Pat yourselves on the back, New Albany residents. Through your collective efforts, New Albany recycled nearly 1.6 million pounds from the residential trash waste stream in 2012. This amount was an 11 percent increase from 2011, and better yet, a 14 percent increase after Rumpke distributed its new 95-gallon recycling carts to every household last year.
“We are committed to environmentally sustainable practices and we are glad the newer, larger carts were embraced by our residents,” says New Albany Public Service Director Mark Nemec. “New Albany served as a test community for Rumpke, and the new carts are working so well here that Rumpke has already distributed them in other central Ohio communities. Still, we can always strive to recycle more, and with everyone’s involvement, we will.”
Recycling not only keeps items out of our landfills, it has the potential to create energy and reduce our carbon footprint. Consider these numbers:
- Each person generates an average of 4.4 pounds of trash per day, or nearly a ton annually.
- One recycled aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for three hours or light a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours.
- One household recycling all of its paper, newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 850 pounds annually.
- One tree filters up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.
- If every American recycled just 10 percent of newsprint used in a year, it would save the equivalent of 25 million trees.
With your help, New Albany’s collective recycling efforts earned the “Smart Community” designation from the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, signifying at least 30 percent of the community’s solid waste was diverted from landfills. With your continued help, these numbers can increase even more. Encourage family members to recycle paper and cardboard products, plastic bottles and jugs, aluminum and steel cans, and glass bottles and jars instead of discarding them in the trash. Remember that your individual actions make a world of difference.
Yard waste collection is another method of recycling that diverts waste away from our landfills. Yard waste includes any natural material collected during the routine maintenance of lawns, gardens and landscaping – grass clippings, leaves, twigs, branches, shrubbery and plants. Collection of these items turns organic waste into usable products such as premium topsoil and mulch.
When disposing of yard waste, residents are asked to place branches into containers or cut and tie them into bundles no longer than 2 feet wide by 4 feet long. Yard waste containers, bags and bundles left for collection cannot weigh more than 50 pounds. Plastic bags, plastic pots, food waste, rocks and dirt are not acceptable for yard waste collection. These items should instead be placed with your regular trash for collection.
While on the topic of trash, discarded items from home remodeling or minor construction projects may be placed at the curb with other trash items so long as the amount does not greatly exceed the typical amount of trash generated on a weekly basis and so long as these items are placed in containers not exceeding 50 pounds. Bulk items such as appliances, carpet, furniture, mattresses and children’s play equipment will also typically be collected. Items such as refrigerators or air conditioners containing chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) must have the CFC removed from them by a licensed technician and this certification must be affixed to the appliance in order for them to be collected.
To ensure collection of trash, recycling and yard waste items, please make sure items are placed at the curb no later than 7 a.m. on collection day.
Scott McAfee is a contributing writer and public information officer for the city of New Albany. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
