Summer 2007
The Mysterious, Growing Waste Stream
It’s really not such a mystery. The amount of trash generated each year in this county increased from 88 million tons in 1960 to over 230 million tons in 2005. The sad fact is that while Americans are now recovering, recycling or composting nearly 32% of their trash, the sheer volume of trash seems to be outpacing all of our efforts to divert it to productive uses.
Population growth certainly accounts for a portion of the increase. But consider that the average amount of trash generated per person has increased from 2.7 to 4.5 pounds per day and is rising, a reflection of manufacturing and packaging practice as well as consumer consumption and habit.
The Mesa County landfill received 191,995 tons of material in 2006, up 31% in five years. This, in spite of increased use of other landfill programs such as composting and hazardous material collection and reuse options.
An 8% increase in material recovered for recycling during that same period has helped keep City trash in check. Trash volumes are up only slightly, from 24,068 tons in 2001, to 25,634 tons in 2006.
Rather than be discouraged by the numbers we, as consumers, need to take actions that will reverse the trend. We can look for ways to produce less waste in our own lives, and we must let manufacturers, stores, and policy makers know that we also expect them to take action to reduce waste in America.
Rethinking The Convenience Of Bottled Water
Worried about paying $3.00 per gallon for gas at the pump or $4.00 for a gallon of milk? Consider that, according to the Earth Policy Institute, Americans are now paying as much as $10.00 per gallon for bottled water!
Per capita consumption of bottled water, now at 27.6 gallons a year, has nearly doubled since 2000. It is estimated that less than a quarter of the plastic bottles produced in this country are recycled, primarily in the 10 states that have enacted bottle bills (a system of refunding a pre-paid amount on bottles returned to collection centers.) This leaves millions of plastic bottles trashed each year that won’t degrade in landfills for hundreds of years.
The Natural Resource Defense Council reports that manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of plastic bottles also consumes oil and contributes to global warming.
Let’s not be deceived by the convenience of bottled water! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Properly Disposing Of Your Electronics
It is estimated that 1.1 million units of e-waste (monitors, CPU’s, cell phones, TV’s, copiers, etc) are disposed of each year by Colorado businesses and residents. This e-waste stream will add nearly 51,000 tons of lead, 15 tons of arsenic, 107 tons of cadmium, 209 tons of silver, and 25 tons of mercury to the state’s landfills by 2015. Soil, air, and water contamination from these toxins, and the associated human health risks, contributed to Colorado’s 2005 ban on e-waste disposal in landfills by business. Violators face fines of up to $25,000 per day. Similar bans on residential e-waste disposal are in the works.
Proper disposal of e-waste insures that data is destroyed and toxic electronic components are not landfilled, dumped or sent overseas, where environmental controls and human safety standards are not monitored.
There are costs associated with recycling e-waste. Items must be safely stored and transported to a dismantling location and personnel must be thoroughly trained to dismantle each item. Some of these costs must be passed along to recyclers in the form of a recycling fee.
Some of the larger computer manufacturing companies have programs in place to take back their equipment from customers. Check with your product’s manufacturer for such programs. Some states, like California, have initiated “Advanced Recovery Fees”, whereby the purchase price of the unit includes a fee to help with proper disposal costs at its end of life. Colorado has no such law in effect, but local residents and business still have an option. LifeSpan Technology Recycling, a Grand Junction business, is one of only eight firms in the U.S. to be designated a Certified Electronics Recycler (IAER), incorporating management standards set by the EPA. LifeSpan, in conjunction with GJ CRI and the City of Grand Junction, offers a drop off option in Grand Junction. Currently this is by appointment only. Call 256-0182 for times, location, and to set an appointment to properly dispose of your items.
Some current fees are:
ITEM FEE
Monitors $12.00
CPU (towers) $ 8.00
Printer (Small) $ 8.00
Laptops $ 5.00
Keyboards $ 1.00
Cell phones free
VCR $ 8.00
TV’s (per inch) $ 1.25
Copiers (table top) $25.00
Copiers (floor) $100.00
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Some systems less than 3 years old are tested and reused, although residential waste electronics are usually too outdated to reuse.
Political News
In Colorado, HB07-1141 requires persons (with some exceptions) paying $0.50 per pound or more for metals (including aluminum, copper, and brass) to obtain identification from the seller and requires the seller to provide a statement identifying where he/she obtained the metal. This is in response to a recent national surge in crime involving theft of commodity metals, particularly copper, from construction sites and other locations.
HB 1288 went into effect on July 1, 2007 and institutes a charge to waste producers to fund the Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity Program created in Section 25-16.5-106.7 of the Bill. The fund provides for loans and grants for waste diversion and recycling activities such as education, infrastructure expansion and program development within the State. Moneys will be available beginning July 1, 2008.
A provision of HB 1288 increases the fee for tire disposal from $1.00 to $1.50. In response to that provision, Mesa County Landfill is imposing a $50.00 per tire fine on waste haulers dumping tires with trash, rather than delivering them to the designated tire disposal site.
For more information and updates on legislative actions relating to recycling and the environment, and for links to other websites, visit the Colorado Association for Recycling.
Local Efforts
Creating a sustainable infrastructure for growth in recycling has been a goal in Grand Junction, and that goal is being achieved. Markets are strong for all materials and the amount of recyclables collected is up 8% over 2001. Still, Grand Junction has a long way to go to catch up to the national average recycling rate of 27%.
In Mesa County, 415,506 pounds of hazardous materials were recovered in 2006, with 85% of that being recycled or reused.
The City of Grand Junction recently made a commitment to the continuation of curbside recycling by awarding GJ CRI a 10 year contract. With that commitment, the City and GJ CRI will proceed with plans to expand the current drop off center to include a newspaper buy back option.
This will begin after the completion of the section of River Road in front of the City Shops Maintenance Yard, probably in early 2008.
The center will have bins positioned and designated for participating local non-profit groups. The general public will be able to contribute paper to the bin of their choice and the non-profit will receive a periodic check.
Our Guidelines: See Something New?
Paper
Newspapers, magazines, office paper (shredded okay), envelopes, paper back books, and junk mail. Please remove the sheets of sticky address labels and plastics (like fake credit cards) from your junk mail! Discard all plastic wraps.
Cans
Mix your clean steel and aluminum cans together!
No aluminum foil, pie tins or TV dinner trays. No scrap pieces.
Plastics
Still just the #1 or #2 solid plastic containers. The lids are not recyclable, so please throw them out. (Sorry, no plastic bags)
Glass
Jars and bottles only. Remove all lids. (Throw plastic lids into the trash. Metal lids may be recycled with cans)
Cardboard
Empty, non-glossy, unwaxed, corrugated cardboard only. Flatten and stack. Brown paper grocery sacks (Keep these with cardboard, please.)
Phone Books
Remove and discard plastic wrap. Place phone books on top of paper, so we can see them.
The joy of giving Less: Ideas for reducing and reusing
Weddings, birthdays, holidays… the gift giving season is year around. With a little advance planning we can contribute more to each occasion by giving less …waste.
Look for commercially produced cards, gift wrap, and boxes that are recyclable and made from recycled material. (Most aren’t!) Take your own bags with you when you shop and put purchases from more than one stop into the same bag. Don’t accept bags if you don’t need them. Hang on to gift boxes, card fronts, and used wrap and ties to use again next year. Wrap gifts creatively in scarves, sacks or funny pages.
Easy gift ideas:
- Colorful fabric or canvas shopping bags.
- Refillable water containers or coffee mugs (If selecting plastic, it may be wise to purchase #2, #4 or #5 refillables, thought to leach the least toxins in reuse)
- Under sink water filters or filtering pitchers
- Any clothing and bedding made from hemp or recycled PET
There are many sites online with a wealth of ideas on socially and environmentally responsible options. Check these out:
Paporganics
Lagniappe Gift Wrap
Use-Less-Stuff
About our company
GJ CRI is a locally owned and operated business. Residential curbside recycling is offered in partnership with the City of Grand Junction under the direction of the Solid Waste Management Department. All money derived from the sale of commodities collected through curbside collection and at the River Road drop is returned to the City to help offset program costs.
All products listed in the guidelines brochure are sent to market (never landfilled.) We make every effort to deal with domestic markets.
GJ CRI also offers commercial recycling.
Contact Curbside Recycling Indefinitely, Inc.
Would you like to contribute more to the recycling effort?
Here are some ideas:
- Submit a researched article for publication.
- Sponsor printing and mailing of this newsletter, so we can get it out to the wider community.
- Make copies and distribute to friends and neighbors. Take some to work or to your dentist’s waiting
room. - Help us with creative ideas and tips for reducing, reusing, and recycling to pass along to others.
- Contribute technical support and website development.
- Learn about the recycling facility and give tours to area students.
- Kids! You can contribute articles to an upcoming newsletter for children. Let us know how you or someone you know is making the world a better place by creatively reducing, reusing or recycling. Sign up to receive the newsletter, coming soon!
- Help form a group to investigate ways to finance and support future recycling efforts (like at local events!)