Excerpt of an Assignment Written for a Course

Images selected:

(Photo 1: ICON apartment garbage disposal)

(Photo 2: Keele Valley Landfill, Source: Mahler, 2016)

(Photo 3: Deonar Landfill, Source: Roy, 2021)

The photos describe various levels of garbage disposals: the garbage disposal behind ICON, Keele Valley Landfill, and Deonar Landfill. The environmental issue in these photos is climate change caused by the garbage disposals through the air pollution they create, while the health issue are the effects of climate change.

These two issues captured my interest, as it is something that can affect anyone living anywhere. Garbage disposals are located globally, and while they may take on a different form for everyone, they still cause similar environmental and health problems for everyone. One example of this is that India’s many landfills tend to have similar effects that the landfills cause. A further example of this is the Deonar landfill in India produces methane from the majority of municipal solid waste being disposed of in that landfill and this negatively affects the citizens living in the surrounding areas as the gasses are poisonous towards those living in the area as when the chemical is emitted into the atmosphere it has a global warming potential that is around 23 times greater than carbon dioxide according to the IPPC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (Ayub, S. Khan, A. H., 2011, pg 271).

The theme that binds these photos together is the poisonous gasses emitted from each garbage disposal. According to an article written by Charles Wilkins for Canadian Geographic, the Keele Valley Landfill in Toronto, despite being closed for over 16 years, still produces enough methane to power 20,000 homes (Wilkins, 2017) which is a very poisonous gas. Poisonous gasses are being produced from all landfills around the world, whether they are from India, Toronto, or behind ICON.

This issue affects citizens of each area differently depending on the size of the garbage disposal or landfill. The garbage disposal behind ICON’s apartment will not produce as much toxic fumes as the other two landfill examples. Another major factor is how long ago the landfill was closed. For example, the Keele Valley Landfill was closed over 16 years ago (Wilkins, 2017) but the Deonar Landfill has not been reported to be closed (Ayub, S. Khan, A. H., 2011, pg 271).