WHY ARE WE THROWING MONEY AWAY INTO THE LANDFILL? PART 6

The previous 5 articles in this series have been devoted to discussing the 30,000 or so tons of recyclables being disposed of each year in our landfill at Walker Mountain. At this point I think it is important to also look at the actual garbage that is being disposed of as well in order to try to get a more accurate picture of what we are actually throwing away.

According to the numbers in the Department of Community Affair’s Solid Waste Characterization Study, and these totals are pretty well substantiated by our own landfill numbers, the citizens in Rome and Floyd County throw away an average of 98,000 tons of “ garbage “ annually. Based on the last census figures of a population of 95,000 for both City and County, we are, on average, each throwing away 2,063 pounds of garbage per year, or 40 pounds per week per person. Now, remember that 36,000 tons of that garbage number are actually recyclables, so let’s see what a difference it would make on an individual basis if everyone kept their recyclables out of their garbage.

Instead of throwing away 40 pounds of garbage each week, by removing the recyclables first, this number would go down to 25 pounds of garbage each week. In other words, you would reduce your garbage by almost one half the amount. Let’s take that number a step further. If you have a household of 4, without recycling you would be throwing out 160 pounds of garbage per week. That is a lot of trash. Using the same formulas, by removing the recyclables, that same family of 4 would now only throw out 100 pounds of garbage a week. Quite a difference. Looking at the additional recyclables that would be generated by removing them from the garbage we would now have an additional 15 pounds of recyclables per week per person. The household of 4 would be recycling 60 pounds per week.

Based on 2005 numbers at the Recycling Center, we generated approximately 4,000 tons for the year. That works out almost 2 pounds per person per week (1.63). so the reality is that we are actually throwing away about 9 times more recyclables that we are capturing in our various recycling programs. That is puzzling and depressing to me and hopefully others as well. Puzzling because we have so many recycling opportunities offered in the City and County that obviously many people are not utilizing. Why? Depressing because we have been working so hard for 14 years to educate and inform our citizens about the importance and value of recycling and yet we still apparently have a long way to go. These numbers also make me really appreciate those people who are participating in our recycling programs. They are in the minority and are to be truly applauded for their efforts. Now let’s figure out how to get the others to start recycling.