Recycling is a positive force of change for many reasons but topping the list is the protection and conservation of our environment.
And with the island’s biggest celebration now in the books we checked in with I Recycle’s administrator Peggy Denney to see how the community pitched in.
“If you recycle a can … just one aluminum can … the amount of energy that is saved by recycling that can as opposed to having to take it out of the aluminum dump site from the earth … the energy that is saved can power a computer or TV for three or four hours,” Denney said.
She added that there’s savings in water and power with every can collected. And with plastics you’re diverting it from entering the landfill.
Denney says when it comes to plastics, it’s a little more challenging as it is not as easily recyclable as aluminum. Knowing this, Denny led the effort to recycle at the Liberation Day Parade.
“All in all, I think it went very well. You just reminded me that I do need to make sure that the trash sorted out in all the recycling bins get appropriately disposed of because I try to not have to deal with trash I just deal with the recyclables. We probably have three-quarters of 20 cubic yards of the wire roll filled with plastic bottles and somewhere between a third and a half-filled with aluminum cans,” Denney said.
The recyclables collected throughout the liberation day parade aren’t headed for the same destination. That’s why Denney says they sift through and separate the items so that all the cans can go to the I recycle program within the island’s public school system.
“We also separated out filled cans so I will take those to either a transfer station or a scrap metal facility and plastic aluminum foil trays that I can take to Pyramid and glass which I can take to the transfer station and then just over 200 of the wire mesh bins,” Denney said.
While about 200 bins littered the parade route, Denney knows not all the recyclables made it into a recycle bin and she is hopeful that at least 70 percent was collected.
“If they care and they realize or are conscious about what they are doing, then they separate them out. We also sorted through quite a bit of trash especially in the area where they had no bins,” Denney said.
According to Denney, efforts to collect the recyclables kept them busy until 8 p.m. last liberation day. She reminds the community that while for some individuals sorting trash can be rather disgusting, if the island’s mindset is changed to make recycling start at the home, our island’s environment will be better preserved for generations to come.
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