In fact, each year this nation generates enough garbage to fill a convoy of trash trucks reaching halfway to the moon. And the convoy keeps growing longer every year. This trash has been accumulating in landfills for a number of years. Now many of these landfills are almost full. This is causing the costs of landfills to soar, forcing many communities to raise fees or taxes to pay the additional costs.
Landfills are no longer the answer to the garbage problem.
In some communities, the waste goes to an incinerator that burns it and recovers energy. Incinerators reduce the volume of the trash but landfills are still needed to bury the ashes. Both incinerator and landfills are expensive and can take a long time to locate and build. In a growing number of communities the morning newspaper is recycled, and cans and bottles are recycled are reused. There is no one simple remedy for the trash problem, we need to consider a combination of solutions to manage.