Fast Facts on Waste Generation

Source: RE3.org “The Facts” http://www.re3.org/facts.htm

Here are some facts about materials all of us use every day. As we approach Earth Day April 22^nd, think of ways you can reduce your consumption of these materials.

Aluminum

• North Carolinians throw away more than $74,072,000 in aluminum cans each year.
• Recycling an aluminum can saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin materials.

Glass

• North Carolinians throw away enough glass each year to fill up more than 11,800 tractor-trailers. If you put those tractor-trailers end -to –end, they’d stretch from Asheville to Greensboro.
• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from crushed, used glass.

Paper

• North Carolinians throw away more than $164,375,460 in mixed paper each year.
• Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
• One ton of paper made from recycled scrap paper saves 7,000 gallons of water.

Plastic

• Every week, North Carolinians throw away enough plastic bottles to line the Outer Banks 28 times.
• North Carolinians throw away more than $41,411,600 in plastic each year.
• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.

SOURCES: NC DWM and NC DEAO

FOR MORE INFO:

American Chemistry Council
Aluminium Association
Glass Packaging Institute
American Forest & Paper Association

My Recycling Victory

Kristen Aubut
January 14, 2011

Every now and then, during my weekly Target shopping trip, I take a few extra minutes to walk down the toy aisle. During these infrequent detours, I keep an eye out for those little red Clearance flags stuck to the edge of the shelves. I rarely buy toys (or any product) unless they are on sale; and it has to be at least 25 percent off, because, to me, any percentage less isn’t truly a sale.

Well, during this particular trip, to my delight, the shelves were covered in the little red flags. Almost all of the toys were either 30 percent or 50 percent off! I began looking for a toy that my two-year-old son might like. I found the Hasbro Tonka Chuck and Friends Power Playard Stunt Park for only $15! I tossed it in the cart.

As I walked to the check-out, I looked down at the 2’ x 3’ cardboard box containing my son’s new toy. I thought to myself, “When I open this up at home, I wonder how much of this packaging will actually be recyclable? I bet there will be a bunch of plastic twist ties and Styrofoam padding that I’ll have to throw in the trash.”

Once at home, with wide eyes and big smiles, my son and husband watched eagerly as I opened the box. They were interested in the toy inside, but I was interested in the packaging the toy came in. While they began setting up the Stunt Park, I began breaking down the packaging. From the box, I pulled out a few pieces of cardboard and a couple of small plastic bags that the toy’s hardware came in. Sticking through holes in each piece of cardboard were twist ties that had held the toy in place.

“Oh wonderful, I’m going to have to untwist and untape each of these little plastic ties so that I can put the cardboard in my recycling bin” I thought. But, then I looked closer. The little twist ties weren’t made of plastic. They were actually tightly-wound pieces of paper. This meant that once I pulled out the plastic bags, I could simply stomp on the whole box, insides and all, to crush it down for my recycling bin. No tedious work to remove each little plastic twist tie! I was also surprised to see that there was no Styrofoam inside the box. The only materials the manufacturer used were cardboard, paper, tape and a couple of plastic bags.

Perhaps this experience seems trivial, but for this exhausted eco-conscious mother, being saved from untwisting dozens of plastic twist ties is an exciting victory!

Thank you Hasbro for making it easier for me to recycle your packaging!

Doctor’s Order to Drink More Water Leads to Creation of a Beautiful Fence

By Kristen Aubut

Photos by Susan Conrad

With his new lease on life, Karl Conrad of Little Egg Harbor, N.J., has made a beautiful mark on waste reduction. Mr. Conrad, 70, decided to do something with the new vitality he gained after receiving his double-lung transplant in March 2008. With his doctor’s orders to drink more water to further improve his health, Mr. Conrad began drinking bottled carbonated water. He recognized the large amount of waste he was generating with his new carbonated water habit, so he began collecting the bottles. After six months, he had collected 646 plastic bottles. With his creative knack and his desire to divert these bottles from the landfill, Mr. Conrad made these bottles into a beautiful fence that sits in his yard in Ocean County, N.J. With 26 8-ounce bottles, 620 20-ounce bottles, 440 bolts and washers, eight wooden posts and 188 feet of wood, Mr. Conrad finished building his fence in August.

“I think the fence Grandpa made is pretty, and it helps everyone in the family, especially my dogs and my baby cousins – none of them can get out. Also, I think it is cool that Grandpa made a difference with our environment!” said Mr. Conrad’s granddaughter Emily, age eight.

As his daughter Susan Conrad explains, “He is always thinking about what he can do or how to make something out of things he already has.”

Mr. Conrad’s plastic bottle fence is a great example of how things can be reused. The three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are written in this order for a reason. First, we need to reduce how much we consume in the first place. Then, like Mr. Conrad, we need to find other uses for the things we already have. Finally, we need to recycle the materials that are accepted in our communities.

What other uses can you find for the items you use every day?

SURVEY RESULTS: Can you really educate an audience about an issue? – Part 2

The graph below shows the knowledge change over time for plastic bottles. Prior to Aug. 2009, 60 percent of respondents thought plastic bottles were banned. From August on, the percentage of people that knew plastic bottles were banned jumped to 85 percent.

We conducted a similar survey at the 2009 State Fair. Of the 947 surveyed, 55 percent were female and 29 percent were male. Respondents were broken down by ZIP code. The list of items on the survey included six items that were banned from landfills (including the 2011 computer ban) and six items that were not.

Some unique results were:
- For all respondents, the six most selected were the items on the banned list.
-The most selected item was used motor oil (87 percent) followed by tires and plastic bottles.
- Thirty percent of each age group thought Styrofoam was banned.
- Charlotte had, on average, the fewest number of positive responses for the list of banned items.
- The Fayetteville area had a small number of positive responses for aluminum cans (67 percent).
-The Triad had the most consistent responses. Between 80-90 percent from this area thought cans, bottles, oil and tires were banned.

SURVEY RESULTS: Can you really educate an audience about an issue? - Part 1

On March 23, 2009, N.C. DPPEA launched an online survey asking North Carolinians what items they believed were banned from landfill disposal in our state. This survey allowed us to track changes in knowledge about the landfill bans over time. We (along with our local government partners) conducted tons of outreach events, spoke to multiple media agencies and distributed lots of information packets during August and September of that year.

As of Feb. 12, 2010, 662 people had taken the survey. Fifty-two percent of the respondents were female and 45 percent were male (three percent did not give a gender). Most respondents (34 percent) are aged 50-64, where only nine percent were under the age of 24.

The survey asked respondents to indicate what items they believed were banned from landfill disposal in North Carolina by checking them off of a list. The list included nine items that were banned from landfills (as of Oct.1, 2009), two items that are banned in 2011 and seven items that are not banned from disposal in landfills.

Banned from Landfills (2009)	Banned from Landfills (2011)	NOT Banned from Landfills
Aluminum cans	Televisions	Cardboard
Antifreeze	Computers (desktops and laptops)	Styrofoam
Appliances		Glass bottles
Lead-acid batteries		Newspaper
Oil filters		Ink cartridges
Oyster shells		Phone books
Plastic bottles		Cell phones
Used oil
Wooden pallets

Eighty-six percent of all respondents indicated that oil filters were banned from landfill disposal, followed by plastic bottles (82 percent) and wooden pallets (81 percent). This is not surprising, as these three items were added to the state’s banned list on Oct. 1, 2009 and there was heavy internal and external publicizing, including on the Web page that linked to the survey for citizens to take.

The three items with the fewest positive responses were newspaper (23 percent), phone books (24 percent) and Styrofoam (27 percent). Oyster shells had the fewest positive responses out of the actual banned list (51 percent) while cell phones had the highest amount of positive responses from the not banned list (also 51 percent). More people selected oil filters from being banned from landfills than did oil, which has been banned for years.

Tapped - Part 2 in My Movie Trilogy

A couple of weeks ago I saw the movie Tapped at N.C. State’s enviro-movie series. It was good. It covered almost every topic surrounding plastic water bottle usage. Just to mention a few:

Container issues -
- Plastic bottles are made from petroleum and oil refineries can be very harmful to a local community.
- Harmful BPA plastic is found in hard water cooler containers
- Floating oceanic garbage patches are full of plastic like that found in the North Atlantic Gyre
- Bottle bill states and their high recycling rates were mentioned. However, only six of the 11 bottle bill states include water bottles in their legislation.
- In response to this issue, some places are removing water from vending machines. I’m not sure if this is the correct message we want to send regarding our public health.

Water issues -
- Recent droughts required citizens to conserve water, but water bottling companies had no such restrictions. You’ll see local N.C. elected officials and environmental groups discussing this topic.
- Tap water is tested daily; however, bottled water is a self-regulated industry that doesn’t have to publicly release its water testing results.
- Marketing for bottled water makes tap water seem unsafe or impure.
- The FDA does not oversee any bottled water plants that do not include interstate commerce laws.
- Only half of a person’s job at the FDA oversees this industry.
- It’s all about who controls the water. Our laws need to reflect the greater good.

My take-away – drink water from the tap, if you can. Bring a reusable container with you, if you can. Drink from a plastic bottle (if you must) and recycle it, if you can. This brings up the issue of convenience – Please carry your water bottle to a recycling bin. It might be more difficult than throwing it away, but it is very important!

One last thing – I am looking for a collapsible cup or jug that will fit in my purse. Kind-of like a fold-up cloth bag (i.e., Chico bag). Know of anything?

Look for my write-up of “No Impact Man” soon.

Carolina Recycling Association Conference Overview

Was the CRA conference in March beneficial to me? Yes, it was.

In the session titled “Understanding and using the climate change link” with Thornell Cheeks and Ken Mitchell I learned:

-EPA can regulate greenhouse gases via the Clean Air Act. It focuses mostly on vehicle emissions.
-36% of emissions come from cars and trucks, 37% come from stationary sources like boilers.
-A reporting mechanism now exists for greenhouse gas emissions that includes landfills (certain thresholds must be met).
-We need to think about materials management when making the climate change connection. We want closed loop materials management.
-42% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the production of goods and food.
- EPA resources include www.epa.gov/region4/recycle and www.epa.gov/osw/partnerships/wastewise/index.htm.

In the keynote presentation by Matt McKenna of Keep America Beautiful I learned:

-There are 32 N.C. KAB affiliates and one-third are recycling coordinators.
-KAB has staff from National Recycling Coalition in its D.C. office.
-KAB’s goals are to increase access to recycling, promote recycling participation and participate in global markets.
- National recycling stats - 74% have curbside, 59% have single stream, 92% have some sort of recycling program, 12% have recycling in public spaces.
-National recycling rate = 34%, national participation rate = 50%.
-KAB’s current projects include Curbside Value Partnership, America Recycles Day, Recycle Mania, Coke Bin Grants and Recycle and Win.
-KAB’s future projects include working with youth audiences, EPA metrics, State Recycling Organization partners, zero waste, incentives & PAYT, and producer responsibility.

In the general session titled “Plastics recycling in the Carolinas” I found out that:

-PLA bottles are a problem for the recycling industry.
-Plastic bottle caps are polypropylene and the market for them is coming around. If you have old equipment you might request the caps remain off for OSHA reasons but not because there isn’t a market for the material.
-The PP caps are being turned into plastic paint buckets for companies like BEHR.
-The new “PlantBottle” from Coke is not compostable, it’s recyclable. It is PET. A normal PET bottle is made of polyethylene terephthalate. The PlantBottle is replacing the ethylene part with ethanol (an environmentally friendly alcohol).
-A PET bottle is 30% ethylene and 70% other stuff. So this new bottle will be up to 30% environmentally friendly.
-The PlantBottle can be recycled with all other bottles.
-Learn more here.