Environmental Protection: Recycling and Renewable Resources
Recycling Versus Landfill
Recycling is the third R of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Recycling means taking a product or material at the end of its useful life and turning it into a usable raw material to make another product. This section of our site provides information about how to recycle, why to recycle and what you can recycle.
Recycling Facts & Figures
- In 1999, recycling and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. Today, this country recycles 32 percent of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years.
- While recycling has grown in general, recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: 50 percent of all paper, 34 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all major appliances are now recycled.
- Twenty years ago, only one curbside recycling program existed in the United States, which collected several materials at the curb. By 2005, almost 9,000 curbside programs had sprouted up across the nation. As of 2005, about 500 materials recovery facilities had been established to process the collected materials.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Our main focus will be on:
Recycling Facts & Figures
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Over the years, the efforts of recycling have grown tremendously. It has become a household habit to many along with an effort and awareness that is helping to save our eco-system, hopefully for generations. The fact of the matter is, landfill waste has gone up five fold in the last 15 years, with potential recycled material being discarded into landfill as a good portion of that waste. According to GoGreen survey, over ten thousand tons of garbage thrown into the earth, each and every week! |
That is the equivalent of @80 modern railway locomotives or @37 Boeing 747’s being the amount of landfill waste each week, with each locomotive weighing approx. 135 tons and each plane weighing approx. 290 tons. With that in mind, it is not too hard to visualize the amount of mass garbage that is being thrown into our earth every minute of every day.
By the way, can you guess what the 10,000 tons of refuse mentioned has to do with? It’s the amount of waste that is generated each and every week solely in this country and exclusively by the large fast-food chains! These figures are based on a little over 36000 fast food restaurants and only include the big six chains, which in our estimation are McDonalds, Taco Bell, Carls Jr., Wendys, Burger King and Jack in the Box. The number in pounds of waste is a conservative 600 lbs. per week that we have factored into our average with each location.
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It must be noted that for the most part, the fast food industry has been an advocate of recycled products for quite some time although the efforts of recycling by law have been mainly voluntary. There needs to be put in place an alternative and option as to where you can discard of the packaging and paper products that wraps your meal, holds your drink along with napkins that allow you to clean up when done. All those items should be recycled with a focus and attention on the landfill issue that is being overwhelmed.
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There needs to be a concerted effort in reducing the amount of garbage being dumped into our land. An immediate and positive change can be made by urging the fast food chains to assist in this effort b y offering packaging to the public that is completely degradable and landfill friendly.
For example, there are forks, knives and spoons that resemble the presently used petroleum base utensils, but are stronger, work and feel as well as the utensils currently being offered, but are made from spuds, or potatoes! This means that the utensils are both edible and biodegradable and if thrown into landfill, will completely decompose within 180 days while current utensils will still be around, under soil for at least the next 15 years! |
The clear plastic containers also currently being offered fare no better underground. They will remain as solid waste for at least the next two decades and most likely, a lot longer. If you compound that with the tonnage or the amount of waste being thrown into the ground every day, it’s just a matter of time before the habit of recycling will not be enough, unless it becomes essential very soon. If it is being thrown into the earth, it must be able to degrade within a reasonable amount of time, or it should be recycled. As with the eco-friendly utensils that are available, the clear plastic containers that are presently offered, also made from the standard petroleum based materials, can also be substituted with clear containers made from sugar cane and corn! Again, approximate lifespan underground, buried in landfill is about the same as the potato based utensils or @ 180 days!
So as you can see, there is further improvement that can be made, and we feel it should be made now! Although at times it seems as if we are up against a less than cooperative audience and corporations that do not have the environment as a priority, we feel that the awareness to a greener outlook is essential, and that change is inevitable. Loud voices and strong support can overcome stubbornness and greed with time. We are dedicated to promoting awareness and the threat of overpowering our landfills with garbage that will exist way too long underground. We hope to make a noticeable difference, and one that will have an everlasting impact on what we should, and should not put into our earth. We plan on meeting with the manufacturers of these biodegradable products and to learn more about their content, availability and decomposition process. From there, we plan on meeting with the big fast food corporations, explaining our accumulation of facts and projections, voicing our concerns, possible resolutions and cures for the environment.
We could use your help. Even though helping the eco system should be an individual and cost free effort, making change and awareness work, can be a costly, time consuming journey, but one that we feel is well worth the effort. An immediate suggestion we have is to offer the fast food chains attractive, well placed recycle waste containers, along with signs in their restaurants informing their customers that most of the packaging material offered is recyclable and that they should consider pitching in, especially the younger patrons where a positive habit such as this can hopefully be a long lasting and contagious routine. It will be a very nice day when the big corporations are made to provide complete packaging that is environmentally friendly and totally recyclable, but it must not stop there. Once environmentally friendly product is handed over to the consumer, there must be an awareness and option to dispose of the material in a manner that is conducive to recycling as opposed to simply going into landfill. From there they would be discarded into recycle bins as opposed to garbage bins. Over 10,000 tons of garbage each and every week must change! If that number can be cut in half simply from consumer awareness, our money and time has gone toward a very good cause.
Our goal and objective is to persuade the large fast food corporations to provide packaging that is 100% recyclable and waste containers in each and every location that are labeled to inform the consumer that the packaging can be disposed of in those particular containers and to allow the consumer a choice. With your donations, we would like to offer the fast food chains a limited number of attractive, high quality waste containers that are labeled “recycle” along with professionally made signs that inform the customer that with most of their waste, it can be disposed of in the recycle containers provided. With your help, we hope to have these recycle containers in place and to initiate a new phase in recycling. With an offer such as this to the large fast food chains, it should hopefully take very little persuasion for them to agree along with the chance for a program such as this to be implemented in a short period that can immediately start reducing the amount of potential recycle material destined for landfill. We feel with time, the consumer will make the right choice, and eventually that choice will become habit, along with educating the younger generation consumer. It is similar to how old newspapers were simply thrown away in the past, but are now for the most part, being recycled.
The amount of uses recycled material is converted to is numerous and in some cases, very surprising. Everything from natural and man made composites to coffins. It has been mentioned that with this type of program, the existing recycle facilities may be overwhelmed. The options in this case should not be status quo to this detrimental habit of pollution, but rather to upgrade present recycle centers or to seek new facilities and locations. It is our goal to assist this planet in maintaining a greener outlook at whatever the cost. Please help us with your donations and follow our crusade. We will have weekly updates on our webpage to track our progress and any resistance we may encounter. Your donations will be going toward a cleaner environment and with the cooperation of the big corporations, an immediate change. A change that is long overdue. We must learn to recycle more and be conscience of the detrimental impact the existing habit has on our earth.
© 2008 Global Village International Environmental Network