The Green Generation

Recycling is infectious. When one person in a neighborhood starts recycling it usually catches on. One important way to change the policies Utah has towards recycling is to help the younger generation become more friendly to recycling.

This can be done by teaching your children to recycle at home, or supporting recycling programs at local schools. Cartridges for Kids (CFK) is a recycling company that pays schools and non-profit organizations for recycling. They are currently running a "Spring has Sprung" activity where for each item a child brings in to recycle the get to "plant" a paper flower on their classroom wall. This is fun for children because they not only get to decorate with bright flowers everywhere, but it also allows them to see how much of what they use can be recycled. This program helps the children to understand that they can make a difference when they recycle. To find out more about how to set up a recycling program at your local school visit the Green Choices Utah website.

Another great resource I found for helping children to get involved in recycling is a book called "Why Should I Recycle?" by Jen Green. This book it distributed by Scholastic Books and explains the fundamentals of recycling at the level of a child. In the back of the book, discussion questions are also listed for parents to talk with their children about recycling.

Also, just a reminder that Earth Day 2009 is coming up on April 22nd. This is a great time to start a new commitment to recycling. Visit EarthDayNetwork to find out more about the campaign for the 2009 Earth Day. It is good to recognize the importance of recycling on Earth Day, but the best thing that can be done is to carry the Earth Day values throughout the whole year.

Bottle Bills

Bottle bills require a minimum refundable deposit on all plastic and glass bottles that are purchased. Although Utah does not have any bottle bills at the moment they have been shown to be effective in other states such as Maine and California. These bills are effective because they shift the responsibility for packaging the bottle from the taxpayer to the producers and consumers (see figure 1). To find out more about how bottle bills work click here.

Figure 1

The video clip below is from CNN.com and explains one way of recycling plastic bottles.

CNN video

Reuse: One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

I came across a great site for finding the recycling programs that are available in your area. Visit local.com to find out what companies recycle which materials near you.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a waste management hierarchy that encourages us to reduce, reuse, recycle. It is important for us not to forget the reuse part of this hierarchy. There are many things around your house that you can reuse. Some ideas are: wash out and use butter tubs as Ziploc containers for left overs, the back of already used paper makes great scratch paper, use kiddie pool water for watering your plants, rinse out and use plastic water bottles over again, and many more...be creative! If you don't have or can't find a use for some old items try a swapping website. These let you trade the cds, books, movies, video games, etc. that you don't want anymore with other members who have materials that you are interested in. These can be really beneficial because not only are they giving you the tools to reuse instead of trash old possessions, but you can also find items that you actually want.

If swapping isn't for you, before you throw something in the trash try selling it on eBay or craigslist. You can make some money and help out the environment!

Hard Handouts to Easy Emails

The other day I was reading the BYU newspaper "The Daily Universe" and I ran across an interesting letter to the editor. The writer expressed their frustration with people always waving flyers in their face and shoving them into their hands. This seems like such a pointless promotion method when all the person does is throw away the flyer six feet later. This letter brings up an important point regarding recycling. Is there a better way to advertise without wasting so much paper?

Many schools are switching over to e-mail alerts as well as online grading instead of sending paper handouts home with the students. This switch is not only good for the environment, but is also much more cost effective for the schools. It could benefit more schools as well as other establishments, such as city governments, to look into switching to online information distribution.


Many programs such as emailbrain help the costumer design effective marketing materials that are distributed through email. This is not only a more environmental friendly way of advertising, but is also often more interactive and eye-catching because of the range of graphic options available.


Although many places have adopted this technique there are still more than enough flyers being passed out. If you find yourself with a handful of flyers you're not interested in, at least look for a paper recycling bin!

Curbside recycling

Spanish Fork, Utah is launching a curbside recycling program this June! While this program will cost those that sign up $6-7 per month, the Spanish Fork City website is quick to point out that not recycling also costs us. Since recycling is a program handled by city government it is important to contact your city leaders about instigating a recycling program in your city. Other cities in Utah that currently have a curbside recycling program are: Salt Lake City, South Jordan, Lindon, Saratoga Springs, Highland, American Fork, and Sandy.

Also, check out this site. Citizens of Davis County petitioned for curbside recycling and it was instigated last year!

Advocate for Recycling!

According to the Deseret News in 2008 Utah recycled just 2.7% of the 24 million tons of trash created! But here's the twist, 87% of Utahans participating in a survey conducted by The Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste said that they thought recycling was important. And 89% thought that their cities should have a recycling program. So why with all this support of recycling is Utah only re-using 2.7% of the trash? Because most communities do not make recycling programs easily available!
If we think that recycling is so important then lets tell someone about it. Advocate! Talk to your community leaders, to your neighbors, even to your family. Let people know that recycling is an important issue to you and that something needs to be done to make it accessible to you. According to the survey recycling is important to the majority of Utah residents, so if everyone speaks up how can you be ignored?

Q & A about Recycling in Utah

Here are some questions and answers that may help in understanding recycling. Much of this information was found at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website:

Q. What exactly is recycling?

A. Recycling is processing old, or previously used, materials that would have been thrown in the trash and making new products from them.

Q. What are the benefits of recycling?

A. Recycling conserves our resources while also reducing the need for more landfills and incinerators. It saves energy, supplies valuable materials to our industry, and prevents a lot of air and water pollution. Recycling also creates more jobs because of the programs that are needed!

Q. Is recycling the best thing that I can do to reduce waste?

A. No. The EPA has a solid waste management hierarchy (see figure 1) which says we need to reduce, reuse, recycle. The best thing that we can do is to reduce. The best way to manage waste is to never create it in the first place, or create as little of it as we can. Make sure you need what you buy and try to avoid excessive packaging. Reuse is part of reduce. Look for opportunities to reuse the containers that you have. Try rinsing out juice cartons and using them again! However, we can't reuse everything and that is where recycling comes in. Landfills or incineration should be used as little as possible.

Figure 1:

Q. If there is still landfill space, why should I recycle?

A. Eventually landfills will fill up, it's only a matter of time. Recycling not only prolongs the time we have until they are filled up, but it also generates valuable revenue for Utah and for the United States through selling recycled materials.

Q. What materials are appropriate to recycle?

A. The most commonly recycled materials are: plastic, paper, glass, aluminum, steel, batteries, motor oil, and tires. Find out here how to sort your household materials into these groups.

Q. What are some hazardous materials that I may have around the house and how should I dispose of them?

A. Products such as paints, cleaners, oils (especially motor oil), batteries, and pesticides are hazardous materials that most people have in their homes. These materials are referred to as Household Hazardous Waste (HHW). Do not under any circumstances pour these materials down the drain or on the ground and do not throw them in the trash. These materials cause severe damage to human health as well as our environment over time. Each county in Utah has a way to dispose of these materials with either a permanent collection facility or a special collection day. If your city does not have either of these options, there may be businesses which accept the materials for recycling or disposal. Please check with your community for more details on these programs.

Q. Why should I recycle materials that are biodegradable?

A. There are two ways that biodegradable substances can break down: aerobically (with oxygen) or anaerobically (without oxygen). Landfills are so tightly packed that the materials are not exposed to oxygen and therefore must go through anaerobic decomposition. No problem, right? Wrong. Because there is no exposure to oxygen, the materials break down differently and this causes the release of excess greenhouse gases. Anaerobic decomposition also takes much longer than aerobic. Researchers from the University of Arizona uncovered 50-year-old newspapers that were still readable as well as recognizable hot dogs, corncobs, and grapes. Yuck!

Q. How does recycling save energy?

A. processing raw materials is a long process and requires large amounts of energy. Recycling eliminates this need because the recycled materials have already been processed! In 2005 the United States was estimated to conserve the annual energy use of 9 million households just through recycling.

Q. Why don't more cities in Utah have recycling programs?

A. There is a lot of effort that goes into establishing a new city recycling program. According to Green Team Utah it takes a large amount of educational materials and funds to teach the public how to correctly use a new recycling program. And in this economy many cities are opting to use those funds towards other programs.

Q. How can I start or help support a recycling program?

A. Most cities have a recycling coordinator. Look in your phone book under "recycling coordinator" to contact them. Or contact your local department of sanitation.

Introduction to Recycling

How many times have you been drinking some bottled water and when you finish you just throw out the bottle, even though you know that it is a recycable material? But why do we just toss out what we could be recyling? Is it because there was not a recycling bin close by or because we don't think just one plastic bottle will make a difference or perhaps it's just because there is no policy saying you have to, so why do something we're not required to?

In a recently published book Utah ranked 42nd in recycling rates in America. We as the citizens of Utah need to do something about this. Recycling is an important part of preserving our environment. Here is some current information concerning recycling in Utah:

• Curbside recycling is not currently available in Utah except in a recently implemented program in Woods Cross. For the rest of us there are several private companies that do offer this service for a larger fee. If this program was brought to Utah it would cost each house hold approxiametly $5. People have been complaining that they are already paying too much to the government, so these programs have not been implemented.


• It is estimated that loggers in America cut down 2 million trees everyday, but we're throwing out about 42 million newspapers a day! This doesn't make sense. Why not re-use what we already have?


• Most of the laws and regulations that Utah has concerning the environment deal with clean air acts and regulation of waste plants, which are all good things. But, we need to now start expanding our focus on preserving the resources that we have here.

Look at that soda can you're drinking from. Does it say "5C refund OR ME CT" and many other states? Several states have implemented this state wide recycling program that that rewards consumers for recycling water, soda, or beer cans that are returned to a vendor. The consumer recieves 5 to 10 cents for every can that they turn in. This has been shown to be an effective method of recycling promotion in several states. Would it be beneficial to implement a similar program in Utah?

Recycling is part of the "going green" movement right now, but Utah is ranked in the bottom 10 states according to how much we recycle per year. We are behind the times. The purpose of this project is to understand why people do not recycle in Utah and then start removing the obstacles that are found. Please share your opinion throughout this blog. What do you think of current recycling conditions in Utah?