Hello Readers! Today’s post is quite positive because it’s about recycling! 🙂 Recycling has been around for a while, especially here in Rhode Island. I was actually surprised at just how much this state is doing when it comes to recycling. It was really uplifting to read, especially amongst the many negative things I’ve been reading when it comes to environmental problems in today’s world. Lets jump right on into it.
To start off, here’s some great background information on the benefits of recycling. You probably know by now from reading my posts that I believe that education is a good way of getting people to adopt sustainable practices. And there really are endless benefits to recycling. It prevents the materials from ending up in our environment (less water pollution!). Less energy is required to make new plastics because we’re reusing old ones, which means that there is less pollution being emitted for energy use and creation. In addition, having all recycling go into one bin means that trucks spend less time doing the recyclable collections, burning less oil and emitting less harmful fumes. Recycling paper helps us reduce the number of trees we’re cutting down. In addition, for every one job in landfill/incineration positions, there are five jobs in the recycling industry. That’s really positive for the economy. Lastly, at least in Rhode Island, recycling at our Materials Recycling Facility is free, while throwing away trash costs $32 per ton.
In our system currently, we mostly go through products that flow through a linear waste system. It goes from production to landfill and then sits there helping to cause environmental problems.
The world should be working towards a system that creates a cycle of products. We produce them, use them, then turn them into other things. This way, there isn’t any waste to fill up our environment, and we aren’t using more resources to make new products.
(photos from: http://www.cleanwateraction.org/programinitiative/rhode-island-campaign-producer-responsibility)
Rhode Island’s involvement in recycling has been in place for quite a long time. We were the first state to pass mandatory recycling legislation in 1986. That’s really exciting and a step in the right direction. I think every state should have recycling be mandatory because of all of its benefits. There is also currently a mandate that municipalities in Rhode Island have a 35% recycling rate by 2012. Nothing is really in place to make sure this happens, but the municipalities are trying to make sure it happens. They want to hit that goal, though at the beginning of this year, it was unclear about whether many municipalities would make it.
2012 was a pretty big year for recycling in Rhode Island. The Materials Recycling Facility in Johnston, which is operated by RIRRC, was recently redone so that it now is a single stream facility. This means that it can process all recyclable materials at once (paper doesn’t have to be separated from the bottles and cans). This is much more efficient and allows the system to process more recyclables. It can process 50 tons of recyclables per hour. All of the materials are processed together at first then separated out into their distinct materials in this “Bollegraaf Single Stream System.” This is a pretty cool new technology if you ask me. The product from this recycling system is then sent to companies that re-manufacture them into new products. This generates an income for the recycling system that is used for improvements. This money is also returned to the municipalities in Rhode Island. The amount of money they get back corresponds to how much that town recycles.
Recycle Together Rhode Island’s Video on how the new Materials Recycling Facility program works.
Recycle Together Rhode Island is the initiative that promotes this new recycling program. They are helping to educate the public about recycling and show just how easy it is now. They want residents to think about recycling in terms of the 4 E’s: Ease, Environment, Economy, and Each other. Now that all recyclables can be mixed together, it should be easier for residents. They can now recycle like they would normally dispose of trash, which means that they will hopefuly be more likely to do it. More plastics can now be recycled as well. The little number on the bottom doesn’t matter anymore–any plastic container less than 2 gallons is accepted. This group has a very interactive website to really educate the public about recycling initiatives which I’m glad for. To go along with this new recycling initiative in Rhode Island, residents were given smaller trash bins, and their existing bins were refitted for recycling. This is to encourage more recycling than throwing away. Hopefully we’ll be able to see results from this in the near future.
As you can see, recycling has really gained momentum recently in Rhode Island. It’s so great to see that all of this is happening, especially in light of the waste problems the state faces. I hope that maybe some of these initiatives will take hold in other states as well with lesser systems right now. Thanks for reading as always, and I’ll be back soon with information about other initiatives that are working to combat waste. 🙂
Loren
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Sources:
http://www.ecori.org/waste-issues/2012/9/6/recycling-profits-shared-across-rhode-island.html
http://www.recycletogetherri.org
http://www.rirrc.org/questions/recycling-program/
http://www.rirrc.org/about-us/services/materials-recycling-facility/
The Providence Environment 