By Steve Davies, Healthy Planet Columnist
So, the other night I drove over to our local recycling center in the city where I live, to see what, if anything, has changed lately. The only difference I noticed was a large bin that’s there just for recycling glass, courtesy of a company called Ripple Glass, based out of Kansas City.
Several months ago, I was in a neighboring city that, it turns out, also has a bin for recycling glass with the same group. As I’ve mentioned before, our recycling center is supposed to be moving and when they do, it’s my understanding that they are looking to eventually take only cardboard. The reason for that I believe is financial.
After thinking about this for a while, I started to wonder is there a way to encourage cities to invest more in recycling. One idea that I had today is to create a class to educate the public and in turn, maybe help educate our local government on ways to work together. From there perhaps, we can work with businesses to use recycled materials in their products so we can all do what in my mind, is the right thing to do.
As I’m fond of saying and I know others are too, we only have one planet. There are some things each of us can do, that if we work together, can benefit everyone and the planet. Just tonight during my health and wellness class in the fitness center at our local community college, I pulled out at least half a dozen plastic bottles and a couple of aluminum cans from the one trashcan in the room to then put them in the recycling bin, which is just outside the door.
I’ve also mentioned before the number of trashcans I’ve seen in my town alone, that frequently have plastic bottles, aluminum drink cans and paper in them. After writing this article tonight, I’m planning to ask my bosses if we can put a recycling bin inside the fitness center.
Anyway, I think I’m going to go over to the continuing education program at that same community college to see if it is feasible to teach a class on recycling. Maybe I can even get the city to become part of this. Then businesses. Then who knows where we can take this. Like I just said, we only have one planet and as a parent, I want my kids and in fact, everyone’s kids to have a planet that is livable.