Did you know that over 330,000 tons of municipal and commercial materials are recycled sin NH every year? That figure doesn’t even include households. And that using these recycled materials instead of virgin materials to make new products saved more than 14 million gallons of gas or enough electricity for 17,000 NH homes for one year? These are some of the very interesting facts and figures that were shared with the audience at a presentation entitled “Recycling Makes Sen$e” held in New London recently with Mary Ann Remolador, Assistant Director of the Northeast Recycling Council and Don Maurer from NH DES Waste Management.
It cost each of us $86.22 in NH every year for waste disposal and NH towns pay $116MM each year for waste disposal, formerly known as trash. Trash is big business everywhere and no less in NH. There are 4000 employees in NH in trash and recycling and the average town recycles about 21% of its waste. Paper alone represents 35% of waste! Shredded aluminum cans fetch 93 cents per lb and shredded plastic bottles go for 17 cents per lb. Every individual in NH wastes 1 ton per year!
Besides having waste cost money, it ends up in landfills or being incinerated-neither options being very useful. And just as importantly, all that waste represents material and resources that are not being reused. The cost of recycling materials is less than using new materials for products.
There was much discussion about what kinds of plastics are recyclable. All plastics have been categorized with the familiar number in the triangle. In 1988, the Society of Plastics Industry (SPI) designed the symbol code we’re familiar with—a single digit ranging from 1 to 7 and surrounded by a triangle to allow consumers and recyclers to differentiate types of plastics while providing a code for manufacturers. The numbers are required by 39 U.S. states to be molded or imprinted on all eight-ounce to five-gallon containers.
The easiest plastics to recycle are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) and are assigned the number 1. Examples include soda and water bottles and medicine containers. PETE can become fiberfill for winter coats, sleeping bags and life jackets or bean bags, rope, car bumpers, tennis ball felt, combs, cassette tapes, sails for boats, furniture and other plastic bottles.
Number 2 is assigned to high-density polyethylene plastics, such as heavier containers that hold laundry detergents, milk, shampoo and motor oil. Plastics labeled with the number 2 are often recycled into toys, piping, plastic lumber and rope. Like plastic number 1, it is widely accepted at recycling centers.
Fewer recycling centers will accept Numbers 3-7 due to lower rates of recyclability. Number 3 is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), used in plastic pipes, shower curtains, medical tubing, and vinyl dashboards; number 4 is low-density polyethylene used in wrapping films and sandwich bags; number 5 is polypropylene, used in Tupperware. Number 6 goes on polystyrene (Styrofoam) items such as coffee cups, disposable cutlery, meat trays, and packing “peanuts”. It can be reprocessed into items such as cassette tapes and rigid foam insulation. Items made from combinations of plastics get number 7 or no number at all. These plastics are the most difficult to recycle.
In “single stream” plastic recycling, all plastics are gathered together and sorted elsewhere, but single stream commands less income for the town than separated plastics. A town, however, could have separated plastics to maximize income and then a “catch all” for 3s-7s.
Towns can make income from their recycle materials, whereas hauling trash away costs money. The state of NH has had a recycling goal of 40%. The current recycling rate is closer to 21% municipal and 33% for commercial.
So what does that mean for individual households? In my house, I have more recycle bins than I ever thought possible-one for cans, one for plastic, one for paper, etc. which is OK. At this point, I have a household game going, in which we try to recycle almost everything! It does “feel good” to have more in the recycle bins than in the trash barrel. The other type of recycling now engaged in has to do with reuse. A child’s bicycle, or a radio, or a computer that does not have a giga-byte of memory---all these things can be reused by somebody for whom they fill a current need. This certainly applies to clothing as well.
At the presentation, composting was also discussed. I’ll admit I haven’t warmed up fully to the maximum potential of this idea. We do compost our yard waste-that one’s easy. Correctly composting kitchen waste takes more thought and care. Green composting is the recycling of plant material, vegetables, peels, and so forth. Full composting adds meat scraps, milk, and egg material. (Actually, my dogs would take offense at not having first dibs on the meat scraps.) But all this is possible and good for us, good for the economy and good for the environment! It is not often that you can score on all these fronts.
Date published on web site:
06-30-2008
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