Discarded

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All that manufactured stuff is eventually discarded and it's a lot of trash. As an example, "The average person in the United States throws away their body weight in rubbish every month." Some expect that the amount of solid waste generated globally will triple by the year 2100.

"A city resident generates twice as much waste as their rural counterpart of the same affluence." So one reason that global waste is rising fast is just the fact that more and more people live in cities all over the world. Think of China, where the government is aggressively moving millions upon millions of people from their rural homes to cities - and in some cases building those cities from scratch.

photo: wikipedia.com

But there are good reasons to expect that earth won't get buried in waste despite growing urbanization. 

Wealthier cities of the world deal with waste much more efficiently than poorer cities. It makes sense. In very simple terms, people use their material resources to meet their survival needs, and then at some point they can turn their energies to priorities lower on the list.

Just one more benefit - among so many - that accrues to a poorer nation when they start to create their own wealth beyond survival.