How Hard Can it Be?

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the tone of this entry. I might come off sounding a bit preachy and judgemental. But there is something that has been bothering me for quite a long time and I need to purge it from my brain.

Ready? Here it is......None of our parks in the park district have any recycling receptacles. There are garbage bins galore at every baseball, football, in-line hockey and soccer field. Your kid won't eat the crust from the PB&J you packed in the cooler? No problem, toss it in the garbage can. Did the collapsable camping chair you were lounging in collapse before you removed yourself? Got it covered! There's a garbage can for that, too. Used ice packs, holey, dirty socks, broken shoelaces: all have an appropriate receptacle at our parks. And thank goodness for that! Imagine how disgusting our athletic fields would be without them.

Nevertheless, I am continually disappointed each time I attend a youth sporting event and have to observe the trash bins overflowing with plastic water bottles, sports drink bottles and juice bags. By the end of the game, each garbage can is brimming with non-biodegradeable plastic and foil.  All of those items can be recycled! It takes an unknown number of years for those items to disintegrate in a landfill.

According to http://www.earth911.com/:

• Americans buy an estimated 29.8 billion plastic water bottles every year.
• Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.
• It is estimated that the production of plastics accounts for 4 percent of the energy consumption in the U.S.
• Less than 1 percent of all plastics is recycled. Therefore, almost all plastics are incinerated or end up in a landfill.
• Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours.
• Recycled plastic bottles can be made into products such as clothing, carpeting, detergent bottles and lumber for outdoor decking.
• Producing new plastic products from recycled materials uses two-thirds less energy than required to make products from raw (virgin) materials. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

One percent of our plastice water bottles are recycled. ONE percent. The other ninety-nine percent end up in landfills, incinerated (that's burned, people...releasing toxins into the air in the process) or washing onto coastlines of major oceans and lakes.

 Even if that part doesn't bother you, consider that it takes petroleum to make those plastic water bottles and petroleum is.........OIL. It's important for us to try to reduce our dependency on oil. We're addicted to it, remember? (George W. Bush said it!) The more dependent our country is on oil, the more dependent we are upon other countries. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!

I know that the majority of us in the suburbs would recycle if we could. All of my neighbors have recycling bins and faithfully place them by the curb every Thursday morning. My kids recycle in school and even our village has receptacles conveniently placed. People will do the right thing if it is easy. If the recycling bins were available at our parks, I know that people would utilize them.

Since I couldn't continue lugging all the bottles home myself to be thrown in my own bin, I happily contacted our park district. After speaking with the parks administrator, I began to see where the problem lies. According to him, they have considered providing recycling bins in the past. However, the word from some other districts already providing them, is that people are careless and don't distinguish between garbage and recyclables. In other words, residents throw their leftoever PB&J's into the recycling bin instead of the trash can. This "contaminates" (his word) the entire batch of recyclables and it must all be thrown out. The other problem is the time and expense it takes to sort through it.

Well. I can understand that. I can also understand that it takes a lazy, apathetic, inconsiderate human being to throw garbage in a clearly marked bright blue recycling container instead of the garbage can. Let's just say that it would be quite difficult to confuse the two.

Hmmmmm.....is THIS where my old banana peel goes??

I doubted that all park districts refused to provide recycling containers, so I did some research of my own. Guess what? The Chicago Park District has them, so does Woodridge Park District and even the Seattle Parks and Recreation uses them at select parks.
Needless to say, this "mission" of mine is not over...far from it. I am determined to get our park district to give us a chance. People are not always as indifferent and lax as you might think. With a little education and clear directions, maybe we can prove the park district wrong.

Maybe here? Oh no, I'm so confused!!