Conserve and Recycle for a Cleaner, Sustainable Planet
by Vicki Wolf, August 2005

In Accra, Ghana, West Africa, plastic bags clog drainage ditches causing floods in heavy rains. Garbage is strewn along the beaches and piles of trash are everywhere. Here, and in other large cities of developing countries, people have less and throw away less than people living in the United States, and yet trash is part of the landscape. No use throwing trash into garbage cans – it won’t get picked up. No money is available in Accra for expensive garbage trucks, personnel and land fills. No curbside recycling.

What would U.S. streets and neighborhoods look like if there were no system for neatly disposing of waste? While garbage is kept out of sight, landfills grow and multiply like a cancer across the country, natural resources are wasted and cities spend billions of dollars dealing with trash. Texans’ garbage alone can fill the old Astrodome in less than a month – 28 million tons of solid waste annually – at a cost of more than $1 billion for disposal.

Today, U.S. cities efficiently dispose of garbage, but how long will the trash remain out of sight if U.S. residents continue to consume and discard everything from grass clippings to computers at today’s rate? Will landfills replace forests as trees are cut down to provide all the paper that eventually gets thrown away? How much will it cost for garbage trucks to haul away all the trash as the price of fuel goes up?

Reduce pollution, save forests by recycling and using less paper
The production and disposal of paper are hazardous to the environment. The Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations participating in the 2002 Environmental Paper Summit confirm that the production of paper and pulp destroys forests and significantly contributes to pollution. In “A Common Vision for Transforming the Paper Industry: Striving for Environmental and Social Sustainability,” summit participants reported that “the pulp and paper industry is among the world’s largest generators of air and water pollutants, waste products and the gases that cause climate change. It is also one of the largest users of raw materials, including fresh water, energy and forest fibers.” They also noted that industrialized nations are home to 20 percent of the population and consume 87 percent of the world’s printing and writing papers.

In Houston, paper accounts for about 40 percent of solid waste, according to the Houston Regional Recycling and Conservation Guide . Most of the paper in North America is buried in landfills or burned in incinerators, which causes significant pollution, destroys forests and contributes to climate change.

Recycling paper can have a major impact on reducing the amount of resources used and pollution caused by paper production. Each ton of recycled paper saves:

• 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
• 7000 gallons of water
• 17 trees
• 4100 kilowatt-hours of electricity

Ways to recycle and use less paper
Recycling is just one way to save paper. Start using less paper:

• Copy on both sides of the paper
• Reduce documents to fit two pages onto one
• Use lighter weight paper – lighter weight paper requires less energy and fewer raw materials when it is manufactured
• Find alternatives to mail – cancel newspapers, newsletters and magazines you don’t read or can access online, and take your name off mailing lists to reduce junk mail
• Eliminate unnecessary subscriptions
• Make recycling easy – place recycling bins in high traffic areas, including in the office near copier and fax machines, and in the kitchen

Make sure the paper you use is “tree-free”
Use paper made from a high percentage of post-consumer waste (paper that is thrown away or recycled). It takes 60 percent less energy to manufacture paper from recycled stock than from virgin materials. Try hemp paper. The hemp plant produces it’s own natural pesticide and produces twice as much fiber per acre as pine. Cotton, kenaf (a cousin of cotton), bamboo and agri-pulp (agricultural waste combined with post-consumer waste to make paper) also are alternative earth-friendly sources for paper.

Make your office paper free
Alternatives to written correspondence and information storage include E-mail, Web pages, CD-ROMS.

Food and drink containers are forever
Many recycling advocates say there is no “away” – many products stay on the planet for a long time, decomposing slowly. This is especially true for plastic, glass, Styrofoam, aluminum and tin used every day to contain food, water and other drinks. Styrofoam used in cups, plates and to-go containers never decomposes. Plastic soda bottles take 450 years to decompose. For decomposition rates of other materials click here.

Using these materials to contain food and water is more a matter of convenience than necessity. To limit use of plastics, glass, Styrofoam and metals, begin to be more aware of what you buy and how it is packaged.

• Get a good water filter for your home rather than using bottled water. Have one bottle that you carry with you, and refill it as needed
• Buy reusable grocery bags and buy more fresh foods and foods in bulk using your own reusable containers
• Use cloth rather than paper napkin and towels
• Take your own plate or bowl, flatware and cup to potlucks instead of using paper or Styrofoam
• When you can’t use a container that can be re-used, use containers that can be recycled, and be sure to recycle them
• Take a reusable container to restaurants for carryout food

Keep the grass instead of hauling it off
About 30 percent of solid waste comes from yard trimmings. To reduce this impact on landfills and conserve water and fertilizer try the following tips:

Mow only as often as you need to keep your lawn in good shape – no lower than 2.5 inches; for some grasses, 3.5 inches is better. Leave grass clippings on the lawn after you mow to provide your lawn with natural (and free) source of nutrients, or compost the clippings for use in your garden.

Try growing gardens of herbs, flowers, vegetables and groundcover instead of grass. They attract beneficial insects and birds such as butterflies, humming birds, cardinals and other beautiful song birds. Gardens don’t require mowing and need less watering than lawns. When grown organically, they reduce use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Some cities offer mulching services if you take limbs, Christmas trees and other larger lawn trimmings to the site for mulching. The city processes the trimmings and offers free mulch to residents who want to pick it up.

Share, trade, reuse and recycle home and office items
To reduce the amount of stuff you discard, reduce the amount of stuff you buy. For example, share appliances, such as a steam carpet cleaner, circular saws and sewing machines with neighbors and friends.

Try buying used items instead of always buying new – you can save a lot of money and keep more things out of the dumpster. You can find great buys in pre-owned cars and furniture.

Give it away before you throw it away
Have a yard sale or donate unwanted items to nonprofit organizations such as Goodwill and Salvation Army.

When you upgrade your mobile phone, give your old phone to someone who can use it. A hospital in Dallas collects used mobile phones and gives them to victims of domestic violence to use in case of emergencies. You can give your mobile phones, pagers or PDAs to the charity of your choice through CollectiveGood Mobile Phone Recycling.

Be creative
Dan Phillips, Phoenix Commotion creator in Huntsville, Texas is having fun, providing employment and homeownership opportunities for low income people with his creative recycling ideas. Phillips builds houses out of discarded materials and is making it possible for people who have never been homeowners before to build and own their own homes. Could you be creative about re-using something you are about to throw away?

Awareness, creativity, changes in values and lifestyle are required to move from being a “throw away” society to one that begins to conserve, re-use and recycle. Making the transition now, rather than later, will help ensure a healthier planet and better quality of life for future generations.

For more information check out the links below:
The American Forest and Paper Association
The Green Press Initiative
Magazine Paper Project- on convincing publishers to use eco-paper.
Recycled Products Purchasing Cooperative - on increasing recycled paper nationwide.
Earth 911- provides access to drop-off locations for all your recycling needs by zip code.