Wasteland in the Documentary Film the Wasteland,

¶ … Wasteland

In the documentary film The Wasteland, researchers traced the dangers of environmental damage caused by human beings. It further explores a modern artist named Vik Muniz who works in South America taking materials which have been thrown away and turning them into pieces of art. For two years, Muniz looked and scavenged at Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill. He takes the trash and repurposes it, covering the trash pickers and making them into living works of art. Muniz uses garbage to create mosaic portraits which have been sold at auction and hung at museums around the world. His work is an example of what can be taken and recreated from all the material that humans throw away. More than this, the artwork illustrates exactly how people have thought about waste and garbage in the past, or more specifically how these things have not been taken into consideration.

The most polluted city in the world is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Even though this city is in South America, the United States has contributed heavily to the pollution and environmental issues of Brazil. One of the reasons that the nation is not able to overcome its pollution is due to massive deforestation. The American lumber and timber companies have aided in the logging of large areas of rain forest, severely damaging the environment for the next decades and centuries to come. One of the best ways Brazil has to make money is by selling off logging rights. By creating a demand at such a high price, the country is worsening its environment in order to make money.

Health can be seriously damaged by exposure to toxic chemicals in landfills such as Jardim Gramacho. The trash pickers who work for Muniz are directly exposed to these materials, but environmental concerns are present in every person who lives in a polluted area. There are many hazardous materials which can be found in e-waste. Among the most dangerous are arsenic and chromium, and even Americium which is radioactive. Arsenic is fatally poisonous to humans in large doses and exposure can lead to diseases of the skin and can decrease conduction velocity of the nervous system, and can cause lung cancer. Chromium IV which is often found in electronic products can be absorbed into the body via the skin and can cause damage to the DNA leading to many problems on a chromosomal level. Lastly, Americium is a radioactive material which is found in metal detectors and medical equipment. Contact with this can cause cancers throughout the body.