| In most communities, reducing, reusing, and | | | | Boxes should be flattened to minimize the bulk |
| recycling waste has become a standard practice | | | | and making the pick-up more efficient. Paper and |
| to minimize the amount of garbage going into | | | | paper products are recycled into paper and paper |
| landfills. Sorting your waste will often depend on | | | | products. There is an increasing demand for |
| the recycling program in your community. Most | | | | recycled paper from consumers and companies. |
| have guidelines published for residents. There are | | | | The process is kinder to the environment, and |
| general guidelines, though. | | | | calls for fewer trees to be felled for paper. |
| Sorting garbage can reduce the impact on landfill | | | | Landfills are filling up across the continent. By |
| by about 75%. The first step is to separate the | | | | removing those items that can be recycled - |
| organic/food waste from all the other garbage. | | | | paper, cardboard, glass, wood, organic matter - |
| That means anything that has grown; vegetable | | | | we reduce the impact on landfill sites. We also |
| matter, meat, yard waste, tea bags, coffee | | | | minimize the impact of landfill seepage into the |
| grounds, eggshells and table scraps. These | | | | water table. Making our garbage as small as |
| materials are all compostable, and many | | | | possible reduces our imprint on the planet, and |
| communities use the compost for plants and | | | | extends the life and health of our landfills. |
| trees by roadsides and in town gardens, and | | | | When organic matter ends up in a landfill, the |
| sometimes sell the compost to home gardeners. | | | | normal breakdown into nutrients does not occur, |
| It is also possible to compost in your own | | | | because the fill is packed so tightly that air does |
| backyard. Compost bins are easy to construct, | | | | not circulate around the decaying matter. Rather |
| and once you have good compost up and running, | | | | than return nutrients to the earth, organic matter |
| it practically takes care of itself. | | | | under those conditions produces methane, which |
| The next category of garbage is the bottles, tin | | | | contributes to global warming. Landfills become |
| foil and cans. This might include juice and milk | | | | clogged with items that will never degrade, such |
| cartons, plastic bags, bubble wrap, rigid plastic | | | | as plastics. In the manufacturing process, |
| packaging. These items should be rinsed before | | | | petroleum, the primary element of plastics, is |
| sorting. They can all be diverted from landfill and | | | | altered so that it is not recognized by the bacteria |
| sent for recycling. Old tires and building materials | | | | and enzymes that break down matter to its |
| can also be diverted from landfill for recycling. | | | | reusable form. Removing these products from |
| Recycling equipment is used to help process these | | | | landfill and sending them off to be reused is a |
| materials. Some of the products being made from | | | | more efficient way of handling the resources that |
| these recyclables are floor tiles, road surfaces, | | | | are in limited supply. There are other products |
| sandals, swings, carpeting, plastic furniture and | | | | that may degrade naturally if exposed to sunlight, |
| many other imaginative and creative products. | | | | but that also is unlikely in a heavily packed landfill. |
| Paper and cardboard is the other broad category. | | | | Again, removing those items from that stream, |
| This would include cardboard boxes that food | | | | and sending them to new uses through recycling |
| such as cereal comes in. It would also include | | | | saves energy, resources and the health of the |
| newspapers, letters and envelopes, toilet paper | | | | planet. |
| rolls, and any other dry clean paper product. | | | | |