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| Get Organized Now! |
Trash talk is everywhere these days, from the blogs to the news, but many of us still don’t give a lot of
thought to what we throw away. The fact is, nearly 75% of your household waste can be recycled,
composted, or reused.
Of course we all know about paper and glass recycling. But did you know that you can recycle your
aluminum foil? Staples and paper clips? Refrigerators and television sets? Even your old car? If you’re
not sure what to do with an item, don’t just toss it: contact your local recycling facility and ask if there’s
a way to recycle or reuse it.
Recycling aside, there’s another side to household waste that’s not often addressed. When the
garbage truck comes to your curb, you’re not just throwing away what’s in your trash bags, you’re
throwing away the bags themselves.
When you use traditional plastic garbage bags, you’re actually preserving your trash. Plastic is airtight,
and delays the process of decomposition. Plus, plastic never biodegrades. It can tear or separate into
miniscule, even microscopic pieces – and end up poisoning entire food chains – but it never breaks
down. Unless it has been incinerated, every piece of plastic ever manufactured is still in existence.
Consider the enormity of that fact, and you’ll never want to toss a piece of plastic again. It’s amazing
that we’re not up to our ears in the stuff already.
In the coming years, how you toss your trash will be nearly as important as what you toss. Bioreactor
landfills, while rare today, will (we hope) become a more popular alternative in future to standard
landfills, which are so anaerobic that nothing – even organic matter like vegetable peelings – breaks
down properly. Bioreactor landfills allow materials to break down: this process produces methane gas,
which is then captured and used to produce energy for the surrounding area.
By choosing biodegradable garbage bags, you’ll not only be preventing many pounds of plastic from
entering your local landfill, you’ll be making it easier for future generations to use the contents of the
landfill for energy production. Also, biodegradable garbage bags contain no petroleum by-products,
and so help reduce our reliance on oil: this makes them a viable choice even if your local landfill is not
currently a bioreactor facility.
You can find BioBag lawn bags, kitchen bags, and food waste bags (suitable for composting) at some
Whole Foods locations, or buy online at drugstore.com. EcoSafe EcoBio kitchen bags are also a great
choice.
You can reduce your plastic bag usage in other ways, too. Bring your own bags to the grocery store, or
opt for paper bags: they can be recycled at all facilities, and you can even fill them with extra
recyclables and leave them on the curb. A few areas have plastic bag recycling programs: here in Rhode
Island, we have the ReStore program, which collects plastic grocery bags from drop-off points at local
supermarkets. If your area doesn’t recycle plastic bags, opt not to use them at all.
Working together, we can create a healthier future for our children and our planet. So get your family
together and talk trash!
thought to what we throw away. The fact is, nearly 75% of your household waste can be recycled,
composted, or reused.
Of course we all know about paper and glass recycling. But did you know that you can recycle your
aluminum foil? Staples and paper clips? Refrigerators and television sets? Even your old car? If you’re
not sure what to do with an item, don’t just toss it: contact your local recycling facility and ask if there’s
a way to recycle or reuse it.
Recycling aside, there’s another side to household waste that’s not often addressed. When the
garbage truck comes to your curb, you’re not just throwing away what’s in your trash bags, you’re
throwing away the bags themselves.
When you use traditional plastic garbage bags, you’re actually preserving your trash. Plastic is airtight,
and delays the process of decomposition. Plus, plastic never biodegrades. It can tear or separate into
miniscule, even microscopic pieces – and end up poisoning entire food chains – but it never breaks
down. Unless it has been incinerated, every piece of plastic ever manufactured is still in existence.
Consider the enormity of that fact, and you’ll never want to toss a piece of plastic again. It’s amazing
that we’re not up to our ears in the stuff already.
In the coming years, how you toss your trash will be nearly as important as what you toss. Bioreactor
landfills, while rare today, will (we hope) become a more popular alternative in future to standard
landfills, which are so anaerobic that nothing – even organic matter like vegetable peelings – breaks
down properly. Bioreactor landfills allow materials to break down: this process produces methane gas,
which is then captured and used to produce energy for the surrounding area.
By choosing biodegradable garbage bags, you’ll not only be preventing many pounds of plastic from
entering your local landfill, you’ll be making it easier for future generations to use the contents of the
landfill for energy production. Also, biodegradable garbage bags contain no petroleum by-products,
and so help reduce our reliance on oil: this makes them a viable choice even if your local landfill is not
currently a bioreactor facility.
You can find BioBag lawn bags, kitchen bags, and food waste bags (suitable for composting) at some
Whole Foods locations, or buy online at drugstore.com. EcoSafe EcoBio kitchen bags are also a great
choice.
You can reduce your plastic bag usage in other ways, too. Bring your own bags to the grocery store, or
opt for paper bags: they can be recycled at all facilities, and you can even fill them with extra
recyclables and leave them on the curb. A few areas have plastic bag recycling programs: here in Rhode
Island, we have the ReStore program, which collects plastic grocery bags from drop-off points at local
supermarkets. If your area doesn’t recycle plastic bags, opt not to use them at all.
Working together, we can create a healthier future for our children and our planet. So get your family
together and talk trash!
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| Trash Talk |
