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Recycling helps the earth and our economy

Recycling helps the earth and economy by Susie Shields

Juliette, a local 2nd grader, recently completed her science project, “Recycling Helps the Earth.” For 24 days, she collected all the paper, plastic, glass and kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and egg shells) her family recycles every month in an effort to determine how much trash they were keeping out of the local landfill. The results were impressive: 49 pounds in less than a month.
The City of Oklahoma City provides curbside recycling to customers on its urban routes, but only 17 percent of customers take advantage of the service. Juliette, who also surveyed her neighbors to find out why they don’t recycle, discovered the number one reason cited is that recycling is too much trouble.
Setting up a simple system is key to recycling, and it can be as simple as sorting laundry into lights, darks and colors. At my house, we make recycling easier by keeping two trashcans side-by-side with one designated for trash and one for recycling bottles and cans. It is no more difficult to put items in the recycling bin. Of course, many recyclables need to be rinsed if they contain food or drink residue. We have a separate bin in the laundry room for our recyclable paper. We put our junk mail, catalogues and newspapers in it we are finished reading them. On collection day, we dump all of our paper into one recycling bin, putting the other bin filled with bottles and cans on top of it. This system prevents paper from blowing out of the bin as well as protects it from an occasional rain.
Most importantly, recycling provides a range of environmental and economic benefits to our communities that the alternatives, landfills and incineration, don’t provide. Manufacturing with recycled materials saves energy and water and produces less air and water pollution than manufacturing with virgin materials. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it takes 95 percent less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60 percent; recycled newspapers, 40 percent; recycled plastics, 70 percent; and recycled glass, 40 percent.
Recycling is also a multi-billion dollar industry with $14 billion in sales of recyclables alone. In Oklahoma, the recycling business provides 5,000 jobs and an annual payroll over $200 million.
Disposal options like landfilling extend the responsibility for, and the costs of, our waste to future generations. It also places responsibility on us to be wise stewards for the sake of our children.
Finally, one other thing citizens can do is help the City divert 80,000 tons of yard waste from landfills by composting leaves and other yard waste. Instead of bagging leaves, twigs and kitchen scraps (only vegetable and fruit scraps, as meats attract vermin!), put them in a backyard bin until they turn into compost. Stir it weekly and within six months, you’ll have a rich soil that you can spread on your garden.
After discovering her family can divert as much 49 pounds a month from the local landfill – that’s nearly 600 pounds a year, Juliette’s family decided to request an additional recycling bin from the City. You can do the same thing by calling 297-2833.

Shields is the president of the Oklahoma Recycling Association.

Email us
benjamin.davis@okc.gov

Recycling Links

City of Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Recycling Association
Oklahoma County Cooperative Extension- Search for "Composting"
Earth 911- Conservation Tips, Recycling, Composting