As the piles of unwanted items begin to make their way to the curbside, one cannot help but be reminded that we have, indeed, become an extremely disposable society. Some of it is due to decreased manufacturer standards that result in some items having a shorter lifespan. But it seems that a great deal of it is due to our obsession with having the newest and the coolest. It is no wonder that the baby-boomer generation (myself included) and generation X have ranked as the lowest ever in terms of saving our money.

Many of the piles in the street contain yard waste. This is really a shame because Mesa County offers free recycling at the Organic Composting Facility. You can take any trimmings, with a 6-foot restriction on branches, any “green” or compostable material and untreated/unpainted wood, such as pallets or raw lumber waste to this facility.

Surely most of us have at least one friend with a pick-up truck we could bribe to take a load for us. Neighbors could even band together at this time of year and share a load. These materials would then be recycled into multiple types of compost that can be used again instead of just taking up space in the landfill.

Speaking of recycling, Grand Junction recycles merely 8 percent of its trash out of the landfill, whereas the national average us 32 percent! This is contemptible. It is not difficult or inconvenient to recycle glass, plastic, aluminum, tin cans and paper. With Curbside Recycling Inc., you can now put the plastic, tin and aluminum all into one container, significantly reducing the “work” involved. Please, please think about joining the world of recycling if, you have not already.

Another sad part is that CRI has had to cancel some of its commercial accounts because its facility cannot handle the volume. It is time that the city and county take some accountability and work with CRI to create a state-of-the-art facility so that CRI will have the ability to expand its service. This will allow Grand Junction to improve its dismal standing in its willingness to keep recyclables out of the landfill. With the projected increase in population projected by 2035 this is even more important.

MARTHA HOUSE
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.