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Health & Fitness

Green Guilt

How can I recycle X?

Eco Audrey gets a lot of questions about "How can I recycle X?" Where X is not your typical glass, plastic, paper, aluminum, etc. that can easily be recycled curbside. A lot of people out there are starting to think about the life span of the materials that they buy, and what will happen to them at the time of disposal. We in the business refer to this as GREEN GUILT.

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret about recycling. It's totally industry driven. First, and most importantly, there has to be a viable market for your recovered materials. Second it has to cost less to reprocess your material than creating a product by virgin material. What is recyclable also varies on a regional basis, depending on what type of processing is happening in your area, proximity to markets, and landfill tipping fees (i.e. high cost to landfill, makes recycling the smarter choice). What that means to you, is there is not always a recycling option for every material out there.

You know what? That's okay. Eco Audrey is here to quell your Green Guilt. Going zero waste is a good goal to have. It is an incredibly lofty goal, and not easy to obtain, but a good goal to have. That being said there are two things everyone can do to reduce their waste by a significant amount. First, recycle everything you can curbside. The other, which is harder for most people, is start a compost pile in your back yard. Those two steps can reduce the amount of waste you send to a landfill by up to 80%. And that is a number that can make a serious impact on our environment.

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For more information on backyard composting click here

Audrey is the fictional face of St. Louis County's Recycling Becomes Me campaign. Although Audrey is not real, the writer from St. Louis County certainly is.

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