Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Use of Recycling Program in the City is a New Trend

By Adriana Noton

Recycling may not be something that has just started, but it is finally getting the attention that it deserves. While people used to make fun of the residents that had out there little blue buckets, now people are looking for new and creative ways to make recycling more prevalent in cities. Instead of wasting money, recycling in the city is now a way to lower taxes and give citizens all kinds of benefits.

The one thing that fails to register with a lot of people is that recycling is good for everyone and everything. When trash is not recycled, it goes into a landfill. When a city puts their trash into a landfill, they get charged outrageous fees that come out of the taxes that the citizens of that area pay.

Cities can save significant money by not having to pay the landfill fees that their trash generates. One major city that is taking an aggressive stance is Toronto. They recently rolled out a plan that will recycle over 50% waste generated and over 60% from single family homes. In essence, they want extending life of green lane landfill to 2034, Recycle enough materials to save 900 million kilowatt hours of energy annually enough to supply all the electrical needs for 170,000 homes, junk removal disposal on environmentally responsible and community friendly option and other "green" benefits.

While tax benefits and incentives are great, there is also significant federal funding that gets tied up in the use of renewable energy and recycling. If a city or state does not hit their number, they can miss out on federal funding that is earmarked for them. While this money may not go directly into their pockets, it does benefit the community as a whole.

Where a lot of the success of these plans can take place is in the homes of the citizens of the cities. A great place to start is with the kids. Get them involved and used to recycling and the plans will be more successful. Because kids need something to keep their attention, make it fun and rewarding for them to recycle at home.

Once the kids are in line, it is time for mom and dad to start to look at the products that they are buying around the home. Are they made from recyclables and can they be recycled. The power of the almighty dollar cannot be overrated. Consumers can speak with what they buy and if they are concentrating on items that are made out of recyclables, more companies will be forced to fall in line.

Now there are plenty of companies that are doing this, but far too many of them are still making things the old fashioned way. 20 minutes recently did an expose on how much plastic is going oversees and just sitting there polluting the earth. If those same TV's and computers were made from recyclable materials, this would not be happening.

There isn't a community around that will not benefit from a recycling program. Cities in particular will do very well because of the large amounts of trash that they generate on an everyday basis. Cutting any of that out and turning into recycling saves money and makes the world a better place to live and breathe. There simply is no loser when that happens.

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