The average person is estimated to produce almost 5 pounds of trash daily.
But these items aren’t gone once they are taken away. Some products can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down.
Vegetables, for example, can decompose in five days to a year, but a head of lettuce can take up to 25 years. Other items, such as stainless steel pans, can take up to 1,000 years! Some items, such as Styrofoam, never break down.
With this much trash built, it’s time to be critical about how we view trash.
In this column, we’ll break down what trash is, where it goes and some ways to reduce individual waste production.
The what and where
Municipal solid waste, or trash/garbage, comes from everyday items that get thrown away. Some common items are food scraps, paper, plastics, metal, leather and glass.
After trash is collected, it’s brought to a transfer station, where it’s compacted into larger containers. This is then brought to a landfill specifically for municipal waste. Industrial waste and hazardous waste are taken to specialized facilities.
Ways to reduce waste
4 R’s
In this case, it’s essential to develop your personal “4 R’s.” There are several variations of this, but the one that will be used here is reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose.
The first step here is to reduce when you can. One way to do this is to use a reusable water bottle or bring your own bags to the grocery store. Next, try to keep household items maintained and reuse them as much as possible.
Other items such as paper, cardboard and glass can be recycled. However, there are locations where items such as electronic waste, motor oil and other miscellaneous things can be recycled. For a complete list, visit www.dekalbcounty.org.
Finally, some items such as T-shirts and glass jars can be repurposed into cleaning rags or storage containers with some creativity.
Compost
Composting is a great way to reduce food waste and help the garden.
Items such as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells can be composted. For more information on how to set up your at-home compost, visit the Environmental Protection Agency website at www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.
As the holidays near, it’s essential to be mindful of what gets thrown away. One thing you can do this holiday season is to keep an eye out for special collections of string lights, Christmas trees, clothing and toys.
And thank your waste service workers; they do a lot to keep DeKalb clean.
- Killian Becker is a member of the city of DeKalb’s Citizens' Environmental Commission. The commission focuses on increased awareness of issues such as promoting projects and ordinance changes involved in recycling, reducing energy consumption and planting native habitat.