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Earth Day, thinking globally acting localy The American Forest and Paper Association reports that an additional 14 lbs of paper products were recycled for every person in the United States in 2006 compared to 2005. Now, the bad news… only 53.4% of recyclable paper is actually recycled in the United States. A much better recovery percentage than glass, plastic or tin cans, but obviously in need of some improvement. In the last few months, there have been a couple ‘educational’ shows about landfills on television. They do make me cringe as in several shots you see truckloads of materials being landfilled that are 70% cardboard! The landfills shown were in California, but surveys of Wisconsin Landfills have found that over 11% of what is going into our landfills is RECYCLABLE PAPER. Translation… 600,000 tons of landfill space are taken by recyclable paper each year in Wisconsin alone! Obviously we can do better than that, and that’s where you come in. Take a look at your home, workplace, church and/or school… Is all the paper that can be recycled, being recycled? Or do some folks still view it as an optional behavior with no benefit? Have recycling suggestions or requests gone unheeded? Perhaps its time to start thinking outside the box and that’s where loco may be of some help. I in no way, shape or form am suggesting folks get confrontational or belligerent. There are actually some much more constructive (and fun ) ways to handle such situations. Over the years I’ve had a few folks share some of their creative ideas to swing non-recycling heathens to enlightenment! For example, there was a gentleman who was constantly finding high grade office paper in a garbage receptable at work.. The culprit was well known throughout the office. Well our hero began taking pieces of paper from the garbage bin, making them into paper airplanes with the inscription “RECYCLE” on it. These would then be flown onto the offending person’s desk. The instigator of this public education effort reported that they learned quite a bit about aerodynamics and air currents within a building with force air heat during the process. Happily, the non-recycler was converted relatively quickly. In a similar situation, a young heroine rescued recyclable paper from the office garbage and returning it to the perp with the following plea on the back of one of the pages. “ Dear John (name has been altered to protect the guilty) Please don’t through me away into the deep dark landfill!! It wasn’t my fault that you accidently printed three copies of a report when you only needed one. HAVE MERCY! I’ve got lots of good fiber left in me yet. Why I can probably make it back through this office another time or two before I finally fill a vital need by becoming toilet paper!” While this second effort has to date only shown partial success, you still have to admire the thought and ingenuity of it! … Maybe this article will finish the job! The point is, creativity and persistence will usually win out. And such efforts WILL help us to increase our paper recovery. Less energy used, fewer trees needed and more landfill space saved… Sounds like a good Earth Day resolution to me! |
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©2004 Oneida County Solid Waste Department
PO Box 400
Rhinelander, WI 54501
PO Box 400
Rhinelander, WI 54501
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