TALKING TRASH [TRANSPORT]

摘要

While virtually all forms of pollution travel, most move with natural forces like wind or water currents. By contrast, the movement of garbage is under human control. Further, the movement of garbage is inextricably intertwined with the following: impacts on people and on the natural environment; political choices at the state, national and local levels; decisions made in markets; and, race and class. States and local governments have battled each other in the courts and in the media in a series of garbage wars. Legislative proposals introduced in the Congress have implicitly assumed that the problem to be solved is waste transport, across state or local government borders. Some bills would have strengthened local governments' ability to enact "flow control" ordinances, which capture trash and direct it to specific local facilities.