Just picture what happens when you do not sort, the result is the same whether it is laundry or trash…a big mountainous pile.  Now picture this big mountainous pile at your local landfill, then multiply that wider to your state, then even wider to include the entire U.S.  This monstrous pile is made mostly of nonbiodegradable materials that will not breakdown and is a time capsule for our consumerism.  Everyday americans throw out enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks and the average american produces 100 garbage cans full of garbage every year or 1,000 pounds.  Every three months enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild every plane in every airline in America.  All this trash that is being thrown out is adding to the pile until it becomes a super villain.  A super villain with immortality that lives on in 35-year old newspaper that can still be read and organic waste that one-third to one-half is still intact after 20 years.  Who can save the day and defeat this villain, just look in the mirror–it’s you!

Yes, ordinary people have the secret weapon—recycling!

Why is recycling such a great weapon because it reduces the need for “virgin” resources extracted from forests and mines, it uses less energy, and reduces air and water pollution.  The proof that this weapon works is in the numbers, in 2003 alone New Hampshire saved a total of 1.7 trillion BTUs of energy that is enough to power 17,329 homes for one year.  The state also saved 404,889 trees by recycling 32,926 tons of mixed paper, newsprint, phone books, and office paper.

You are not alone; our team includes state and local municipalities who recognize the increasing importance of recycling.  Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) reported that an astounding 11,378 establishments are involved in recycling, or use of recycled materials among five states, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania.  Locally there is New Hampshire the Beautiful, Inc. (NHtB) a private non-profit charitable trust, founded in 1983 and supported by the soft drink, malt beverage, and grocery industries of New Hampshire offering municipal recycling grants and signs, anti-litter programs, and technical assistance to recycling programs, NHtB is a unique organization that represents a voluntarily-funded alternative to expensive legislation intended to achieve the same end results.  Municipal recycling grants helps purchase recycling equipment to further expand their recycling programs.  Recycling programs can keep as much as 35% of residential waste out of the landfill.

This battle between the villain and super hero is continuous and the final score is constantly being retailed.  Which side are you on; our weapon only becomes stronger when people unite together and participate in recycling programs.  The villain has henchmen in every state trying to spread propaganda but do not believe them.  Recycling is vital to our survival.  We are not only trying to save one state but an entire planet.

 ”Look frequently to the pails” – the slop pails, which held pig feed –”to see that nothing is thrown to the pigs which should have been in the grease-pot”–where fats were saved for cooking and soapmaking.  “Look to the grease-pot, and see that nothing is there which might have served to nourish your own family, or a poorer one.” (Strasser, p6)

This attitude of reuse everything is shown in clothing where men’s worn  pants were remade to provide a new pair for boys and objects that were no use to adults became play things for children.  This attitude changed with the invention of mass production.

Industrialization at the turn of the century improved the way things were produced while making the market in used goods obsolete as in paper making where wood pulp replaced rags and in fertilizer production where the byproducts of meat-packing plants replaced the market for scavenged bones.  Industrialization also  increased the scale of production along with the invention of packaged goods and advertising created more waste to be disposed of.  Our consumer culture was born.

The ideals of our consumer culture in the twentieth century is shown in how our relationship with trash has changed from being valued, scavenged, and reused to being the basis for new markets that depend on the disposal of old things to make way for new and better things.

This new consumer culture lead to problems in the early twentieth century with trash piling up, rising health concerns, and cities trying to find new solutions for disposing of all of it.  These concerns lead to the first sorting of trash in 1896, called primary separation.  Primary separation is depending on households to sort their own trash and is now called source separation.  Selling of refuse from what they collected became a source of revenue for the city. 

The method used sounds similar to today’s recycling programs.  “Three receptacles were required:  one for organic garbage, one for ash, and one for rubbish.  Cards were left at every house in the city, informing residents about the new program.  The mayor assigned forty policeman to call on every household and place of business to explain the system and in some cases, to enforce it with fines and even arrests of citizens who were unwilling to go to the trouble.” (Strasser, p128)  Later the police were withdrawn.  In 1902, about four-fifths of cities with more than 25,000 people required some separation of organic garbage or ashes so that these wastes could be recycled or reused and this practice lasted for the next two decades.  (Strasser, p129)  These programs were run by civic groups that also promoted municipal trash collection and delivery at reasonable cost.

Another method of sorting trash  in large cities was for contractors to hire immigrant workers to pick through trash and separate out marketable items.  Later this sorting was done on either side of a conveyor belt before the waste went into an incinerator.  Market prices for waste products determined how much was picked out.   This all changed with the belief that the most hygienic and efficient way to deal with trash was to burn it and it eliminated the need to separate rubbish, ashes, and organic garbage. 

The marketing for these different methods of disposal was key to the cities paying for the expense of new technology.  For incinerators they were touted to discharge no odor, fumes, or smoke and the ash was sold as fertilizer.  Then came the reduction process where grease was extracted and water removed from urban garbage and the result was sold as fertilizer also.  Also, in this time period engineers and chemists were searching for profitable ways to use byproducts and waste materials.   In all these processes the bottom line was to make money and the operating cost was usually higher than the output.  Incineration flourished from 1908 and 1930 when sanitary landfills came into fashion and did not require separation either.

After World War II when home garbage disposers gained popularity cities dropped regulations requiring citizens to separate their trash.  Separation did not come back until environmentalists reintroduced it during the 1970s.  The two main differences between then and now are the concern was with the environmental health of the city instead of the planet and the materials to be sorted were usually ashes and garbage instead of plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

“Sorting trash for recycling–which people used to do for money–has become a moral act, a symbol of care about the environment.” (Strasser, p293)

This change in attitude about recycling has come full circle and we realize that our waste still has value but in a different light and with a much broader goal, saving the planet.

Strasser, Susan.  Waste and Want; a Social History of Trash.  New York:  Holt and Company, LLC, 1999.

Well, they do not make it easy to find, there is not a link on their home page to recycling.  It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.  Even other universities, for instance the University of Rochester in  New York, that has a similar sustainability plan, has a link for recycling.

So where can you go to find out about recycling at UNH?  UNH does have a student organization called Sustainable YouNH, but again you will not see the word recycling to help link you to useful information about what UNH does and does not recycle.  So after hours, if you give up do not feel bad — you tried.  If you really want to find out information you can always e-mail the Sustainability Office or visit the student organization on Wednesday to ask questions — but there should be a better way.

If you have not given up yet, try the site map, at least recycling is listed there and takes you to the most unusual place, Waste Management at UNH website, is this logical to you-not me-remember we want to recycle not trash it!  This would detour most people, but luckily when you arrive there it is full of most of the information you were looking for.

What does this say about UNH’s recycling program, that it is not as important as other sustainability issues, like green building, food composting, and energy savings just to name a few.  If you thought it was hidden on-line try and find it in UNH’s new book on sustainability, “The Sustainable Learning Community” — I had to look in the index!

Do not give up, the recycling cans around campus can give us hope, and even if it is one time a year you will hear about Recyclemania, a competition between over 200 universities to see who can recycle the most.  UNH last year did place about 58 about other schools, and there is a huge article on its standing.

Recycling information once discovered is like a diamond in the rough and is aimed primarily at departments and faculty.   It gives information from the UNH Surplus department about recycling excess computers and televisions.  Why then when the student has electronics to get rid of he can not use the same channels so someone else can benefit.

My experience was trying where to recycle my used ink cartridges from my printer, it took some searching and calling but I found out the computer store in the Memorial Union Building (MUB) takes them, but only certain kinds.

UNH might not be discouraging recycling, but they do not make it easy to find out that do not currently have recycling for styrofoam, packing peanuts, alkaline batteries, CDs, and cell phones to name a few.  In my hit and miss searches I did find the page that listed and linked to outside resources to recycle these products.

Articles about recycling of nonbiodegradable products will never show up in the paper bragging about how much a year this university recycled and how much this equates to keeping out of the landfill.  Just to prove my point how low key recycling is last Spring they had a day to pick up garbage around campus, only two of us showed up, one from the sponsoring organization and me.

Recycling is now the ugly step sister and it needs to be transformed into a princess.  It needs to gain more clout, information needs to be more available to the student body, and the website needs to be more clear or have a link to a new website dedicated to the purpose.  I found on one university site how to write a proposal to start and get facility involved in recycling programs this could be used to expand UNH’s program and have to encourage more faculty and students to be involved.

 I have not seen any history of how the recycling program was started.  History is vital so you can find out where the past pit falls were when implementing or improving a recycling program.  Although, I found that in 2007 is when UNH installed outdoor recycling containers for mixed glass, plastic, and alumium. 

Keep trying to recycle no matter the obstacles, it is the right thing to do for our planet.

If the orphanage does not sound right for your textbook, then check out this website, for some unique ideas on how to use them to make great table legs, bed posts, wall paper, and gift wrap, and save them from ending up in a landfill.

If we are reducing our waste then shouldn’t the leviathans be blue for recycling instead of green for trash.  Most of what these giants eat is cardboard in the form of boxes and packaging that is recyclable.  Their diets also consists of furniture and electronics which can be donated to the less fortunate.  So lets starve our leviathans and make them extinct.  Below is some steps I think will help eliminate the leviathans for good, although it will not happen overnight and will take time and effort.

First step is to develop a plan of action that would reduce their population by half.  This plan encompasses educating the public, this includes both the student body and the community as a whole, what they should not be fed, for example cardboard and aluminum cans which are a food source that is as abundant as grass.

A plan of action is like a battle plan it needs to be well thought out and every position covered.  On one front the website should be to revitalized so that it contains all the recycling information  in one place or has links to other sources.  A second front entails educating a different kind of migrate, incoming students and their parents, about what and where to recycle before they arrive.  This is key to keeping cardboard and packing materials out of the leviathans.  If the battle plan is in place when they arrive and soldiers were deployed that could haul these materials away in a timely fashion and they would not set for days waiting to be disposed of.

Second step to further break the food chain is by setting up recycling for packing materials including foam, peanuts, and bubble wrap.  The University of Michigan has a program where it is collected on campus then picked up by waste management and recycled.  Another less convenient method is drop packing materials at UPS stores or other locations listed on the Earth911.com website for reuse.

Third step in reducing the leviathan’s numbers is to have an expanded program for household items and electronics.  These are most important to recycle because they do not easily break down and possibly could contain hazardous chemicals.  UNH does not currently handle recycling of furniture and other household items like lamps.  The University of Michigan could be a model for UNH.  They set up special “Take It or Leave It” areas outside the residence halls for the placement of furniture, carpets, and loft wood, to allow the local community to reuse these materials.  Two things I like about this approach is that it keeps these items out ot the mouth of the leviathans and it spurs community involvement.

What is left for the leviathans to eat, just food waste, which is compostable and once UNH expands how much we compost then the leviathans will surely have a quick death.

Keeping these migrates out permanently is an ongoing battle and takes a commitment from not only the university but the community at large, like an army waging war.  UHN has won some small battles but has not won the war.

Join the crusade and eradicate the leviathans for good!

Wait, there is an even more creative solution, form the mail into useful products and sell them to the general public.  This is what one person did and their company, Junk Mail Gems, creates bookmarks, wallets, paperweights, and jewelery.  We all could take a hint and not just toss the junk mail but recycle it into something useful and it becomes valuable and has a second life.

This is the same principle of public art that is made out of garbage and sold.  Of course, art is not really useful but it does become valuable and it is not ending up in a landfill somewhere.

So how do you recycle these toxic discs, you send them to a CD and DVD specific recycling centers, like the CD Recycling Center, which separate the metals and plastics.  The plastics come in two forms, first the plastic that is in the actual disc is melted and reused and second the plastic in the jewel cases that is not only melted down but can be reused in the auto or construction industries.

When I was working, if you needed to add or revise data on a  CD or DVD, you just threw away the old one and burned a new one.  At the low cost we rationalized we were only throwing away a 10 cent disc.  Little did I know that they take a long time to break down and were environmentally harmful.  Think how many discs we could have kept out of the landfills, this number globally is probably twice as many as the paper cups thrown away.

Recycle your discs so you or your neighbor will not have negative health related side effects from drinking or breathing toxic metals!

We have created our toxic world through industrialization and now we as humans are paying the price through poorer health, undiagnosed side effects, and a generation with learning disabilities.

Why have we not awaken to the fact that you can not put untested chemicals in consumer products and then pay for the effects afterward, it should be the other way around, test the chemicals first before they are put into our products.

My dorm has coffee night and has encouraged bring your own mug and as an extra incentive you are entered into a raffle for an end of the semester prize.  The hall no longer has to buy hundreds of styrofoam cups that just end up in the trash.  Also UNH dining halls encourage you to get a travel mug and refill it instead of using a paper or styrofoam cup.  Although I have seen people when buying coffee at the MUB use paper cups, I know these might be compostable but why use it if there is a better choice out there.

He makes sure you know that this will save you money, everyone’s goals who pays astronomical prices at a coffee house, especially if you drink coffee everyday.  Not only is the saving monetary but environmental too.  So why not switch, its easy!