We got you to recycle your bottles. Take the next step.
We saw an interesting infographic this week that was at one point very promising. It pointed out the rate of recycling is very high in the United States. Of the amazing amount of garbage that the average American produces, more than a third of it was recycled. The information became less promising when we started to think about the amount of waste that we just throw away. Consider some facts:
- The average American produces 4.4 pounds of trash daily.
- 15 million sheets of paper are used in the U.S. every 5 minutes.
- 100 million trees are cut down in the U.S. for junk mail.
- 93% of plastics used end up in landfills.
- We throw away 96 billion pounds of food every year.
It made us start to think of some creative and unusual ways to recycle and change our behaviors to move that third up to a half or more.
Let’s start first with some basics. You can recycle just about anything. When we think of traditional recycling, we think of bottles, cans, and paper. But are you making the most of your traditional recycling? While many areas in Virginia have a municipal service or something tied to your garbage pick-up, some of you have to take your recycling somewhere to get rid of it. While this can be a pain, we encourage you to do it. We also think of this as drink bottles, food cans, and newspapers. But have you looked at ALL of your bottles, cans, and paper? What about the bottle that your shampoo came in? Have you recycled the can that your paint came in? While you may have to take that to a hazardous waste recycling area, it can still be recycled.
Paper is also paper. In addition to newspapers, you should look for magazines, phone books, junk mail, and even things like greeting cards and boxes. If you look at a cereal box, it has a cardboard box, a waxpaper liner, and a prize inside. You’re looking at a 95% recycle return.
What about your electronics? We’ve shared and participated in some e-cycling days, and it’s amazing what has come in. In addition to old computers and televisions that can be recycled for glass, copper, plastic, and other goodies, people brought printers, keyboards, phones, and old answering machines. If you used to plug it in, you can e-cycle it. Those old speakers that lit up your dorm room in college contain paper, plastic, copper, aluminum, rubber, and wood.
And your food? A cornucopia of opportunity.
For starters, buy smarter. As consumers, we buy because we “need”. What looks good for dinner tonight may be healthy and nutritious, and even come in eco-friendly packaging. But do you really need the five-pound box or are you going to end up wasting some? While it is good for the environment and your wallet to buy in bulk, you have to be smart. We throw away 96 billion pounds of food every year. If we were able to save a quarter of that we could feed 20 million people.
If you do have to throw it away, what do you do with it? Use it. The leftover grounds from your morning cup of life joe can be used for plants. Roses, azaleas, and other flowering plants like acidic soil and therefore like coffee. Ants and snails, however, do not. Your coffee grounds can make for colorful, bug-free, and very alert roses.
The same holds true for banana peels. High in potassium, the peels are good for soil. They also do a pretty bang up job of shining shoes, and removing warts and splinters. The enzymes in the peels dislodge the splinter and eat away at the root of the wart. Who knew?
If you’re not a gardener or it’s inconvenient to compost, start calling garden centers. Most of them do a great deal of on-site gardening, and would likely welcome your scraps. A friend of KVB worked for a brewery/restaurant, and he found a local farmer who took everything from cardboard (for lining stalls), to food scraps (for pigs and composting), to spent hops and grains (for the horses and cows). The Farmer was like many gardening centers: they called him and he picked it up. Done deal.
Thinking about what you’re throwing away makes you think harder about what you use. And every little bit helps. Think of the impact of one person bringing a canvas bag to the grocery store: if you go to the grocery once per week and average 5 bags (which is 10 because they double them for your convenience) that’s 520 bags per year, per household. That doesn’t count the big trips for Christmas dinner and the rush out on Sunday night because you forgot toothpaste.
A group of restaurants in London have started a campaign, Straw Wars. Their tag line is “Straws are for Suckers”. It’s a little thing, but think of it this way:
- You buy a soda at McDonald’s.
- Your soda comes with a straw.
- McDonald’s gets it’s straws in boxes, 12/24 per case.
- The average case of straws weighs about 20 pounds, and contains almost 30,000 straws.
- In the United Kingdom alone, McDonald’s sells 3.5 million drinks per day, with straws.
So you have the cardboard that the straws come in, the paper or plastic wrapping the straw, and the straw itself. It’s a little step, but do you really need it? Take the next step and sip. You’ll better experience the body of the shake.
![1BY Grizzard 124[1]](https://keepvirginiabeautiful.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/1BY-Grizzard-1241-1024x682-1160x665.jpg "1BY Grizzard 124[1]")
