The topic I chose to focus on is Solid Waste Disposal.  The case originates in the Washington region of the United States, specifically King County.  This case poses the question of whether economic incentives can successfully control waste disposal and promote recycling. I found this case from the Colby Sustainable Development source; the case can be found on this webpage: http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/swm-wa.html. The main issue began in the 70s and early 80s with landfills filling at a very high rate and without consideration of the environmental impact on King County. To solve this problem officials came up with the idea to provide economic incentives for people to recycle. Charging money for more than one bin of waste motivates people to produce less waste. By 1996 the county was able to obtain a rate of 53% of waste being reduced or recycles. The main goal of this case is sustainable development. By reducing the environmental impact of past generations, King County was allowing future generations to meet their own waste disposal needs. Without this development initiative, the county would be facing huge disposal issues in the present and in future generations.

The second case study I focused on concerned The Three Gorges Dam located on the Yangtze River between Chongqing and Yichang City, Hubei province in south-central China. This study was found on the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science website, University of Buffalo and can be found on this webpage: http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/three_gorges_dam.pdf. The case addresses the benefits and negative side effects of the Three Gorges Dam. China is a developing country, meaning there is an increased demand for energy. China’s energy use has increased by 56.6% from 2005-2011. The costly Dam project provides s 84 terawatt-hours of electricity annually but was a controversial project for several reasons. The Dam caused massive flooding, forced many residents to relocate, decline of fish vegetation, changes to downstream temperature and flow and much more. The goal of this development is to provide a source of energy for the ever increasing Chinese population. It turns out that this Dam project is more of an unsustainable development than it is sustainable. Building this dam causes an alteration in the wildlife and freshwater systems. The increased usage of Dams to produce energy is affecting biodiversity in a way that will prevent us from maintaining positive development.

I currently live in Colts Neck New Jersey, a town close to the eastern coast of the United States. Both cases can relate to where I live because they concern the relationship between human needs and the impact on our environment. My town’s waste also goes to a landfill facility. These types of practices cannot be sustained forever and it would be very beneficial for my town to create some sort of incentive to recycle and reduce waste. Unlike in Kings County we do not have a government mandated rule or goal for recycling but I think this could be a great idea for the future. Unlike in China, my energy is not produced from a dam because we are not located near a river source. In America, we depend on China for many of our resources and imported products. The price of energy and how it is sustained for the future is very important to America’s ability to trade and conduct business with China. My region is not facing such steep population growth as China and therefore does not have to deal with issues like building water Dams just to have enough energy. What is important to recognize is that China relies heavily on its fishing and vegetation to feed its population. Tampering with their food sources can be very detrimental to the future, which is something they must be very careful of and something we can learn from in my region.