Our ward took a little play-group to the dump today.
It was fascinating. I thought I would share.
First of all its not a dump its a Landfill, meaning they dig big craters in the earth and then fill it with layers of dirt and trash.
We learned a lot about recycling.
Did you know that bottle caps are not recyclable in our Riverton recycling.
The caps are a #7 plastic and our recycling company (Waste Management) only recycles #1 and #2 plastics.
If you leave the bottle caps on your plastic bottles and recycle them it turns them from a # 1 to a # 7 and the whole bottle ends up in the landfill.
(The #'s I am referencing are the number codes on the bottom of plastic items inside the recycle triangle.)
Also did you know that glass is not recyclable in our recycle cans.
The lady that gave us a tour said she recycles her glass bottles at the park just east of the zoo.
So she would make her kids collect a bin of glass bottles and when they did she would take her kids to the zoo.
Utah only recycles about 8% of its garbage which ranks us the 48th state just ahead of Idaho and Wyoming. So I now am a recycling tyrant.
Also they recycle old computer, paints and household chemicals.
They also make compost for your gardens.
They tour included a slideshow presentation and a tour of the Landfill. The big trucks and equipment they have there are really cool.
I would highly recommend it for an activity for Young Women, Scouts, etc.
So the major take-home lesson from the Landfill is that because we (Utahans) don't recycle enough we will fill the current area at the Landfill in 5 years instead of the 12 years they predicted. Please do your part and recycle.
I am afraid that the Landfill might end up in my neighborhood instead of a couple miles up the road.
3 comments:
Very interesting. We don't even have recycle bins where I live. It is too much of a hastle to try and figure out where to take it all. So everything goes in the trash here.
Hey, thanks for the info! I wasn't able to go to our Scout field trip (which everyone at scrapbooking laughed at me about, incidentally...) so I appreciate you passing this along!
VERY informative! We are serviced by the Salt Lake County, so I wonder if the recycling thing is the same with us (as in the bottles and their tops)-- cause I would totally separate them out. I love being to recycle, we could have them come every week and the other garbage come every other week and be fine (umm except for right now with all the grass clippings). I need to find out where to take all my cans now!
I love your cute blog background, by the way!
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