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reduce waste
Too Much Trash
According to BioCycle's most recent State of Garbage in America survey, in 2004, Coloradans generated 7.6 million tons of municipal solid waste, including paper, trash, old appliances, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, and other everyday items. With a state of 4.6 million residents, that's the equivalent of 1.7 tons per person. We recycled only 12.5 percent of that waste, and the remaining 87.4 percent of it was sent to landfills around the state.
Colorado lags behind the national average recycling rate of 30 percent, which is still significantly lower than what is needed to offset the 4.5 pounds of waste each of us generates daily, contributing to the 236 million tons of garbage we produce nationwide each year.
As our state's population grows and continues producing even greater amounts of waste, more energy is required for transporting and managing the waste. If we prevent waste to begin with by buying products that are made with less material, reusing things, wearing things out before discarding them, and reducing the amount of trash we discard, less energy is needed to extract, transport, process raw materials, and to manufacture products. These practices go a long way toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: EPA.
Chart title: 2003 Total U.S. Waste Generation.
Chart data: Paper: 35.2%, Yard Debris: 12.1%, Food Scraps: 11.7%, Plastics: 11.3%, Metals: 8.0%, Textiles: 7.4%,
Wood: 5.8%, Glass: 5.3%, Other: 3.4%.
Easy Action Tips
Minimize Junk Mail
If you reduce your junk mail, you will save trees, water, time, and even reduce the possibility of identity theft. The Direct Marketing Association offers step-by-step instructions on how to remove your name and address from mailing lists. To opt out of solicitations for credit and insurance offers, call 888-567-8688 (888-5-OPTOUT).
Precycle
Think before you buy. Do you need the item? Is it long-lasting and free of toxins? Can it be recycled locally (ideally at curbside)? Can you buy in bulk (e.g. juice and pour into a reusable container for lunch) rather than buying individual, non-reusable juice boxes? By conserving at the outset, you prevent waste from being made in the first place.
Bring Your Own Bag
Paper or plastic? There are pros and cons concerning both options.
Paper bags are made from trees, which are a renewable resource. When we reuse or recycle one ton of paper bags, 13-17 trees are spared. However, paper bags generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags. According to the Film and Bag Federation, plastic bags require 40 percent less energy to produce and they generate 80 percent less solid waste than paper bags. But, plastic bags are made from nonrenewable crude oil and natural gas resources.
A single plastic bag can take 1,000 years to decompose whereas a paper bag, under ideal conditions, can take about a month to decompose. However, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, current research demonstrates that paper in today's landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic. In fact, nothing completely degrades in modern landfills due to the lack of water, light, oxygen, and other important elements that are necessary for the degradation process to be completed.
The best choice is neither. Instead, decline a bag if you have purchased only a few items. Don't bag large items that can be carried separately. Reuse your paper or plastic bags at the store, or bring your own cloth or nylon bags. Most grocery stores will even give a small reward, such as a nickel-per-bag credit or a charity donation.
Choose Reusable Containers
Take a mug to the office and the coffee house to avoid using disposable cups. Some companies even offer customers a small discount for using a reusable mug. Starbucks offers a $.10 discount. In 2004, Starbucks customers used commuter mugs 15.1 million times and prevented 655,000 pounds of paper waste.
Repair Items
Sometimes this is difficult, especially when it is cheaper to buy new then repair an item. This is not always the case, however, and with a little research you might be surprised. Investing in high-quality items, even if more expensive to begin with, is often the better economical and environmental choice over the life of the item.
Compost
Yard trimmings and food scraps make up about 20 percent of what Denver residents send to the landfill every year. You can reduce waste by purchasing a mulch attachment for your lawn mower, or by starting a compost pile. Contact Denver Recycles for tips on learning to compost.
Recycle
Denver Recycles now has single stream recycling, so you don't even have to separate your recyclables. If you are a Denver resident, sign up online for the free service.
If you live in a townhome or apartment and cannot participate in Denver's residential recycling program, there are still ways you can recycle. Store the most easily recycled items such as newspapers, glass, cardboard, aluminum and plastic bottles in large, covered plastic tubs in your garage, or on your patio or balcony.
King Soopers will accept aluminum cans, cardboard and newspapers. Also, keep an eye out the white Waste Management single-stream dumpster bins in various locations around the city such as stores, alleys, churches, and schools. These bins accept the same materials as Denver Recycles.
Buy Recycled
Purchasing products made from recycled materials reduces the amount of virgin natural resources that we need to consume. Less energy is needed to extract, transport and process raw materials, fewer fossil fuels are burned, and less carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. Buying recycled paper products allows more trees to remain standing in the forest, where they can continue to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help regulate our climate.
Donate Reusable Items
A golden rule of waste reduction is to never throw away anything that can be used again. If you have an item you no longer want, but it is still in usable condition, donate it to a school or nonprofit charity, give it to a neighbor, sell it, recycle it, or try an online service like Freecycle.
