Environment: Garbage, Garbage, Everywhere

Landfills are overflowing, but alternatives are few

Leading a climbing team up Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, Captain Richard Garrison, an Army chaplain, discovered that even the remote Alaskan wilderness has been despoiled. There, at 8,500 ft., was a pile of garbage -- partly eaten food, foil wrappers from freeze-dried meals, plastic bags and other trash left behind by previous climbers who had disobeyed the basic outdoor rule to backpack out all such junk. "It really detracts from the experience," says Garrison.

But at least the garbage was out of the sight and smell of most Alaskans. Some Chicagoans are not so fortunate. "As you...

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