The Truth About Recycling

It is commendable to drop the right item in the Blue Bin with the hope that they are going to be recycled and probably our environment will be safe.

But the reality is that warehouses are packed full of recyclables because of the growing landfills in every state and the bad news is that the recyclables aren’t being recycled. Some analysts think that the increasing growth of our landfills was as a result of bad policies and over-dependence on recyclable exportation to China.

From environmental records, we have over 2,000 landfills across the states, and waste collection is growing. According to the data from U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we are generating about 4.4 pounds of trash every day and because of the anticipated population increase the future estimates are overwhelming 

What’s more?

Greenhouse gases are emitted from the landfills because of the vast organic materials that are available in our waste. Furthermore, Methane, which is more than 80 times potent than carbon dioxide is the dominant gas amount others that pollutes our environment from the landfills.

However, the questions remain… what can be done to solve this increasing trash problem?

First off, there is a need to understudy other countries

Germany and South Korea have achieved a lot in terms of managing their recyclables. While our total recycling rate is 34 percent, Germany has achieved 62 percent, and they have promulgated laws to encourage the high deposit of bottles. Additionally, they have a wide network of automated recycling machines.

On the other hand, South Korea has limited landscape and topographic constraints, but they have built enough infrastructure to improve and optimize their composting. China has stopped imported recyclables from us has gone a step further to tackle their waste disposal problems.

We need to promulgate laws to reduce the throw-it-away culture

The fact is, we have a trash bottleneck, and every hand must be on deck to ensure that we minimize the tendency of throwing everything away. Let's learn to be conservative, and if we must throw things into the Blue Bin, it must be the right items. Throwing prohibited items into the bin could cause equipment damage and workplace injuries at the landfills and recycling facilities. 

Back home, we should borrow a leaf from states like California because their waste generation rate is high, but the good news is that their recycling rate is even higher. Another example is San Francisco (a city in Northern California), that have implemented mandatory composting to help reduce organic matter at the landfills. Such efforts are commendable and should be adopted nationwide.

Let's develop a recyclable-closed loop economy

We could go back to the drawing board and restructure our waste disposal policies to ensure that almost nothing ends up at the landfill. Though it may seem impossible, it is achievable if the Government could focus on environmental sustainability efforts and the people are sensitized to understand the disadvantages of stockpiling the landfills.

At Starr Dumpsters, we have seen it all, and we want to proffer the solution by sensitizing our customers and the entire community on the need to be more conservative in addition to using a dumpster for all their massive waste disposal needs. We have all sizes of dumpsters ranging from 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30-yard dumpsters.