Elizabeth Licata: Like it or not, we all have personal relationships with trash

Trash, like death, is a part of life. We may try hard to ignore its inevitability, but that is not easy. And it is fair to say that pretending trash doesn’t exist or that what happens to it doesn’t matter has become one of American society’s biggest mistakes. 

We are paying the price now. Waterways filled with microplastics pose health risks to animals and humans that are just beginning to be understood. Landfills are necessary to keep solid waste contained, but they are also emitters of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gasses and a huge contributor to climate change.

Thanks largely to single-use plastics, recycling seems irretrievably broken, with less than 6% of new plastic – most of which is of poor quality – recycled. The rest? In landfills, in the ocean or along roadsides and waterways.

Attempting to tackle the topic of trash is challenging – kind of like counting the number of plastic containers in any given landfill – but I had to try. 

First, I talked to three Western New York residents, two in Buffalo and one in Williamsville, who have found ways to deal with trash in positive ways that fit into their daily lives.