Long-Term Problems of Garbage Disposal

Morris describes an accurate state of morbidity when he writes about our worldwide garbage disposal crisis.

At the present time in Los Angeles there is a fight ensuring over whether to use Mission, Sullivan and Rustic Canyons as garbage dumps. These canyons are part of the Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area, which is administered by the National Park Service.

Our local garbage war appears to be between the Los Angeles City Council Public Works Committee (which wants to use our Los Angeles canyons as garbage dumps) and Councilmen Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky (they support AB 1489, a bill introduced by Assemblyman Friedman, which would protect our Santa Monica Mountains from becoming a giant dung heap).

Destroying our beautiful national parks and recreation sites with our own waste seems incredibly stupid. In a very short time we will fill up our canyons, eliminating all the natural habitat (streams, trees, flowers, birds, animals) and we will still be left with the problems of ever-increasing waste products and the health problems and ecological destruction that results from our careless choice and methods of disposal.

It would make a lot more sense if the following measures were taken in an effort to control the garbage we generate: (1) encourage people to recycle through a massive public relations campaign, (2) create incentives for manufacturers to use biodegradable wrappings, (3) use the new technology for reducing solid waste bulk, (4) utilize advanced compost techniques and (5) choose waste disposal sites in remote locations (arid desert areas with few inhabitants). Although all of the above proposals involve time and money, they will prove cost-effective in the long run in terms of health and quality of life.

At the end of Morris’ article he wrote that in the future experts felt that “a primary use of the oceans will be for waste disposal� . . . “but fish don’t vote.� However, we are able to vote. And if we are concerned about life on this planet surviving, we need to vote for those in public office who feel the same way.

Morris presents strong evidence that something is rotten in the garbage war. As Henry David Thoreau stated, “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.�

ELAINE R. WARICK

LAWRENCE H. WARICK

Los Angeles