Garbage
Most of us don't think much about garbage — but it's time we did. There's a lot more to it than a fat green plastic bag sitting by the curb. Or vegetable peelings sailing down the chute in your apartment building.That's energy we're throwing away!
Did you know that much of the garbage we toss out could either be prevented or recycled?
Over-packaging and disposable items can be avoided. Newspapers can be made into wrapping paper and boxboard. Many glass bottles can be returned, others can be ground up to make new glass. Metal cans can be melted down for new steel. Vegetable peelings can go into a compost pile to make fertilizer.
What does all this have to do with saving energy?
Well, it takes energy to extract, manufacture and transport all of the products we consume — be they food, clothing, containers, paper or furniture. By avoiding the unnecessary ones and re-using the rest of them, we can bring about worthwhile energy savings in the industrial and transportation sectors of our economy. For example, by recycling steel we can save about 74 per cent of the energy needed to make new steel. For aluminum the saving is 95 per cent.
A returnable soft-drink bottle that makes many trips can save about 80 per cent of the energy required to make the equivalent number of throw-aways.
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May 20, 2012