Happy Holidays! It’s the most wonderful time of the year with decorations, celebrations and of course, cleanup! Industry experts estimate that the amount of trash produced in the United States increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day which equates to around one million extra tons of garbage per week. This year, take a few extra steps to reduce that amount!
America Recycles Day will be celebrated on Friday, November 15th! This day is a nationwide recognition of recycling in the United States. The National Recycling Coalition created America Recycles Day in 1997. Since then, a Presidential Proclamation has recognized the day in order to encourage recycling by all Americans.
Read more: Join in the Nationwide Celebration of America Recycles Day!
Like all good things, Summer must come to an end, and seeing as it is August, the end is near. Summer’s “goodbye” is the school year’s “hello!” Whether you like it or not, it’s time to start thinking about how to prepare for that first day back, and that means shopping for school supplies! Do you have your pens and pencils ready? How does your backpack fit? Are your notebooks clean and ready to be filled with new facts and interesting stories? As you ponder all of these questions and many more, add another: Do you want to keep the Earth in mind and pick sustainable school supplies this year?
Recycling used to be so simple, right? You placed your bottles with their caps on, soiled cans, greasy pizza boxes, and cardboard in your recycling bin and it was picked up curbside. In recent years, it has become much more complicated.
What happened?
From the late 1980s until January 2018, the United States and many other developed countries sold more than 40 percent of plastic, plastic, metal, wastepaper recyclables to China. However, in January 2018 China instituted new environmental controls which banned most imports of “loathsome foreign garbage” which included mixed paper and post-consumer plastics.
Plastics have become a part of everyday life and are found everywhere from computer parts to water bottles and sunglasses. Plastics provide some great benefits including being inexpensive to produce, lightweight and durable. Unfortunately, plastics can have a detrimental effect on our environment.
Plastics are separated out in 7 different categories depending on the types of materials the plastics are composed of. Here in Hudson County, Plastic Types 1 & 2 should be placed in your curbside recycling bin. Look for the “Recycle Triangle” which can normally be found on the bottom of plastic materials.
