ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS CALCULATIONS

I try to encourage more recycling participation throughout the County by promoting every-day recycling opportunities and by explaining different reasons why recycling is so important to us all. Here are some facts about the positive impact your efforts have on our environment right here in Rome and Floyd County.

The National Recycling Coalition, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed an Environmental Benefits Calculator that generates estimates of environmental benefits based on the number of tons of specified materials recycled in a particular geographic region. The calculations are based on per ton figures for energy use and emissions estimated in lifecycle analysis studies. The calculator estimates reductions in emissions from recycling by calculating the difference between the net emissions if the materials were landfilled and the net emissions if they were recycled. The recycling process activities include collection, transportation, processing and manufacturing, assuming recyclables replace virgin materials. Landfill activities include collection, transportation and landfill operation. The model on which the calculator is based was originally developed by Ed Boisson and Associates for the Northeast Recycling Council, with funding provided by the US.E.P.A., Region II.

A second calculator has been developed by the Untied State Environmental Protection Agency to determine how our recycling efforts affect Green House Gas emission as well as the energy savings of our recycling activities.

I have plugged the Recycling Center’s numbers for 2006 into each of these calculators and am encouraged by the results. Reduction in Energy use - 80,489 BTUs per year which is equivalent to:

§ 426 households’ annual energy consumption

§ 13,877 barrels of oil

§ 648,857 gallons of gasoline

§ Reduction equivalent in passenger cars -2,523 off the road per year

Reduced air emissions as a result of the Recycling Center’s tonnage shipped in 2006, which include carbon dioxide, methane gas, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides - 5,647 tons per year.

While these numbers are encouraging enough, we need to realize that the recycling that goes on here at the Recycling Center is not the only recycling being done in our community. We have several commercial businesses that specialize in paper and metal recycling, a paper mill that has a recycling division and numerous retail operations that have recycling infrastructures set up in their operations. Although I do not have those actual tonnages to plug into these calculators, I know that they will be many times greater than just our operation.

Surely these numbers will encourage all of you that are currently doing your part by recycling and maybe spur others to start doing their part as well. Visit www.romefloydrecycles.org for more information on all of the recycling opportunities available here in Rome and Floyd County.