causing themselves and everyone around them, while encouraging discussion to come up with techniques to lessen pollution and damage to our world.