What a Waste?

Recycling -- It's Working

The Recycling Law, passed in 1990, got every community in Wisconsin started on recycling, and families, just like yours, joined in. Now, just about everyone recycles - 94 percent of the households in the state. Most people recycle because it's good for the environment, and they strongly support the Recycling Law.

Read on to find out more about recycling and how you can help reduce waste.

The Lucky 13
Tons of Trash
What Else Can We Do with Trash?
Where Does it all End Up?
So, What's the Problem?
What You Can Do
Cool Crafts from Trash
Look It Up in the Glossary

Wisconsin's recycling law has selected 13 lucky items to be recycled and saved from the landfills. These items are saved by people who put them at the roadside for collection or take them to recycling bins located around town. The lucky 13 are then turned into new products for us to use. Believe it or not, plastic bottles are even being made into park benches and cozy fleece jackets. These items become the unlucky 13 when people throw them away and they add to the mountains of waste that already fill up landfills.

Luckily, many people are recycling additional items like food scraps and mixed paper (junk mail, cereal boxes, etc.). If you're like the average person in Wisconsin, you're probably recycling or composting almost 2 pounds of stuff every day!

Don't throw away that pop can, car battery, or magazine. They can all be recycled as part of Wisconsin's Lucky 13 items listed below that are not allowed in our landfills. Each of these items can be made into new products for us to use instead of taking up space in a pile of junk somewhere. Let's not make these the unlucky 13:

Paper

office paper*

newspaper

magazines

corrugated cardboard

Containers

aluminum cans

steel (tin) cans

glass bottles and jars

plastic containers labeled #1 and #2 on the bottom

Other Materials

major appliances

waste tires

car batteries (lead-acid types)

yard wastes (try composting)

used motor oil

*This means "high grade printing and writing papers from offices."

Some communities have incinerators and have special recycling rules. Your community may recycle even more than what is listed here for Wisconsin. Check it out!

Tons of Trash

Feel good about recycling? Well, you should, but you're still throwing a lot stuff away. In 2000, the people in Wisconsin threw away 2.8 million tons of trash. That's 1,033 pounds per person or more than 2 3/4 pounds per person per day!

How much is that? Well, 2.8 million tons of trash is enough to pile a typical city street 4 feet deep, from curb to curb, for over 200 miles. That's the distance from Milwaukee to Rhinelander.

So, what are we still throwing away? Toothpaste tubes, TV sets, old shoes, broken toys, food scraps, packaging that's not recyclable, carpeting and drapes, outdated computers, furniture... Whew! The list is endless.

What Else Can We Do With Trash?

The best thing you can do is to try and not create any trash. Of course that's impossible. No matter how hard we try, we'll always have something to throw away. But, there are many ways to make less trash. Are you up for the challenge? Wisconsin's Recycling Law gives you a list of 7 steps you can take.

Where Does it all End Up?

Most of Wisconsin's trash ends up in the state's 39 or so licensed landfills (down from 1,000 landfills in 1988). A landfill is a place where trash is dumped, compacted, and covered with dirt to control blowing paper, odors, insects, and keep water out of the landfill.

Most of the licensed landfills in Wisconsin are sanitary landfills - this means they are designed, built and operated according to "state-of-the-art" standards to prevent pollution problems. These engineered or "approved" landfills are built only after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approves the site and the operating plan. These "approved" landfills are unlikely to contaminate groundwater and pose potential health hazards.

In addition to licensed, operating landfills, Wisconsin has over 4,000 closed landfills and old dump sites that must be monitored for potential pollution problems.

Unfortunately, trash is sometimes dumped along roadsides, in the backyards of larger properties or other illegal locations. Discarding trash in unsafe ways and in non-approved places can endanger the environment upon which we depend. This means each of us is responsible for what we throw away and the impact that this waste has on our environment.

So What's the Problem?

Over the last two decades, people have become more aware of environmental problems related to landfills, yet the amount of municipal solid waste generated in the United States is still too much. People believe that we are running out of space for landfills, when actually there are many sites to locate modern, sanitary landfills that will meet state and federal requirements. These new landfills are designed to be clean and to contain and collect leachate and methane gas that result from the decomposition of solid waste. But, there's a problem. Nobody wants a landfill in their neighborhood (called the Nimby phenomenon) and everyone hates to pay more for trash disposal. So, both the cost and people's feelings about landfills can prevent new ones from being built.

Is trash disposal the real problem, or is it something else? What we really need to do is keep a close eye on the amount of natural resources we use, throw away, or waste each day and each year. Together, we need to design ways to use natural resources in a way that is good for both the environment and for our wallet!

What You Can Do!

You can start by looking at what is thrown away at home and in your community. Each person's "small amount" of trash adds up to create a lot of trash. By making less trash you help your community and the environment. Look for the links in this section, they'll take you to an activity you can do at home and school to help reduce the trash problem.

Everyone produces some waste, but you don't have to be a "super consumer." Think about the things you buy, activities you do, and services you buy. In what ways do they contribute to the solid waste problem? How could you purchase and dispose of items in ways that generate less trash? What can you do to voice your opinion about solid waste issues in your community? Take a look at a model recycling community, (leaving EEK!) how does yours measure up?

• Take part in America Recycles Day.
• composting food wastes, leaves and grass clipping. Buy or build a back yard composter or compost with worms.
• buying items in returnable, reusable, or recyclable containers and then return, reuse or recycle them!
• recycling all of the items on the list of materials banned from landfills and buy items or packages made with recycled content.
• reusing items to make gifts like bird feeders, crafts, or science projects.
• taking a cool lunch box to school with reusable containers inside instead of a paper bag and throw-away wrappers.
• saying "No bag please" when you buy a small item at a store that you can easily carry without a bag. That's what pockets are for!
• donating used items and outgrown items to charities. Get a receipt that your parents can use as a tax deduction and save money!
• writing on both sides of a paper.
• borrowing books or magazines from your library instead of buying your own.
• wrapping gifts in old newspapers. Use the sports pages for athletes, comics for kids, etc.
• you can even recycle a fish through catch-and-release fishing!

Are you short of cash, but got lots of trash? Here are a few ways you can turn trash into gifts you can give your friends, family, your teacher, and even yourself.

• Make your own paper
  
• Recycle for the Birds
  
• Jumping Frog Origami