Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
These 4 R’s are an important part of protecting our environment. You should first try to refuse any single use items. Followed by reducing the amount of single use items. You could also get creative and reuse them- Turn your plastic water bottle into a bird feeder or that plastic soda bottle into a hanging planter! Last but not least you may be able to recycle them, giving them a second life.
This month I got the opportunity to visit St. Lucie Counties Recycling Center located in Fort Pierce, FL. Valentina Rodriguez, the Solid Waste Marketing and Outreach Coordinator, provided me with a tour around the facility to learn how the recycling process works. After the tour, Valentina and Michael Butler, the Integrated Solid Waste Supervisor, presented me with information I should know when it comes to recycling in St. Lucie County. So here’s a quick glimpse of what I learned!
Did you know?
Recycling can help save space in landfills. By recycling appropriate material, individuals are preventing items from taking up space that would otherwise sit in a landfill. As population continues to grow, the need for waste disposal grows as well. The Earth is a closed system meaning that all of the materials we use end up somewhere once we are done with them. No longer used items take up space even if we aren’t using them. Some items can be given a second chance and an opportunity to become something new. But this only works if we choose to recycle what we can. The staff at the St. Lucie County Recycling Center provided me with this interesting statistic- “In the US, only 30% of cardboard produced is being recycled.”
In St. Lucie County, we 33% of our recycled materials is actually contamination. This means that a third of the items individuals are disposing via recycling, are not actually able to be recycled at our facilities. St. Lucie County has a single stream recycling system meaning that all recycled items go in the same bin. The biggest piece of advice I received on this tour was “to be considerate of people’s hands.” People are assisting the machinery in identifying items of contamination and items that are too big or small throughout the process. Being cautious of what people may be reaching for can help prevent injury.
Every lunch hour, staff cut plastic bags from their machinery. Plastic bags can continuously be spotted getting caught on the machinery, making it harder for the appropriate sorting and crushing from occurring. St. Lucie County has a tool to help you identify recyclables. On their website, you may search an item you are disposing off and they will tell you how to properly dispose of it.
If you want an opportunity to see and learn all this for yourself, the county hosts weekly tours of the recycling facility. You can sign up here Single Stream Recycling Guided Tours | St. Lucie County, FL. Also be on the lookout for an upcoming joint workshop in July with St. Lucie County UF/IFAS Extension and St. Lucie County Recycling to learn more about proper recycling techniques.
3
