More Trash Talk

Our new blue recycling bin has a sticker on it, and we have read it! That sticker tells us NOT to try to recycle those nasty plastic bags. If we had read that sticker when we first got that bin, we would not have made the mistake of trying to recycle them. Now we know they clog the conveyors at the recycling  center. That sticker had a long list of things to place inside, and a list of things NOT to place inside. The problem is, it’s hard to remember all those dos and don’ts, written in both English and Spanish.

We have learned that food residue and moisture mess up the Single Stream recycling process being used by our environmental waste services. Dry cardboard is okay to place in the blue bin, but pizza boxes must NOT contain pizza crust! Pizza crust is one of the most common contaminants to derail the process. Please be sure that those boxes are free of food residue before placing them in the recycling bin. Also please rinse and dry other food containers before discarding in the blue bin.

Other items on that DO NOT list are styrofoam cups and those offending styrofoam take home boxes. Those environmentally offensive objects cannot be recycled and will remain in landfills for at least 500 years, and really have no good reason to exist, other than they are cheap. The cups, take home boxes and styrofoam peanuts used to cushion breakable contents of shipping cartons. That stuff should be disposed of in the green bins, and the contents of those green bins will wind up in a landfill.

So now we know: Cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, aluminum and tin, dry and free of food residue, belong in the blue bin.

Other garbage belongs in the green bins. From now on we will do our best to minimize our participation in the future destruction of our planet. Awareness is the first step. Think about all the landfills leaching out toxins into our ground soil and aquifers. There’s a trash island growing in the middle of the Pacific ocean. The greed and laziness of current generations are poisoning the soil and drinking water for future generations. Let’s make an effort to stop it!

Nancy Ghirla

Email: [email protected]