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Jun 17, 2009
Recycle Quandry
The City of San Francisco diverts 3/4 of it's trash away from landfills and into recycling or mulching. Now they're upping the ante even more reports the NY Times. Here in Alabama there are entire counties without even a landfill to handle their own trash, and others have huge landfills that accept trash from thousands of miles away.
As for me, I'm doing my best:
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Hey Tim!
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be 5ive o'clock somewhere, It's mojito time here in Huntsville!
You know, while I was working in Fresno for most of the past year, I was amazed at a whole lotta' things I saw there. Among them, NO WATER METERS! No kidding!
There, in the San Joaquin Valley (remember, ALL of California is a desert), the folks rely - in large part - upon snow melt from the Sierras (Yosemite, Kings Canyon & Sequoia). What was so strange was that while we, here in 'Bama have a relative ABUNDANCE of H2O and pay by the thousand gallons, the folks in arid Fresno paid a FLAT FEE.
Weird, eh? Particularly considering if folks didn't irrigate (lawns, crops ANYTHING) it'd wilt and turn brown. Why, there were even sprinkler systems on the roadside state highways! Seriously! (Remember... an ounce of fire prevention in CA is worth a dollar, two-ninety-five.)
One of the good friends I made there lived in an established southern part of the city called "Sunnyside," along with his family - four kids, wife and elderly mother. Tony was a prof at a Fresno Pacific U, a Mennonite Brethren-sponsored institution, and Paula was an elementary Special Ed teacher.
Both of 'em had earned their Masters in Chicagoland U's and moved back to Cali where they'd both grown up.
Anyway, while Fresno - like many other CA localities - had a recycling program, I was amazed at the folks that did NOT recycle, particularly at the apartment complex where I resided. Sure, there were recycling bins (more accurately, wheeled cans), but the garbage dumpsters were almost continually filled with recyclable debris, ranging from newspapers to glass.
Even T&P, while they made significant effort, thew many recyclables away in the household garbage bin.
Here in Huntsville, Allied Waste runs a weekly route to pick up recyclables - excluding glass. Go figure. We once got milk delivered on our doorsteps in glass, and returned RC and Coke bottles. Now, they're plastic and recycled. But they don't take glass... at least not here. However, in CA, they DO take beer bottles and other forms of glass. I'd save mine up and take 'em across the street where there was a private enterprise redemption center. Miscellaneous glass was, of course, cheaper, while the specifically labeled bottles were ranged from $0.05-0.10 per piece.
I've found that what doesn't go in the compost pile, can be recycled. For us in Madison county, that means glass is the only "unrecylable."
Pizza box? Paper - it's recyclable. Aluminum cans? Recyclable. Plastic food wrappers & bags? Recyclable. Aluminum foil from cooking? Recyclable. Chip bags? Recyclable. Metal cans? Recyclable. Screw-on lids, plastic or metal? Recyclable.
Of a matter of preventative sanitation, I've rinsed out cans and bottles or other household debris (typically kitchen type) before tossing 'em. Keeps bugs down, you know. And I use rubber spatulas to get as much product from the empty container before rinsing and disposing it.
Now, the empty plastic bag from which I've been nibbling almonds is going to the recycle bin. (They were probably grown on one of my Fresno friends' farm!)
The adage "reduce, reuse, recycle" once was for a "save the trees" movement. However, our increasing need for garbage space has surpassed any concern equivalent for that movement. Besides... trees are a RENEWABLE resource!
We can do more with what we're NOT using, which is, in part, why I think 'Frisco is on the ball in that regard.
Here in 'Bama, we're country folk... and we've learned Big City ways. It's time to return to our smart sense roots!