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WHY RECYCLE?
<rationale>
(the little why - to save resources, to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, and to conserve energy used to refine raw materials)
(the BIG why - to love life enough to save it) The following quotes are taken from Kellert, Stephen; Wilson, Edward O. 1993 The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press/Shearwater, Washington D.C., ISBN 1-55963-148-1
We need to transform the way we use the earth's endowment of land, minerals, water, air, wildlife, and fuels: an efficiency revolution which buys us some time. Beyond efficiency, we need another revolution that transforms our ideas of what it means to live decently and how little is actually necessary for a decent life: a sufficiency revolution...
(optional continuation)
The first revolution is mostly about technology and economics. The second revoloution is about morality and human purpose. The biophilia revolution is about the combination of reverence for life and purely rational calculation by which we will want to be both efficient and live sufficiently. It is about finding our rightful place on earth and in the community of life; it is about citizenship, duties, obligations, and celebration...
Q-I like the first two paragraphs from Wilson, but the third one doesn't seem as directly relevant to me (and the quotation goes on a bit long). S.H.
...Patriotism, the name we give to the love of one's country, must be redefined to include those things which contribute to the real health, beauty, and ecological stability of our home places and to exclude those which do not. Patriotism as biophilia requires that we decide to rejoin the idea of love of one's country to how well one uses the country. To destroy forests, soils, natural beauty, and wildlife in order to swell the gross national product, or to provide short'term and often spurious jobs, is not partiotism but greed. Real patriotism demands that we weave the competent, patient, and disciplined love of our land into our political life and our political institutions. The laws of ecology and those of thermodynamics, which mostly have to do with limits, must become the foundation for a new politics...
The type of informational facts we need to present is already available at the following website:
We might want to personalize our own website to contain the same types of information, only for Indiana. A couple of facts presented in the Richmond Sanitary District Recycling Program flyer:
Every day, an average American produces and throws away about 4 or 5 pounds of waste. In a city like Richmond, this means over 200,000 pounds (100 tons) of waste must be disposed of every day. Richmond's waste is currently being buried in the New Paris Pike Landfill, but this landfill will not last forever. To locate and construct a new landfill will take considerable time and money, so why not make the one we have last longer? We can and will, with the help of recycling!
Some Indiana trends and statistics can be found at the following website:
[[2]] In 2001, the United States generated more than 11 million tons of plastics in the MSW stream as containers and packaging, over 6 million tons as nondurable goods, and more than 8 million tons as durable goods.
The total amount of plastics in MSWâ€â€25.4 million tonsâ€â€represented 11.1 percent of total MSW generation in 2001.
The amount of plastics generation in MSW has increased from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 11.1 percent in 2001.
Plastics are a rapidly growing segment of the MSW stream. The largest category of plastics are found in containers and packaging (e.g., soft drink bottles, lids, shampoo bottles), but they also are found in durable (e.g., appliances, furniture) and nondurable goods (e.g., diapers, trash bags, cups and utensils, medical devices).
Plastics also are found in automobiles, but recycling of these materials is counted separately from the MSW recycling rate.
While overall recovery of plastics for recycling is relatively smallâ€â€1.4 million tons, or 5.6 percent of plastics generation in 1999â€â€recovery of some plastic containers has reached higher levels. PET soft drink bottles were recovered at a rate of 40 percent in 1999. Recovery of HDPE milk and water bottles was estimated at about 32 percent in 1999. Significant recovery of plastics from lead-acid battery casings and from some other containers also was reported in 1999.
In 2001, the United States generated nearly 2 million tons of aluminum as containers and packaging, and manufacturers used approximately 1.2 million tons of aluminum to make durable and nondurable goods.
The total amount of aluminum in the municipal solid waste (MSW) streamâ€â€3.2 million tonsâ€â€represented 1.4 percent of total MSW generation in 2001. In 1960, aluminum in MSW was only 0.4 percent of MSW generation (340,000 tons).
The largest source of aluminum in the MSW stream is aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) and other packaging containers.
Other sources of aluminum are found in durable and nondurable goods, such as appliances and automobile parts.
Manufacturers make 99 percent of all beer cans and 97 percent of all soft drink cans from aluminum. Aluminum beer and soft drink containers were recovered at a rate of 49 percent of generation (more than 0.7 million tons) in 2001, and 40 percent of all aluminum in containers and packaging was recovered for recycling in 2001.
In 2001, Americans discarded about 2.4 million tons of aluminum in MSW after recoveryâ€â€1.5 percent of total MSW discards.
Automobiles also contain aluminum, but this aluminum is generally not calculated in measures of MSW generation, recycling, or disposal. Benefits of Aluminum Recycling The average aluminum can contains 40 percent postconsumer recycled aluminum. Recovering aluminum for recycling saves money and dramatically reduces energy consumption. The aluminum can recycling process saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore, as well as natural resources, according to the Aluminum Association. Making a ton of aluminum cans from virgin ore, or bauxite, uses 229 BTUs of energy. In contrast, producing cans from recycled aluminum uses only 8 BTUs of energy per can.
An aluminum can that is recovered for recycling is back in the consumer stream in a short period of time. It takes about 6 weeks total to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle, and then remanufacture a beverage can. Most of the aluminum recovered from the waste stream is used to manufacture new cans, "closing the loop" for can production.
Another possible information source for Indiana recycling:
Some statistics on Ohio paper,cardboard, paper board recycling:
RECYCLING INFORMATION ON CAMPUS (WHAT TO RECYCLE)
WHAT TO RECYCLE
The following items can be recycled at Earlham: 1. Plastics #1 and #2 (look at bottom of container and the number inside the triangle to determine a #1 or #2) 2. Aluminum Cans 3. Glass 4. Office paper 5. Newspaper 6. Corrugated Cardboard 7. Lead/acid Batteries 8. scrap metal 9. old electronics/computers 10. Old Cell phones and ink cartridges
The following items can be recycled outside Earlham: 1. Plastics #3-#7? see below ... 2. Plastic shopping bags? collected in containers at Wal-mart ... see also below 3. Thin cardboard? recycling facilities in Oxford, Ohio accept thin cardboard mingled with all forms of paper ... see also below
The closest paperboard (non-corrugated cardboard) recycling facility is East Central Recycling, 701, East Centennial, Muncie, In (765) 282-1900 Jason King of East Central Recycling roughly estimated a Richmond pick-up charge of $120/bale. They would pay $20/ton for baled paperboard and would be willing to supply a box compactor that creates bales with minimal baling labor and no baling wire. Buck is the Sales Rep.
East Central Recycling also buys baled corrugated cardboard, but Earlham is committed to recycling this material as well as office paper, newspaper, and plastics 1 & 2 through Richmond Sanitary Recycling.
A local facility that accepts bales of clean plastics, sorted by numbers 1 through 7, is My Way Trading, located at 308 NW "F" Street, Richmond, In. They've been in business here in Richmond for about 4 years and have been doing this for about 17 years total in other locations such as New Paris,Ohio.
Bo Mattix of My Way Trading says we could bale our #3 - #7 plastics, as long as they're clean, by placing a layer of cardboard at the bottom of the type of container we presently collect cardboard in, and another layer of cardboard at the top of a plastics load, then smash it with the cardboard baler, strap it, wrap it with shrink wrap, and place it on a skid. They would also take bales composed entirely of plastic shopping bags. The following quoted procedure was supplied by Bo:
On the plastic scrap it can be of mixed materials in bales from a baler, as we spoke of earlier on pallets. Containers would need to be rinsed out. What you can not have is any containers that had any chemicals in them( no cross bones) or anything over a #1 Hazmat. No trash, like paper cups or fast food products. Now we do work with Recycling Center and get plastic scrap from them, so keep the program with them and we can call them to let them know its ok to do and to add it to a load we get from them. They are more capable of handling and storing this. Just let me know if this is something you want to do and we'll let them know. If any questions feel free to call. Thanks, Bo Mattix mywaytrading@myvine.com
Again, Earlham is committed to recycling plastics 1 & 2 through Richmond Sanitary Recycling.
HOW TO RECYCLE
(note: upon receiving the grant we will want to include descriptions of the recycling bins-color, shape, size, etc. familiarize the information below)
Office paper, newspaper, corrugated cardboard can be put directly in the appropriate bin and does not need to be shredded or otherwise cut. Corrugated cardboard should, however, be flattened if it is still intact in box-form. Glass bottles, aluminum cans and plastics #1 and #2 should be washed out if they are very dirty but otherwise can be placed directly in the appropriate bin as is.
There are a number of locations on campus to recycle the items listed in the previous section: 1. Residence Halls(dorms) On every floor of every residence hall you should find bins for: 1) office paper 2) co-mingled items (plastic #1 and #2, aluminum cans and glass bottles) On one floor of each residence hall (almost always on the first floor) there should be a bin for newspaper. Students only have the responsibility of placing the proper items in the appropriate bins. Work-study students in charge of Recycling will come to empty bins on the hall each week. Contact if your halls’ bin needs emptying. 2. College Houses In every college house there should be a big blue bin with a circle cut-out in the lid for both co-mingled items (see above) and office paper. College Houses should be recycling by bringing their bin out to the street for regular city pick-up as arranged by their AD. Contact: 3. Academic/Administrative Buildings On each floor of academic/administrative buildings you should find the following recycling bins: 1) Tall, Blue, closed-top, co-mingled bin (for plastics #1 and #2, aluminum cans and glass bottles) 2) Small, open-top red bin: office paper The current placement of these is sporadic. At the very least, most department offices have a red bin located near the copy machine. Blue co-mingled bins tend to be located in the hall for greater access to students and professors/administrators/staff. 4. Runyan Center (student center) Runyan Center has the following bins for recycling: 1) Tall Blue bin for Newspaper only 2) Tall Blue bin for Magazines only 3) Tall Blue bin for office paper 4) Tall Blue bin for Co-mingled items (for plastics #1 and #2, aluminum cans and glass bottles) 5. Outdoors Currently there are no outdoor receptacles for recycling. 6. At Certain Events 7. Maintenance The following items can be brought to Maintenance (located across from the side entrance to Hoerner and behind the Wellness center): 1) scrap metal-location? 2) corrugated cardboard- a dumpster is located between the back of maintenance and the big yellow equipment shed. 3) old electronics/computers-location? 4) lead/acid batteries-location? 5) ink cartridges/cell phone batteries-location?
WHERE TO RECYCLE
Newspaper bins are in the lobbies of all dormitory buildings Look for blue recycling bins (for glass, plastics 1 & 2 ONLY, office paper, aluminum cans, steel cans) on each floor of Earlham dormitories and in academic buildings
DROP-OFF RECYCLING INFORMATION IN THE RICHMOND AREA
This is a great resource from the Wayne County soil and water conservation district. In it they include a complete page of drop-off recycling facilities and information about curbside recycling in Richmond/Wayne County.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RECYCLING
1. What happens when trash is put in recycling bins (or some other way to address contamination)? 2. Can I recycle all types of cardboard at Earlham? 3. Maybe the same sort of question about plastics??
COMPOSTING AT EARLHAM
WHO SHOULD I CONTACT IF MY COMPOST IS NOT BEING PICKED UP? Contact: Dan Horowitz (horowda@earlham.edu)
WHERE CAN I COMPOST:
1. In the dining hall: Next to the trash bins where trays are also brought, there is a separate can for compostable items.
2. All college houses have one five gallon compost bucket.
3. Clear Creek Food Co-op: Inside the co-op there is a bucket for waste generated from daily lunches, as well as a large trash can outside of the co-op, on the Barrett side.
WHAT CAN I COMPOST: 1. All food except meat and dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.)
WHERE DOES THE COMPOST GO and HOW DOES IT GET THERE? All compost generated at Earlham goes out to Miller Farm. Mill Farm is a college-owned, student-run farm located on Abington pike. For more info go to http://www.millerfarm.org Two to three student workers are hired each semester on a work-study basis to transport the compost out to the farm. Bikes are used to carry the compost out on a regular basis depending on pick-up location. The compost is then used on gardens maintained by the residents of miller farm throughout the growing season.
WHY DOES EARLHAM COMPOST?
We compost to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and to benefit the student-run agriculture program based at Miller Farm. Food waste that goes out to Miller Farm would otherwise go with the rest of trash to the Richmond landfill. By composting, over time, we significantly reduce the amount of waste we produce.
HOW IS THE COMPOST USED AT MILLER FARM?
Compost is brought from the dining hall and put in a pile where it begins to decompose. Successive loads of compost result in a mass of ‘organic matter’ which generates heat via the decomposition process. Soil microbes consume the nutrients available in leftover food and help to produce the high temperatures found in compost piles. The bacteria gradually eats up the waste and turns compost into a soil-like substance. Residents of Miller Farm use this soil-like substance after spring tillage to add organic matter to the soil, preparing it for plat growth. The compost is applied when necessary during the growing season to strengthen soil balance and prevent pest and disease spread. It is sometimes used again after fall harvest and before a winter cover crop is sown to build soil quality over the winter. For more information on compost go to: insert here.
CONTACTS
Director of Facilities: Head of Housekeeping: ERC convenor and committee members (ERC listserve): EEAC, EEP, Miller Farm:
MAINTENANCE BUILDING HOURS 8:00am -4:00pm M-F
