Nitty Gritty Recycling Stillwater Your Home Recycling System

Nitty Gritty Recycling Stillwater • Your Home Recycling System • Solid Waste Management Hierarchy • Recycling & Composting Resources Ilda T. Hershey OSU Coop. Ext. Service, Solid Waste Management Programs; Sustainable Stillwater; Oklahoma Recycling Association; Solid Waste Association of North America, Oklahoma Chapter

Your Home Recycling System Under the Kitchen Sink • One “comingled” bag for plastic, glass & metal containers • Rinse, drain and toss Pantry Closet Floor • One bag for chipboard (paperboard) • Break down and stuff

Your Home Recycling System Desk-side Paper Recycling Black=garbage; Blue=recycling

Your Home Recycling System

Your Home Recycling System Larger containers for bulky items like plastic Transfer full bags from garage to drop-off site

Your Home Recycling System Counter-top composting Backyard compost bin

Questions About Your Home Recycling System?

Is recycling the BEST thing we can do with our waste? . . .

Image: Fairfax County Solid Waste Management The Solid Waste Management Hierarchy • Recycling is not first on the hierarchy! • Set of plans to manage municipal solid waste • Adopted by many city, county, state governments • A means of achieving sustainability

Source Reduction or “Reduce” • Preferred method: Prevents generation of waste in the first place • Manufacturer: Decrease materials and energy used during manufacturing and distribution • Consumer: Purchase items in bulk, concentrated form, minimal packaging, use refill systems • Includes backyard composting of yard trimmings and food scraps

Reuse • Finding a second (or third, etc. ) use for a product to prolong its life • Appliances, books, clothing, household items, jars, bottles, etc. • Repairing items, selling them or donating them to charity • Using durable rather than disposable (i. e. reusable shopping bags) • Preferable to recycling because item does not need to be collected or reprocessed thus saving energy and preventing pollution

Recycling • The process of taking a product at the end of its useful life and using all or part of it to make another product • Requires collection, processing, remanufacturing and purchase • Includes municipal composting • Saves landfill space, energy and natural resources, reduces pollution, creates useful products and jobs • EPA estimates that 75% of our waste is recyclable

Waste Disposal – Last in the Hierarchy • Regulatory restrictions: High environmental and economic costs • Resource Recovery (AKA Waste-to-Energy): Waste is burned to produce energy; only ash is left to landfill • Incineration: Also reduces waste to ash but produces no energy • Landfilling: Capacity restrictions; NIMBY syndrome • Littering and illegal dumping

Recycling & Composting Resources • Stillwater Recycling Guide • Oklahoma Recycling Association (OKRA) • Solid Waste Management Resource Trunk • Composting & Don’t Bag It Brochures • Recycling Seminar, Tuesday, December 8 Sponsored by ODEQ, OKRA & OCES

Contact Ilda Hershey Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Solid Waste Management Programs OSU, 536 Ag Hall, Stillwater (405) 744 -9806 ilda. hershey@okstate. edu http: //agecon. okstate. edu/wastenew/ Sustainable Stillwater sustainablestillwater@hotmail. com www. sustainablestillwater. org