by Tom Ontis

Created on: April 20, 2008

Though I am too young to remember, am told that recycling in the US during both wars hit an extraordinary pace because it was considered patriotic. I have read a number of articles on the subject and everything was going toards the war effort, even the bacon grease from your morning breakfast.

Fast forward some 60 years to now. Our landfills are filling up to the brim. What we used to call dumps has all sorts of nasty things seeping into the ground, which will eventually seep into our water supply. Who knows what nasty things we can catch from contaminated water.

Many states, including mine, California requires cities and counties to set a certain goal by a certain year. Many of the biggest cities, including San Francisco are hitting their goals with great ease because they push it and provide the means to recycle. It is easy to place your newspapers in a different bin than your other trash from the household. My community of 48,000 meets its goal every year and is increasing the amount recycled every year. It works because people are finally waking up to the damage that can be caused by czar batteries tossed into the garbage cans. (I found a local hardware store that will take household batteries. I have recycled fluorescent tubes two times at OSH-No plug intended.) The only flaw in the law, as I see it: If a municipality cannot find a buyer to buy their recyclables at aa profit to the city, they can then send all the recyclables to the local landfill. We all lose under that plan.

My city's recycling program takes almost anything: Bottles, cans, milk cartons, cellophane wrappers from the Twinkies, name it, they probably take it. In fact in our household, we recycle so much that we sometimes do not have enough in the garbage bin to even take it out every week. Score one for the environment please.

With supplies of resources dwindling, well, not until long after I am gone, it makes sense to recycle. We are at 30+ years of Earth Day this week, though everyday should be Earth Day. Seems that everyone thinks green this week of the year. Major media outlets are finally picking up on the need to recycle this week and every week. Recycling works!

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