By Matt Weafer
The green movement permeates our society so thickly that the average consumer has bent their focus from buying the newest trendy item to curbing their carbon footprint.
Reduce, reuse, recycle has been the moniker of environmentalists for years. And regardless of the newest environmentally-friendly car or energy-saving appliance, recycling remains one the most beneficial activities for an eco-conscious lifestyle.
But Owensboro residents are limited.
The recycling center now located at the Public Works Building on W. 5th St. only accepts newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans, steel cans, clear plastic and opaque, colorless plastic.
What about the other five types of plastic? Or glass? Or even computer products, fluorescent lights and hazardous wastes?
Unfortunately, Downy Ward, manager of the Owensboro Sanitation Department, said, currently, there is not a market in the area for glass and other recyclables. And hauling the material would not only put out a significant amount of particulate matter from the trucks but would also be fiscally irresponsible as the city’s trucks cost $4 to $5 per mile.
The recycling industry as a whole has taken a hit along with the rest of the economy.
“Everybody wants to do the right thing,” Ward said. “People’s hearts are in the right place . . . (but) the bottom has dropped out of the market.”
Owensboro sells its recyclables to local recycling distributor Resource Recycling.
“They dictate the amounts and quantities of what we recycle based on the industry that will accept it,” Ward said.
Glass and the other types of plastic are “tremendously hard to recycle,” Ward said. And there are no industries nearby to which Owensboro can sell its post-consumer product; therefore Resource Recycling does not accept those items.
And the industry is struggling so much that Resource Recycling has suspended payment on newspaper and cardboard, so the Sanitation Department collects those at a loss.
The largest buyer of recyclable paper product is China, Ward said. And along with the rest of the global economy, China’s production of recycled paper products has either slowed or stopped, which means Resource Recycling cannot sell the recyclable newspaper and cardboard.
In the meantime, Resource Recycling is stock-piling paper waste until it can find a buyer, Ward said.
“We’ve tried to talk to local paper companies like Scott Paper Co. about purchasing recycled paper,” Ward said. But the city can’t produce enough product at the purity level the companies request in order to create a viable relationship.
With the economic slump, businesses and industries trim excess costs and in many cases, industries can purchase virgin resources significantly cheaper than recycled.
Regardless of the troubled market, the Sanitation Department is still accepting the same six items, including agricultural waste such as leaves and grass clippings at the Sports Center.
Home Depot offers recycling drop-off for compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). GreenWorks Recycling, located at 101 E. 9th St. recycles e-scrap such as old computers, cell phones, game consoles and other technological hardware.
Ward said that he’s waiting to hear from the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex about purchasing recycled, glass cullet to use in refilling culverts and other applications. The Sanitation Department would then begin accepting glass.
For the other recyclable products, the solution, Ward said, is to increase demand for recycled material.
“If people say, I want to do what’s right and pay that extra cost, then there’s a market and a factory that can sustain itself,” Ward said.
While the motto is reduce, reuse, recycle, there’s another unspoken step, buy recycled products to maintain the demand.
As the recycling industry continues to grow, more options will become available to Owensboro, but in the meantime, Ward said, “The best thing you can do is try to reduce the amount of virgin product you consume,” and when you can, buy recycled products.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Leave your car in the parking garage
If you live in an apartment, you probably live somewhere in the center of town and it doesn't take you that long to travel to your daily destinations. So ride a bike, walk or take the bus.
Save gas and money and invest in a good bike for around $200 brand new. Or find one at a garage sale or pawn shop. Depending on your city and how far you travel, you can save hundreds of dollars a year, not to mention the weight you're cutting off your carbon footprint.
I used to drive 10 minutes to work every morning. It was a typical drive: half a dozen stop signs and just as many stop lights with stop-and-go traffic the entire way. One day, I decided to bike. I plugged in my iPod, filled up a reusable squeeze water bottle and pedaled away. It took 20 minutes to get to work and the ride was much more enjoyable. I've gone from filling up my car twice a month to once a month. And now I'm trying to ride more places rather than drive. I slap on a backpack for carting goods and I'm golden.
Bicycles are a perfect solution to getting into shape and saving money and the environment.
Save gas and money and invest in a good bike for around $200 brand new. Or find one at a garage sale or pawn shop. Depending on your city and how far you travel, you can save hundreds of dollars a year, not to mention the weight you're cutting off your carbon footprint.
I used to drive 10 minutes to work every morning. It was a typical drive: half a dozen stop signs and just as many stop lights with stop-and-go traffic the entire way. One day, I decided to bike. I plugged in my iPod, filled up a reusable squeeze water bottle and pedaled away. It took 20 minutes to get to work and the ride was much more enjoyable. I've gone from filling up my car twice a month to once a month. And now I'm trying to ride more places rather than drive. I slap on a backpack for carting goods and I'm golden.
Bicycles are a perfect solution to getting into shape and saving money and the environment.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Green Spring Cleaning
This spring when you’re pulling out the couch to attack the annual aggregation of dust bunnies, emptying out the garage and wiping down the shelves of your refrigerator, consider the environment.
Every year, we break out the Pine-Sol and the vacuum cleaner attachments and go to town for spring cleaning for a fresh start to the new life of the new year. Why not make that fresh start even better by transforming your home into an eco-conscious living space?
The trick to establishing a greener home that is both easy to maintain through the year and functional is to create an infrastructure that supports recycling and a lighter eco-footprint.
Organize a recycling center in your home
Recycling is a breeze with a designated home recycling center that contains bins to separate and store waste until you take them to the city’s recycling center.
Clear out a space in your home, such as a corner in the garage, a broom closet or even the trunk of your car to store recyclables.
Owensboro, Ky., only offers recycling for seven items at the recycling center: clear plastic, opaque non-colored plastic, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, steel cans and aluminum cans.
Some local retailers, including Wal-Mart, offer recycling for plastic grocery bags.
Make your trip to the recycling center an activity as regular as going to the groceries.
Avoid harmful cleaning products
Most household cleaning products contain harmful chemicals including carcinogens, endocrine disruptors (which can cause ADHD, infertility, challenged immune systems, miscarriages, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers) and neurotoxins (which affect brain activity, causing headaches and loss of intellect).
While many cleaning products tout “natural” and “organic” in their names, those terms are not clearly defined to mean safe for you or the environment. And manufacturers are not required to list every ingredient in the product.
Researching safe cleaning products can be overwhelming, time consuming and frustrating. So look for cleaning products that don’t contain the warning signal words “caution,” “warning,” “danger” or “poison.” These terms indicate that the product is harmful or fatal.
Instead of reading ingredient lists, look for cleaning products that say on the front “contains no . . .” volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Alkylphenolethoxylates (APEs), Formaldehyde, Organochlorines (OCs), Styrene or Phthalates.
Also, though this may be disappointing to many people who love the smell of fabric softener, look for fragrance-free products.
In 1986 the U. S. National Academy of Science identified the ingredients in many manufactured fragrances as carcinogens and neurotoxins that are the primary cause of disease in humans along with insecticides, heavy metals, solvents and food additives.
Start a compost pile
When you chop lettuce and peel onions while fixing dinner, don’t throw the waste in the trash.
Start a compost pile in your backyard — or side yard if you don’t have a back yard. Or consider starting a community compost bin if you live in an apartment.
The compost pile can be kept neat and is easy to manage if started properly. Discard waste into a small area on the ground contained by some two-by-fours or some chicken wire about two to three feet high.
Keep the pile damp but not soggy, and cover it with a thin layer of dirt.
The best compost contains 75 percent brown material (leaves, saw dust, dye-free paper towels and napkins) and 25 percent green material (vegetable and fruit scraps, grass clippings in small amounts, egg shells, tea bags, and coffee filters) with a thin layer of dirt on top. Toss a couple of earth worms in there to speed up the process.
Rotate the pile with a pitchfork or shovel every two weeks. The bottom layer of the pile is ready to use every few months.
Minimize utility consumption
While you power through the house with your vacuum cleaner and dust rag, look for any electronic appliances that sit unused for significant intervals and unplug them.
Virtually every electronic appliance draws phantom power even when turned off. DVD players, TVs, computers, radios and cell phone chargers when not in use still draw electricity.
Desktop computers are one of the biggest energy leaches in your home.
If your entertainment center plug-ins are stashed behind a shelf unit, consider plugging them into an easily accessible surge protector so you can turn it on and off when you go to sleep or leave for school or work.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and switch you incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents (CFLs). They have decreased in price significantly since they first hit the market and you will earn your money back quickly as they last longer and use less electricity.
And when you hit the bathroom and kitchen, screw an aerator onto your faucets. They decrease water consumption and are easy to attach. Showerhead aerators are available as well but may require a little more to install them.
Every year, we break out the Pine-Sol and the vacuum cleaner attachments and go to town for spring cleaning for a fresh start to the new life of the new year. Why not make that fresh start even better by transforming your home into an eco-conscious living space?
The trick to establishing a greener home that is both easy to maintain through the year and functional is to create an infrastructure that supports recycling and a lighter eco-footprint.
Organize a recycling center in your home
Recycling is a breeze with a designated home recycling center that contains bins to separate and store waste until you take them to the city’s recycling center.
Clear out a space in your home, such as a corner in the garage, a broom closet or even the trunk of your car to store recyclables.
Owensboro, Ky., only offers recycling for seven items at the recycling center: clear plastic, opaque non-colored plastic, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, steel cans and aluminum cans.
Some local retailers, including Wal-Mart, offer recycling for plastic grocery bags.
Make your trip to the recycling center an activity as regular as going to the groceries.
Avoid harmful cleaning products
Most household cleaning products contain harmful chemicals including carcinogens, endocrine disruptors (which can cause ADHD, infertility, challenged immune systems, miscarriages, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers) and neurotoxins (which affect brain activity, causing headaches and loss of intellect).
While many cleaning products tout “natural” and “organic” in their names, those terms are not clearly defined to mean safe for you or the environment. And manufacturers are not required to list every ingredient in the product.
Researching safe cleaning products can be overwhelming, time consuming and frustrating. So look for cleaning products that don’t contain the warning signal words “caution,” “warning,” “danger” or “poison.” These terms indicate that the product is harmful or fatal.
Instead of reading ingredient lists, look for cleaning products that say on the front “contains no . . .” volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Alkylphenolethoxylates (APEs), Formaldehyde, Organochlorines (OCs), Styrene or Phthalates.
Also, though this may be disappointing to many people who love the smell of fabric softener, look for fragrance-free products.
In 1986 the U. S. National Academy of Science identified the ingredients in many manufactured fragrances as carcinogens and neurotoxins that are the primary cause of disease in humans along with insecticides, heavy metals, solvents and food additives.
Start a compost pile
When you chop lettuce and peel onions while fixing dinner, don’t throw the waste in the trash.
Start a compost pile in your backyard — or side yard if you don’t have a back yard. Or consider starting a community compost bin if you live in an apartment.
The compost pile can be kept neat and is easy to manage if started properly. Discard waste into a small area on the ground contained by some two-by-fours or some chicken wire about two to three feet high.
Keep the pile damp but not soggy, and cover it with a thin layer of dirt.
The best compost contains 75 percent brown material (leaves, saw dust, dye-free paper towels and napkins) and 25 percent green material (vegetable and fruit scraps, grass clippings in small amounts, egg shells, tea bags, and coffee filters) with a thin layer of dirt on top. Toss a couple of earth worms in there to speed up the process.
Rotate the pile with a pitchfork or shovel every two weeks. The bottom layer of the pile is ready to use every few months.
Minimize utility consumption
While you power through the house with your vacuum cleaner and dust rag, look for any electronic appliances that sit unused for significant intervals and unplug them.
Virtually every electronic appliance draws phantom power even when turned off. DVD players, TVs, computers, radios and cell phone chargers when not in use still draw electricity.
Desktop computers are one of the biggest energy leaches in your home.
If your entertainment center plug-ins are stashed behind a shelf unit, consider plugging them into an easily accessible surge protector so you can turn it on and off when you go to sleep or leave for school or work.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and switch you incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents (CFLs). They have decreased in price significantly since they first hit the market and you will earn your money back quickly as they last longer and use less electricity.
And when you hit the bathroom and kitchen, screw an aerator onto your faucets. They decrease water consumption and are easy to attach. Showerhead aerators are available as well but may require a little more to install them.
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