Sustainability Corner - August 2011
Recycling Opportunities
During the warmer months locals and visitors spend more time outside engaging in various urban activities. People seem to enjoy strolling around town at First Friday Art Walks, growers and crafters markets, OSF Green Shows, 4th of July, Lithia Park Bandshell events and baseball games to name just a few. Usually we get thirsty and don't think twice about purchasing our drinks in paper, plastic, or Styrofoam containers. Often we quench our thirst, use these "disposables" for a few moments, and then they become trash. If you are curious how much of these disposables end up as garbage, I double dare you to take a peak in a trash can. A public trash container reveals what we discard as a community and private trash reflects that which accumulates closer to home. The material exposed in the trash tells a sobering tale. There are many opportunities that we can create for waste prevention and reduction. These opportunities are met most effectively at the front door of our consumption choices. If convenience is not at the very tip top of your list, then the chance to reduce the waste you generate is much greater.
Depending on your mode of travel, I invite you to consider stashing in your car, bike bag or backpack an assortment of preparedness items like:
If you have already purchased a disposable water bottle, see how many times you can re-fill it and quench your thirst before you redeem the nickel deposit or drop it in a commingle recycle container. Downtown Ashland still has a number of functioning water fountains for you to tap into. We are blessed to have pristine drinking water from a known local source that is available for pennies. You can also try to wear out the "disposable" cups before you send them to the landfill, since they are not recyclable in our local commingle recycling.
Here are a few facts that you may find interesting that support efforts to make a difference by choosing to recycle and choosing to purchase new items with recycled content:
Examples of products made from recycled plastic include plastic lumber, clothing, carpet, insulation for sleeping bags and ski jackets, flower pots, and car bumpers.
Hands down, recycling is a superior choice to trashing a resource. Better yet, follow the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, then recycle. If preventing waste interests you, start with REDUCING what you consume, RE-USING everything possible and then (if you have purchased something recyclable) then by all means RECYCLE it. Every community recycling program is different. To insure a clean stream of recyclables PLEASE find out first what can be recycled in your community. Come by our office at 170 Oak Street to pick up a pink sheet of "What goes in a commingle cart" If it is not a YES, it's a NO. Or, read the list on our residential recycling page.
Jackson County exceeded its diversion goal of 40% for the first time ever in 2010. We could not have done this without YOU. Thanks for all you do. Together we are making a difference.
Risa Buck is the Waste Zero Specialist for Recology Ashland Sanitary Service.
Depending on your mode of travel, I invite you to consider stashing in your car, bike bag or backpack an assortment of preparedness items like:
- A bag of durable bags for food shopping, a special bag with a drinking cup for liquids hot and cold, a water bottle, a container for leftover food, and a set of eating utensils. This stash of stuff may assist you in eliminating trash before it starts. Keeping this stash conveniently waiting for you in your "mode of transport" allows you to always be ready.
If you have already purchased a disposable water bottle, see how many times you can re-fill it and quench your thirst before you redeem the nickel deposit or drop it in a commingle recycle container. Downtown Ashland still has a number of functioning water fountains for you to tap into. We are blessed to have pristine drinking water from a known local source that is available for pennies. You can also try to wear out the "disposable" cups before you send them to the landfill, since they are not recyclable in our local commingle recycling.
Here are a few facts that you may find interesting that support efforts to make a difference by choosing to recycle and choosing to purchase new items with recycled content:
- When aluminum is made from a recycled soda or beer can, it uses 93% less energy than refining new aluminum from bauxite ore.
- When a new plastic product is produced from recycled materials, it uses two thirds less energy than is required to make plastics from fossil fuels.
- Each person uses approximately one 100 foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products every year.
Examples of products made from recycled plastic include plastic lumber, clothing, carpet, insulation for sleeping bags and ski jackets, flower pots, and car bumpers.
Hands down, recycling is a superior choice to trashing a resource. Better yet, follow the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, then recycle. If preventing waste interests you, start with REDUCING what you consume, RE-USING everything possible and then (if you have purchased something recyclable) then by all means RECYCLE it. Every community recycling program is different. To insure a clean stream of recyclables PLEASE find out first what can be recycled in your community. Come by our office at 170 Oak Street to pick up a pink sheet of "What goes in a commingle cart" If it is not a YES, it's a NO. Or, read the list on our residential recycling page.
Jackson County exceeded its diversion goal of 40% for the first time ever in 2010. We could not have done this without YOU. Thanks for all you do. Together we are making a difference.
Risa Buck is the Waste Zero Specialist for Recology Ashland Sanitary Service.