So what happens when these materials are thrown out and not reused?

They go to a landfill or an incinerator. Landfills are burial grounds. They are designed specifically to bury and seal waste in; they are not designed to break the waste down. As crazy as this may sound, it’s for our own good that landfills do not allow its substances to decompose. Landfills isolate their containments in order to prevent toxins from leaking into the surrounding environments such as air and ground water. This of course does not mean that landfill leaking never occurs. They do in fact leak and have to be monitored for at least 30 years after their closing.

A 45 year old news paper found in a landfill will still be easily readable do to the lack of oxygen which is crucial for decomposition. Instead of being buried, the paper could have been recycled.

When trash burns in the incinerator toxins are directly released into our air. Air is mobile, the toxins released into the air will move with the wind. Polluted air will not stay in the area of the incinerator that produced it; it will migrate to other places far away from its original source.