We can make a difference

I would like to start off my blog by discussing a real problem. Landfills, the biggest waste of space destroying our planet. We need to stop filling the earth with our garbage, and make more efforts to recycle.

It is said the average person throws away about 3.5 pounds of garbage a day. In one year 300 million people each producing 3.5 pounds of trash a day create approximately 18,433,779,281 cubic feet of trash. To dispose of that trash in the ground, you would need to dig a hole about 40 feet deep and one acre wide. That's just one year in the United States alone.

So what can we do about it? Well, recycle for starters! More and more communities, townships, and cities have recycling programs now. If you are unaware of them, call your local state or township office.

I understand it may be just a little more of an inconvenience to recycle our waste, but do not let that keep you from doing it! Some communities like my own offer you a recycling bin to fill with all of your recyclable waste, this not only saves the trash from being tossed into a landfill, but saves a few garbage bags a week. In other communities you may have to take the trash to a recycling plant but it can sometimes benefit you as well as the planet.

Much of what we throw away could be profitable. Aluminum for instance, many states do not have a deposit on soda cans, and for the most part they end up in the trash. States that do have deposits do not put one on non-carbonated beverages. One way you could make some extra cash while cleaning up the planet is to crush these cans and place them in a large container along with any other scrap aluminum you come across. Save it all up and when you have enough, take it to a scrap yard and collect your money. Copper and brass also have high value to recycle, so do not throw it away, go get a couple bucks for it. Some companies will also pay for other recyclable waste, plastic and corrugated boxes for instance. Do some research, you may be throwing away more money than you realize.

There are many other simple things we could do to reduce or reuse items before just throwing them away, most are obvious, but I'll mention them anyway. Instead of bottled water use a refillable water bottle; get reusable grocery bags for your shopping, if you do use plastic bags reuse them for trash bags, or return them to the store to be recycled; avoid single use or "throw away" goods; do not throw away old clothes, toys, and household items, donate them; reuse containers like coffee cans or glass jars for storage, donate old books and magazines to hospitals, schools, and libraries; do whatever you can to keep as much as possible from going in the trash.

It is important for all of us to do our part. We cannot just keep piling our trash into landfills forever, not only does it waste space and smell awful, it is also destroying or environment by polluting our waters with toxic chemicals and filling the air with methane gases. If there is any hope for having a livable planet for our kids and their kids, we must make more efforts now to recycle everything we can!