Grammar for Written Communication in Business: Writing Samples (post-corrections)

Question: If you had the power to change one thing in this country, what would you most like to do?


Answer:

If I had the power to change one thing in the States, I would most like to improve waste (garbage) reduction in this country.

The United States has roughly 350 million people which is roughly 5% of the population on earth. However, 40% of the garbage of the world in weight is generated here. Apparently, there is a lot of room for improvement. There might be some experience I can share with the Americans to address this issue.

As a person from a highly-populated island in Asia, I had the firsthand experience of the consequences of not addressing garbage issue correctly. In the late 90s, we did not have a proper policy for waste management. We were about to run out of place for landfills, and my city was soon to be covered with garbage that had no place to go. Nevertheless, we started a series of policies to confront this problem head-on. They are “No garbage on the ground,” “Charging garbage fee by volume” and “No recyclable left behind.”

“No garbage on the ground” is basically getting rid of dumpsters. The garbage trucks travel throughout the city to collect garbage every single night so that no dumpsters are required. People need to toss their waste into the garbage trucks by themselves. This policy not only paved the way for the other policies I will discuss later but eliminated the dark corners in the city that were the warm beds for hygiene and crime problems.

“Charging garbage fee by volume” and “No recyclable left behind” are one package of two policies which aim to encourage civilians to work together on garbage reduction. The residents need to purchase government-issued garbage bags which come with different sizes (volumes) and prices. If your garbage fits into a smaller bag, you can save some dimes. The garbage truck operators oversee all garbage bags the people use and reject those bags which are not compliant to the rules. The recyclables are one exception. No bag is required for the recyclables. They are free of charge. Therefore, if you separate the recyclables from the regular garbage, you can further lower your garbage volume and save more money on garbage fees.

Since then, garbage reduction has become a sensation of all people in my city.  One decade later, the annual garbage weight decreased by 50% while the population increased by 30%.  If this series of policies can be adapted in the States and if the 50% garbage reduction can be reproduced in this country, I can help the people of the Home of the Brave and on the Land of the Free to remove a fifth of the total garbage generated on this planet. It would be a magnificent achievement to make this world a better place.