A Word About Recycling - July 25, 2010 » Columns » San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

Columns

July 25, 2010

A Word About Recycling - July 25, 2010

By Ollie and Gloria Maier Daily Record Columnist The San Marcos Record Sun Jul 25, 2010, 06:30 AM CDT

San Marcos — On this warm summer day--I normally don’t say hot unless it’s over 100 degrees--a variety of items from eNewsletters plus the monthly report of the Green Guy Recycling Services drop-off site.

We’ll start off with an item from the Electronics eNewsletter. “Thanks to e-scrap take-back programs in 23 states, more than 195 million Americans (63.3 percent of the nation) currently have (or will have) access to a proper recovery and recycling system for used consumer electronics.”

That’s good, but with all the waste electronics out there, let’s hope it reaches 100 percent some day.

Now from the Plastics Recycling eNewsletter.

“The potential single-use plastic bag ban in California (established under Assembly Bill 1998) may be getting the lion's share of press coverage, but other states and communities are debating how to handle plastic bags as well.”

For example, “Not content to wait for state action, Portland Mayor Sam Adams will release a draft ordinance Friday that looks to ban plastic bags in Oregon's largest city.” Although, “Many grocery and retail outlets in the Portland metro area currently offer voluntary bag recycling programs,“ the mayor wants to make it more effective.

And across the nation, we find North Carolina is expanding its ban of plastic bags.

The previous law only banned “the distribution of plastic bags at stores with more than five stores in the state, or stores greater than 5,000 square feet in size. In their place, retailers must now offer reusable sacks or paper bags with at least 40-percent recycled content.”

And we know that little town north of us, Austin, is also considering banning them.

With the football season not that far away, an item in the Resource Recovery eNewsletter caught our eye. “A survey of NCAA athletic departments showed that 65 percent placed a "high" to "very high" emphasis on recycling at sporting events.”

Let’s hope it too reaches 100 percent, not only at NCAA events, but also even high school events.

In our monthly update in how many pounds of recycled materials our concerned citizens are dropping off at the Green Guy Recycling Services drop-off site, we received for June the following figures (thanks Maria):

Metals = 935,485 pounds

Cardboard = 173,920 pounds

Paper = 165,640 pounds

Glass = 40,830 pounds

Plastic = 19,530 pounds

This brings the totals for the first half of the year to over 8 million pounds of metal recycled there and almost 2 million pounds of paper products.

Additionally, almost 4,000 gallons of used oil and 2,000 old tires have been recycled there.

A big thanks to everyone who recycles... Not only there but through curbside and every other drop-off site. We don’t want to even think about where all this material would go or be otherwise.

'Til next week, do have a great one... And stay cool... You are too precious to have anything happen to you.

Gloria and Ollie Maier are local citizens concerned with the environment and helping others. Ollie is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and they both received higher education at Texas State University and worked on staff before retiring. For questions or comments, call 353-7432 or e-mail omaier@TxState.edu.

Text Only

Columns

A Word About Recycling - Jan. 22, 2012
Not-so-good news. Some of you may have seen an article on this, but we did not.

January 22, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 22, 2012
January 22, 2012
A Word About Recycling - Jan. 15, 2012
A few items, concerning other countries, contained in a recent Resource Recycling eNewsletter we found interesting.

January 15, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 15, 2012
What will Heaven be like? This age-old question has been answered in many ways. Heaven has been made the butt of thousands of jokes. These usually begin with three people approaching those pearly gates and having a conversation with Peter, the apostle and holder of the keys to the blessed land.

January 15, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 8, 2012
A whole week has passed since the New Year began. Hold up your hand if you have already broken one or more of your resolutions. Okay. you can put your hands down now.

January 8, 2012
A Word About Recycling - Jan. 8, 2012
As we go forth in this new year, here's a couple of items from Resource Recycling pertaining to Texas towns...

January 8, 2012
Life's Like That - Jan. 1, 2012
As I began thinking about today’s essay I sensed a presence of the ghost of New Years past. I’m at the age of “if I make it ‘til …” So, if I make it ‘til Sunday I will have been around for 80 changes of the calendar.

January 1, 2012
Life's Like That - Dec. 25, 2011
Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Geseende kersfees, Gezur Krislinjin, Bon Nadali un Bon Any Nou, Joyeux Noel these words ring out all around the world today …

December 25, 2011
A Word About Recycling - Dec. 18, 2011
With Christmas coming soon, one of the pictures we have in our minds of Santa is the one which Coca-Cola had early on in their ads. Thus this item in the Resource Recycling eNewsletter caught our eye,

December 18, 2011
Life's Like That - Dec. 18, 2011
Christmas time is a good time to give thought to the veteran next door, or he or she may be living in your house.

December 18, 2011
More Columns Headlines

Columns

Search Results

A Word About Recycling - July 25, 2010

Site Map

Contact Us