Where does your waste go?

My Environmental Science class has an assignment this week to find out where their waste goes. When they flush the toilet or put the trash can on the curb what happens to that stuff? As Americans we have this delusion that it somehow magically disappears. If you ask someone about it they really do know that their old toaster didn't just 'poof!' into nothingness, but we kind of act as if that was what happened. Almost no one can tell you where it all goes after it goes down the drain or into the garbage truck. Is your trash incinerated? Sent to a landfill? Does you waste management company sort to remove recyclable materials? If you put out recycling, do you know how much of it actually ends up being recycled? I would bet that if you asked ten people not a single one would know, unless one of them happened to work for some sort of waste management company.

So, I would like to issue a challenge to all of you. Find out where your waste goes. Email your garbage company and ask them what happens after the truck drives away. Call your sewer company and ask where and how the water (and stuff) is treated and where it eventually ends up.