I am still picking up trash when I walk.
I do **NOT** want my planet to be a trash pit.
And. It is something I can DO, every day, that makes a tangible (though microscopic) difference.
Every piece of plastic I send to the landfill is a piece of plastic that will NOT find its way into a sea turtle's gut in my lifetime........
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4 comments:
And hopefully your trash pickup is recycling whatever it can out of the stream of trash. Our local outfit claims that they recycle everything possible (except glass) out of the single stream of trash. That is very convenient for Lilies, where we don't have to separate any more. We still have to separate at home though, which I don't understand.
We still have to separate, too.
I do keep separate anything I think they are willing to recycle. But I'm not sure how dirty things can be and still be recycled. An aluminum can that's been run over enough times that it's totally flat, but also with dirt all over it (and presumably inside the creased/flattened metal)? Plastic bottles likewise?
(Not at all sure what the trade-offs are -- wash filthy plastic in potable water, to enable said plastic to be recycled????)
I have three bags with me when I walk. One for trash, one for recyclables, and one for things I may photograph or keep, like pens, or feathers, or small toys....
I recycle metals (if not filthy), and clean plastic bottles and cups. I may recycle paper, but again, it's often very dirty. I may put dirty paper in the compostables (we have three pick-ups). But sometimes the paper seems to have an odd consistency like it may have plastic in it (a lot of paper towels have plastic in them nowadays), so those are trash....... Our recycling won't take any kind of plastic lid...... Nor straws, nor plastic bags, nor styrofoam, nor the "cellophane" wrappers on cigarette boxes. Given how dirty a lot of what I pick up is, and how it doesn't fit into "appropriate recycling," most of what I pick up is trash. A noticeable amount of what I consider to be trash would not have been trash if recycled from the get-go rather than picked up from the ground, broken and filthy........
AFAIK, "dirty" items can be recycled. When I lived in Phoenix, the municipal channel would run a program (basically an infomercial) about the waste management and recycling program. They explained and showed examples of what was considered clean enough for recycling. Some examples of what was clean enough were soup cans with a small amount of product still in them (ie empty from use but unrinsed), plain (not plastic coated) paper plates that had been used, and soda bottles with a few drops of soda still in the bottom. Everything gets sorted at the recycling center and rinsed. Metal items are melted down, and at the temps it takes to melt aluminum, traces of food will burn off. I have not lived in Phoenix for over ten years, so they may have changed the requests, but that's how it was for over a decade that I lived there.
Thanks, CageyCottage! I wish we got that sort of info. I know which sorts of things they take and do not take (no styrofoam, for one thing), but I am not clear on the rules about dirt.
I should find out. Some of the stuff I pick up is seriously filthy. When an aluminum can is covered with dirt, and has been run over enough times that it's totally flat, I have to assume it's got dirt inside its crushed folds. Rinsing is never going to get the dirt that's been crushed into the folds of the can. But whether that sort of contamination means recycling plants don't want it, I do not know.
Someone who picks up a beach was telling me she didn't worry about cleaning stuff. But where I am, if it's been raining, stuff is dirty, and the dirt doesn't fall off when it gets dry, the way sand would.
You are correct that different places have different requirements. I should check with ours. I know they want things to be clean, but I don't know if their only concern is that they don't want food left on things (attracting vermin), or to what extent dirt is a consideration!
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