Between 1983 and 1993, there were forty-six major explosions and fires at chemical plants that produced plastics and oil refineries. These events ended with 446 injuries and sadly 89 lives lost. Facilities that produce some of the most substantial public health threats are the ones processing crude petroleum into plastic cups and other good for consumers created by the oil refineries and plastic production facilities. Allen Hershkowitz says “In 1994 alone the 1,834 plastics production facilities operating in the United States emitted more than 111 million pounds of toxic air emissions, 507 million pounds of production related wastes, tens of hundreds of pounds of discharges to surface waters and hundreds of thousands of pounds of other pollutants releases” This shows how often this is happening and puts into perspective how bad this is for the environment. He goes on to say that the plastic industry is second only to the chemical industry in generating toxic releases that damage the ozone layer, which makes a lot of sense given the previous information (Hershkowitz). Some may say that transporting the recyclables contradicts that act of recycling by providing more air pollution from the trucks used when transporting is but according to Hershkowitz “It is wrong to argue that pollution from recycling vehicles in urban areas is greater than pollution from trucks and infrastructure dedicated to garbage collection and disposal. At worst, recycling trucks and infrastructure may produce the same amount of pollution. It is more likely that diverting waste to recycling processing facilities tends to cause less pollution than garbage collection does.” This just shows that recycling vehicles may in fact be better for the environment that garbage collection vehicles. It goes on to say “Any added pollution that might be generated by a recycling program would result from additional trucks
Between 1983 and 1993, there were forty-six major explosions and fires at chemical plants that produced plastics and oil refineries. These events ended with 446 injuries and sadly 89 lives lost. Facilities that produce some of the most substantial public health threats are the ones processing crude petroleum into plastic cups and other good for consumers created by the oil refineries and plastic production facilities. Allen Hershkowitz says “In 1994 alone the 1,834 plastics production facilities operating in the United States emitted more than 111 million pounds of toxic air emissions, 507 million pounds of production related wastes, tens of hundreds of pounds of discharges to surface waters and hundreds of thousands of pounds of other pollutants releases” This shows how often this is happening and puts into perspective how bad this is for the environment. He goes on to say that the plastic industry is second only to the chemical industry in generating toxic releases that damage the ozone layer, which makes a lot of sense given the previous information (Hershkowitz). Some may say that transporting the recyclables contradicts that act of recycling by providing more air pollution from the trucks used when transporting is but according to Hershkowitz “It is wrong to argue that pollution from recycling vehicles in urban areas is greater than pollution from trucks and infrastructure dedicated to garbage collection and disposal. At worst, recycling trucks and infrastructure may produce the same amount of pollution. It is more likely that diverting waste to recycling processing facilities tends to cause less pollution than garbage collection does.” This just shows that recycling vehicles may in fact be better for the environment that garbage collection vehicles. It goes on to say “Any added pollution that might be generated by a recycling program would result from additional trucks