Everyone knows the iconic green arrowed triangle. Next month we’re celebrating America Recycles Day on Nov 15 and we want to help and empower you on ways of becoming more aware of your plastic and waste consumption.
I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this but I only recently bought reusable produce bags and you know what, I absolutely love them. I can’t see myself ever going to the store again without them!
Here’s where I bought mine. TheEarthlingCo.com
Before covid, the grocery store would charge you for your plastic bag, I loved that that was happening, it really started to have an impact on people bringing their own bags in. And now, they don’t charge and everyone is using them! Eeks! When you bring your own bags, employees aren’t allowed to help you pack them and I feel it really encourages people not to bring their own. (I’m not complaining about the rules I just think there is a better way to handle this. If the employees are already wearing gloves, what difference does it make if they pack the bag or not?)
I get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I think about how many bags are going out in a day.
I’ve continued to bring my own reusable bags and I actually enjoy the slowing down process of the grocery store line. However, if I feel like I’m holding back the line too long I just put the groceries back in my cart and load my bags when I get to the car.
Recap, that’s the first R - Reduce.
Rethink and become mindful of what your actual usage and consumption is.
Reuse! My favorite R!
A passion that I’ve handed down to my kids is thrifting, going to garage sales, estate sales and flea markets! If you’ve ever been to my house it’s an artistically eclectic mix of new and vintage. Some of my fav’s are vintage glassware and lighting.
Another way to reuse and another one of my favorites is composting!
What’s an organic garden without the use of your own kitchen scrapes going back into the earth (or fed to the worm bin) to create ‘black gold’ or perfect soil!
I bought my collection bin from Gardeners.com, but you truly can use anything with a resealable lid, and believe me I’ve used old yogurt containers and whatever else was on hand.
Also, don’t forget to donate your unwanted items. Your trash is another persons treasure!
I think another word for reuse is repurpose! I’ve turned bookshelves into plant stands, broken mugs into plant vases, old spaghetti sauce jars for juicing, newspapers in the green beds, old pillows for dog beds, you name it, my family has repurposed it.
Recap - Reuse! Don’t jump into throwing it away. Ask yourself, can it be easily fixed or used somewhere else?
And finally, Recycle!
I hope by now you separate your trash in your kitchen refuse and recycle. Recycling is easier to do when there’s a designated canister nearby to collect your recyclables.
Helpful tip: Make sure the item you are putting in the container is clean!
The waste management company for Orange County is Solag Disposal and the nearest landfill is San Juan Capistrano. That facility is now owned by the County of Orange. OCLandFills.com is a great resource to use for finding out what happens to your waste, their greenwaste composting program, a downloadable recycling guide and so much more! They even give tours of the facility, but due to COVID it is closed for now. http://www.oclandfills.com/landfill/landfill_tours
OCRecycleGuide.com is another great resource to help you with bigger items. Tip: Places like Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, will take working appliances.
The big WHY!
Maybe you’re asking; why do we need to be mindful of the 3 R’s.
Well, I’m glad you asked! Not everyone is as passionate about trash, waste and the environment as I am, so here are 50 facts to get you thinking.
1. Nine-tenths of all solid waste in the United States does not get recycled.
2. Landfills are among the biggest contributors to soil pollution – roughly 80% of the items buried in landfills could be recycled.
3. Although 75% of America’s waste is recyclable, we only recycle around 30% of it.
4. A single recycled plastic bottle saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours. It also creates 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than would be created when making a new bottle.
5. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as it takes to burn it.
6. It only takes 5 recycled plastic bottles to make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.
7. Motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty and it can be recycled!
8. The U.S. recycling rate is around 34.5%. If we’re able to get the rate to 75%, the effect will be like removing 50 million passenger cars from U.S. roads.
9. Over 11 million tons of recyclable clothing, shoes, and textiles make their way into landfills each year.
10. The leading cities for recycling in the US are (#1) San Francisco, CA (#2) Boston, MA (#3) Chicago, IL (#4) Denver, CO and (#5) Portland, OR.
11. The leading countries for recycling rates are: (#1) Switzerland [52%] (#2) Australia [49.7%] (#3) Germany [48%] (#4) Netherlands [46%] and (#5) Norway [40%].
The United States comes in around 31.5%.
12. 9 out of 10 people said they would recycle if it were “easier”.
13. Studies indicate that women on average typically express more concern for the environment and are more likely to recycle than men.
14. The United States throws away $11.4 billion worth of recyclable containers and packaging every year.
15. In the United States, we throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour – about 42,000 per minute, or about 695 per second. 16. It takes 500 years for average sized plastic water bottles to fully decompose.
17. The amount of plastic film and wrap produced annually could shrink-wrap the state of Texas.
18. The energy it takes to make 1.5 million tons of plastic could power 250,000 homes.
19. There are 25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Of that, 269,000 tons float on the surface, while some four billion plastic microfibers per square kilometer litter the deep sea.
20. According to a study done by the University of Georgia, 18 billion pounds of plastic trash winds up in our oceans each year. To put that in perspective, it’s enough trash to cover every foot of coastline around the world with five full trash bags of plastic…compounding every year.
21. Plastics cause more than 80% of the negative effects on animals associated with ocean trash.
22. Over 100,000 marine animals die every year from plastic entanglement and ingestion.
23. Glass bottles take 4,000 years to decompose.
24. Glass, like aluminum, is infinitely recyclable – without any loss in purity or quality.
25. Glass bottles have been reduced in weight by approximately 40% over the past 30 years.
26. Recycled glass is substituted for up to 95% of raw materials.
27. An estimated 80% of all glass containers recovered for recycling are re-melted in furnaces and used to manufacture of new glass containers.
28. Glass container manufacturers hope to achieve 50 percent recycled content in the manufacture of new glass bottles. This achievement would save enough energy to power 21,978 homes for one year and while removing over 181 tons of waste from landfills monthly.
29. Americans use 65 billion aluminum soda cans each year.
30. In only three months, enough aluminum cans are thrown out in the United States to rebuild all of our commercial air fleets.
31. Aluminum cans make up less than 1% of waste in the United States because they are the #1 recycled item.
32. There is no limit to the number of times you can recycle an aluminum can.
33. After recycling, an aluminum can is usually repurposed within 60 days.
34. Recycling just two aluminum cans save the same amount of energy it takes to power a PC for a single workday.
35. You can make 20 new cans from recycled material using the same amount of energy that it takes to make 1 brand new can.
36. While the United States celebrates the holidays, Americans produce an additional 5 million tons of waste (four million of the 5 million tons consisting of wrapping paper and shopping bags).
37. The majority of the 4 million tons of junk mail that Americans receive annually ends up in landfills.
38. The energy used to create and distribute junk mail in the US for one day could heat 250,000 homes.
39. On average, Americans use 650 pounds of paper a year. Each.
40. U.S. businesses use around 21 million tons of paper every year.
41. The United States throws out the amount of office paper it would take to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles to New York City (2,794 miles).
42. Americans make nearly 400 billion photocopies a year, which comes out to 750,000 copies every minute.
43. The average office worker in the United States goes through roughly 500 disposable cups annually.
44. Making new paper from recycled materials uses less energy than producing paper from virgin tree products and leaves more trees to absorb excess carbon dioxide.
45. For every 1 ton of paper that’s produced, roughly 390 gallons of oil is used to make it.
46. 1 trillion pages of paper equal 8.5 million acres of trees. That is an area greater than the state of Maryland.
47. 2,000 pounds (or 1 ton) of recycled paper of helps to save over 350 gallons of oil, 17 trees, and a large portion of landfill space.
48. A single American consumes roughly two trees annually in paper products.
49. Of the 62 million newspapers printed daily in the United States, 44 million will be thrown away (roughly 500,000 trees).
50. If 1/10 of all discarded American newspapers were recycled annually, approximately 25 million trees would be saved.
I hope these landfill facts and recycling statistics made you think twice about your trash and consumption habits.
Recap - Recycle! Rethink your waste!
We’re all in this together, as friends, neighbors and community. If you need help just ask, if you see someone who needs help, ask if you can offer assistance!
Be good to one another and I’ll see you on the water!
~Vicki Patterson Stand Up To Trash Founder
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
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