Don’t
be another Oscar the Grouch, recycle
Jenna
McDaniel
He
is green, grizzly and grumpy. His best
friend is a worm, and he lives in a tin
can. As we have grown older we have come
to appreciate his cynical view of the
world.
Who is the famous character? He’s Oscar the Grouch. His love of trash
may boggle minds. The smelly shoes, rotten banana peels and fermenting dinner
leftovers are enticing aromas to this little green creature, but we have to
be careful because we too may soon find ourselves surrounded by garbage.
When walking around campus, there are trashcans placed about every 20 feet,
and yet there are still flyers, fast food wrappers and soda cans cluttering
the path to class. The trash littering our campus is only a small amount compared
to the trash finding its ways to the streets and gutters of Los Angeles and
other large cities.
The Earth is the only planet the human race has, so here’s the question.
If we keep creating all this trash, where is it all going to go?
Making sure to properly use trash cans and recycle is important because it
improves our environment.
Recycling is especially important because it frees up landfill space, prevents
the release of toxins into the environment and can even improve our economy.
Unfortunately, many people seem to forget the well-known saying, “Recycle,
Reduce, Reuse.” It has taken many years for recycling to be as popular
and widespread as it is today.
Believe it or not, recycling can be traced all the way back to 1031 A.D. in
Japan. At this time Japan was taking used paper and re-pulping it into new
paper. Here in the United States the idea of recycling originated during WWI
when the government began a program called the Waste Reclamation Service, which
encouraged people to save old rags and paper, as well as to conserve natural
resources as a whole. It wasn’t until after the first Earth Day in 1970
that the modern recycling movement began.
With recycling centers and programs making recycling more accessible, it is
imperative we take advantage of them. One of the most common recycled items
is the aluminum can. The aluminum can is unique in that 60 days after being
recycled, a can will be back on the store shelves as a new product.
In the year 2000, 54 billion cans were recycled. If these cans are not recycled
they aid in filling our dwindling landfills.
Along with the loss of landfill space, some of the materials that could have
been recycled harm the environment by releasing toxins. The quality of the
air we breathe is directly related to what we release into it.
Los Angeles is a city battling to keep its air clean. That nice brown cloud
that hangs in the sky around to the top of The Walter Pyramid is like the body
odor of Los Angeles. Some toxic materials include computer parts, batteries
and chemicals such as car oils.
Plastics alone take centuries to break down. They not only take up a majority
of the space in our landfills, but plastics leach toxins into the soil and
the water as they sit in the earth for years. If we burn plastic to dispose
of it, it is just as bad as burning fossil fuel. By recycling these materials
we are disposing of them in a way that is not harmful to the environment.
Not only will we be saving our environment, but we will also be saving money.
The federal, local, county and state governments are faced with the problem
of dwindling landfill space and the increasing costs of making and operating
new landfills. The equipment needed to reduce the dangers associated with landfill
methane gas and other necessary environmental guidelines has been causing garbage
collection and disposal fees to increase. If materials such as aluminum and
plastic were recycled then there would not be large sums of money spent to
purchase the equipment needed to de-toxify the earth.
Some argue it is too difficult to recycle because they say the resources offered
are too scarce. However, it its not that these resources are scarce but rather
most people are not educated about them.
Most cities provide recycle bins for their communities. Here on campus we have
specific containers, some are blue while others have the recyclable sign on
them. They are set in the food court, the University Student Union and around
campus, providing places for us to recycle cans and plastics.
Using these bins is an easy way for us to make a bit of difference in this
rapidly growing problem. Being an art student, we often go dumpster diving
for materials. While some of you might not want to brave the trashcans, is
it easy for you to reuse a plastic or paper bag, or even save a yogurt container
and use it as Tupperware.
There is even a recycling center on campus. Should you ever run low on laundry
money, it is a great place to take those beer cans from the night before and
redeem them for a bit of extra change.
Recycling is easy; it just takes a little thought to go that extra step. Our
world is a fast growing place.
Populations and consumption levels are increasing, and thus trash is amounting
to huge proportions. It is time to take a little action and recycle or we soon
may have to be joining in Oscar’s happy tune. “I love trash, anything
dirty and smelly and…”
Jenna McDaniel is a sophomore art major.
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