Landfills and recycling

I wanted to emphasize and reiterate on the previous posting from my good friend Shannon, aka "Tom O'Bedlam", which had mentioned of the county landfills and how they could be cleaned up. There are still many people in this country that don't recycle and haven't even given it one thought. Some of this thinking, on their parts, could be changed if they became aware of the benefits to recycling, though, I'm sure not everyone will jump on-board the train, at least not immediately.

I'm going to list a few ideas that I've been debating over that I feel could reduce the "mountains" of trash, create jobs, help alternative energy programs, offer community service alternatives, and provide a means for cheap, prison labor. If a revamping of our policies and a plan, which I'm going to outline, could be put into effect, I guarantee that a LOT of issues could be solved.

Ok, so picture this...within 15 miles from my home is a landfill. Every morning and afternoon, I pass by it while driving to and from work. It stinks! I can't help but notice and think about it every day. It's been there most of my life, maybe even longer, and has grown in size....it's massive.

Within the last couple of years, I've realized the types of things I've thrown away and what I've seen others throw away, which eventually ends up in this same landfill. I'm trying to change my habits, as, luckily enough for me, and most other people in the same area, I have a local recycling center. Some nearby cities are very lucky to have recycling as part of their trash service, which I'm sure they automatically pay extra for, and I feel that those people should utilize to its fullest, especially if they're paying for, but if they think about it, the "ease of use" and not having to pay for the transportation to "go" to their local recycling center easily pays for this convenience! This is my first point, most people have a way to recycle on a daily basis. The "places" are there, you just have to find them!

By recycling, this will reduce the amount of trash sent to the landfills by 45%, according to a 2006-2007 study by the Midwest Assistance Program Inc. Can you imagine, 45% of materials in the landfills are metals, paper, plastics and glass? In this same article, they hypothesize that the 1.9 million tons of recyclable materials over a year, just in Missouri alone, have the potential economic commodities value of approximately $208 million dollars! If you take that same number and multiply it by all 50 states, that total calculates to 95 billion tons of recyclables times $208 million equals, well,... A LOT OF MONEY!!! Do you understand the scale that I'm trying to convey, and that's just in one year? This money could create millions of jobs and fix a huge problem that the U.S. currently has and for some reason, what that could be, can't fix!

Now for my next point....Yes, this could generate a LOT of money and create a LOT of jobs, but a lot of the workers could be retrieved from the following resources: Community Service Programs, Prison Labor Programs, Welfare-to-work Programs, and the list goes on. This proposed recycling program could fix a huge, national problem, but at the same time generate LOTS of money. I can think of a MILLION places that this money could go, and I'm not talking about lining someone's pockets......Alternative energy research, Schools, Healthcare.....the list could go on and on!

My whole point is that we can fix a lot of our problems internally through the wise re-use of our own "trash"!


Just take a moment to think about it! After you think about it, do something about it....start recycling your own trash!