recycling

Watch What You Throw Out! The Fundamentals of Recycling

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Trash . . . it’s ugly, probably smelly, and something we tend not to think twice about once we set it on the curb or in the dumpster. Did you know the average American generates about 4.4 pounds of waste, per day? Americans produced an estimated 254 million tons of trash in 2013, and of this amount, 87 million tons or 34.3% was recycled or composted. If these numbers are surprising to you, read further to learn how to properly reduce and recycle your waste!

What can you recycle?

  • Aluminum & Steel Cans
  • Paper & Newspaper
  • Cardboard
  • Glass – Glass makes up 6% of items in the landfill and it takes over 1 million years to decompose
  • Plastic – did you know the average US citizen uses 200 lbs of plastic each year? Of this amount, only 3% is recycled.
  • Electronics & Batteries – for more information research your county’s recycling program or call your local electronic company (Staples, Best Buy).

Remember these tips to be a pro at recycling: lightly wash out bottles or containers, keep the caps of bottles or jars on, and always review what recyclables are collected in your county or you risk your entire bin being dumped in the landfill.

Recyclables are commonly collected in two ways – they are either sorted into their respective materials at site pickup, or all recyclables are thrown together and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting. The MRF’s will sort the recyclables by hand and/or machine and then materials are sent off to manufacturers who utilize the recycled items to make new products.

It’s a challenge to understand the importance and impact recycling can have when you don’t see the end result, but it is essential to reducing your carbon footprint and total waste generated. While recycling aids in reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfills, there are two important steps you should take if you are interested in reducing your overall waste generation:

  1. Reduce – For many of us, we have ignored the common conveniences we have, such as plastic bags at the grocery store. Easy fixes like bringing a reusable bag, or even reusing plastic bags, will reduce the amount of unrecyclable material you are already consuming. Also be conscious of putting produce into separate plastic bags; you can always mix produce in one and leave it open for the cashier to weigh separately. Ain’t no shame in this reusable shopping bag game!
  1. Reuse – Repurpose recyclable items such as glass jars for pantry storage, water bottles, or even to plant some herbs!

Make sure to check out your county’s local recycling program for specifics on what can be recycled! And to learn more about plastic pollution and how long it takes for items to decompose, check out fix.com/blog/reduce-plastic-use/.

Sources:

2013 Solid Waste Data – archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/

Recycling Facts and Material Statistics – cuyahogarecycles.org/environment_recycling_facts

“Recycle the possibilities are endless” – threerivers.gov.uk/egcl-page/rubbish-waste-and-recycling

Materials Recovery Center (MRC) –  www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/recovery.htm

Lauren Vargo is a Program Coordinator, CD/ANR (Cuyahoga County & Western Reserve EERA).

The Plastic Paradise: STOP!

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LIFE Magazine: Throwaway Living

Credit: Life Magazine, 1955.

If you took a moment to look around you right now, how many items would you see made of plastic? As I sit in my office, I have counted at least 30 such items. Fortunately, nearly all them are recyclable. Did you find any items made of single-use plastic, only useful for a few hours, a few minutes, or maybe even a few seconds? These single-use plastics are becoming increasingly more common in our everyday lives, having catastrophic effects on our natural environments, the health of wildlife, and maybe even the health of humans. So the big question now is how did we get here? How did we become a throwaway society that embraces “throwaway living” as Life Magazine called it on their 1955 cover?  Well, for one, throwaway plastics make our lives so much easier. But, are you still willing to take the easy way out when you know of the negative impact our everyday plastic decisions make on our natural resources?

Chart

Data Source: Hardy and Bartolotta, unpublished.

To better understand the answer to this question, Scott Hardy, Ohio Sea Grant Extension Educator in Cuyahoga County, and I conducted a study in Northeast Ohio to understand how often people use single use plastics, the barriers to using reusable alternatives, and what reminders to encourage reuse people prefer for plastic bags, plastic water bottles, and plastic cigar tips. (For this blog, I will just focus on the plastic bags.)

We learned that people in northeast Ohio use reusable bags about 30% of the time and plastic bags about 28% of the time. The most common reason for not using reusable bags is people either forget them at home or in the car. So how do we remind people to bring their reusable bags? Most prefer an incentive, such as money off their purchase, to encourage them to use reusable. Seventy-five percent were also in favor of either a ban, fee, or both a ban and fee on plastic bags.

So how do you fit into the equation? Do you shop? Do you use bags to carry your things from the store? Do you throw those plastic bags away when you get home?

Credit: New Scientist.when you get home?

Fact Check! The average use-time of a plastic bag is 12 minutes. Yet, the lifespan of a bag in the environment is, well… a really long time. Plastic never degrades. It becomes smaller and smaller pieces of plastic that get eaten by our tiniest animal zooplankton making its way up the food web to the fish you like to eat like salmon and perch. “What can I do” you ask? Make it a habit to bring your own bags to the store. It takes 66 days to form a new habit.

Your challenge: For the next 66 days, use ONLY a reusable bag. Come May you will be a reusable bag-toting champion! If you forget your bag at home say “No thank you” to a plastic bag and hand carry it out. Lake Erie thanks you, the zooplankton thank you, and I thank you.

Jill Bartolotta is an Extension Educator with the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.

Endnotes:

catastrophic effects: Bartolotta, J. 2016. You are the solution to the “Eww”. The Ohio State University Community Development Extension Blog.

Website: https://u.osu.edu/extensioncd/tag/marine-debris/.

1955 cover: 2016. The Macro Cost of Micro Contamination. Zero Waste in Action.

Website: http://zerowastezone.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-macro-cost-of-micro-contamination.html

12 minutes: Save the Bay. Reducing Single-Use Plastic Bags in the Environment. Fact Sheet. Website: https://www.savesfbay.org/sites/default/files/news_release/Fact%20Sheet%20single%20use%20bags_MASTER%205-9-14.pdf

get eaten by our tiniest animal zooplankton: New Scientist Magazine. 2015. Plankton snacking on plastic caught on camera for the first time. Website: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27849-plankton-snacking-on-plastic-caught-on-camera-for-the-first-time/.

66 days: Lally, P. van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W., and J. Wardle. 2009. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology. 40:6, pp. 998-1009. Website: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.674/abstract.