Waste

[|NPR: Probing the Secret Life of Compost] [|Are Sun Chips bags really compostable?] The claim "World's first 100% compostable chip package," the SunChips bag said. "It breaks down completely into compost in a hot, active home or industrial compost pile." And in teeny type: "This package is suitable for industrial composting." Anyone who has opened the bag will second another note: "This bag is louder because it is compostable." In fact, it was so loud that at press time, Frito-Lay decided to use the packaging with the compostable claim only for specially marked bags of original-flavor chips.
 * Waste Group Blog Page**

The check
For 13 weeks, we kept one compostable bag in a home compost pile of grass clippings, wood chips, and leaves, with starter dirt mixed in. We replenished the pile and wet it when necessary. We also crinkled a new bag and measured its noise level.

Bottom line
The items in contact with the bag composted nicely, but the bag itself? Take a look at the photo. It might decay in an "industrial" compost pile, though we can't say for sure. And don't think about sneaking a compostable bag into a movie theater: When crinkled, the bag was roughly twice as loud as a Tostitos bag—loud enough that it would drown out the soundtrack.



**Which is which?**  The bag that spent 13 weeks composting (at right) looked a bit more wrinkled and mottled than a new one. [|Wikipedia article on Landfills] A ** landfill site ** (also known as ** tip **, ** dump ** or ** rubbish dump ** and historically as a **[|midden] ** ), is a site for the disposal of [|waste] materials by burial and is the oldest form of [|waste treatment]. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organized [|waste disposal] and remain so in many places around the world. The country's second largest (formerly first) landfill is located right in our backyard, in Puente Hills, California [|NPR: The Nations Largest Landfill Beckons Tourists] [|Wikipedia: Puente Hills Landfill] = = **[|Superfund Sites]** Superfund is the name given to the environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. Sites are listed on the [|National Priorities List (NPL)] upon completion of [|Hazard Ranking System (HRS)] screening, public solicitation of comments about the proposed site, and after all comments have been addressed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|List of Superfund Sites in California] [|Examples of Superfund Site success stories] [|NPR: Funding the Superfund] **[|Factory Farms Produce 100 Times More Waste Than All People In the US Combined]** [|Waste Prevention and Recycling at Home] [|e-waste problem] [|Beyond Recycling: Getting to 'Zero Waste' - NPR] [|Excellent article on the future of recycling and waste management]

Landfill Power: Turning Gas into Energy media type="youtube" key="0A1h1aQyF-I" height="345" width="560" align="center"

Radioactive waste swamps Japan sewage plants []

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[|U.S nuclear waste increasing]

[|medical waste becoming a problem]