Recycle | YPGG - Why Green?

NEW YORK - Monday, April 22 was Earth Day, a holiday that was created 49 years ago in order to remind the world how their actions affect the environment, and how we all should be collectively taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint upon the planet in order to ensure the health and well-being of future generations.

In this day and age of differing political and social opinions on just about everything, helping to save our environment is certainly a cause everyone can get behind, and to make that easier for the average man, woman, and child to do, we’ve compiled a list of the top things your can do to help protect our planet.

Recycle…and not just the easy stuff. “Micro-trash” needs attention as well

Sure, some household items are easy to recycle, including large plastic, aluminum, cardboard, and glass, and it helps that many local municipalities offer weekly recycling pickups. However, a lot of people tend to overlook smaller items such as plastic straws, paper wrapping, and plastic grocery store bags. Most people tend to throw this “micro-trash” out, and as a result they end up clogging landfills across the country. Your average person typically isn't going to make the extra effort to try to separate these things from their regular trash, so a healthy alternative would be using metal or biodegradable straws and reusable grocery store bags instead of their single-use equivalents. The switch may be easier than you think.

Using reusable utensils

Another item that people tend to overlook, and something commonly found in office and workplace kitchens, are plastic utensils and paper or styrofoam plates. These can also be considered “micro-trash,” as they are typically small items that people don't think to recycle; as a result, they also tend to end up in landfills. While it may take a tiny bit of extra work, bringing reusable utensils and plates to your workplace is an excellent way to help reduce your personal carbon footprint. If you want to go even further, you could actually use utensils made from eco-friendly materials such as bamboo or recycled aluminum.

Commuting to work at new and different ways

If your ask your average worker what the dreariest part of their day usually is, most will probably tell you that it’s the commute to and from work. But there are ways to change things up that are not only more fun and interesting, but could actually help the environment as well! For example, if you live local to your work place, you could always ride your bike; this will not only save you money on gas and help the environment, but also you'll be getting some much-needed exercise in as well. In addition, hybrid and electric cars are more affordable now, so utilizing one instead of an old fashioned gas-guzzler is another viable option. And lastly, the old standby...carpooling! If you have several co-workers who are all looking for some variety in their commute, get together with them and make a point of traveling to work together, with a different co-worker driving each day.

See some trash? Pick it up!

While in a perfect world everyone would clean up after themselves when they're out enjoying nature, unfortunately some people can't be bothered doing so. That said, if you're out and about and you notice some inconsiderate person has left their garbage in a park or wooded area, give some serious thought to maybe picking it up yourself. Carrying a bag with you for such purposes is a good idea, and if you really want to go crazy, you could even consider separating any recyclables you may find as well.

Invest in solar energy

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are the wave of the future, so why not get in on the ground floor and help save the environment sooner rather than later? If you've ever wondered if the price of installing solar panels on your home would be worth it, you only have to look as far as the EPA's greenhouse gas equivalency tool, currently available on their website. According to their calculations, the energy output of even one solar panel per year equals the equivalent of hundreds of pounds of coal. In addition, solar power also helps to save the substances that are typically used up in the creation of other forms of non-sustainable energy, including water and air.

Earth Day may have come and gone, but there's no reason why you can’t adopt the spirit of this important holiday each and every day of your life. Going Green shouldn’t be an annual occurrence...if everyone pitched in each and every day, even in small and insignificant ways, it would all add up to a bright and sustainable future.

by Christopher Boyle

NEW YORK - By now you’ve seen all the infamous pictures online of cast-aside phone books overflowing out of garbage bins and dumpsters or rotting by the thousands while lying in municipal dumping grounds, unwanted by the masses who merely have to whip out their cell phones in order to get a phone number instantly thanks to the ease and speed of the internet. The concept of print telephone directories is hopelessly outdated when compared to its web-based brethren, but while communication companies continue to churn out these relics that often plunk down on uninvited on your doorstep – unless you’ve had the gumption to opt-out of delivery – you can’t simply throw them away like so many do and expect them to be disposed of properly. These days “going green” is in, and that applies equally to your yellow pages; the only responsible thing to do is not to throw them in the trash, but to make sure they’re recycled properly.

It’s important to note that statistics indicate paper products of a wide variety of types currently make up approximately 30 percent of all waste that the human race generates as a whole, which – by overall volume alone – represents our largest source of waste by a wide margin, and phone books currently make up a large percentage of that paper waste. But it certainly doesn’t have to be that way.
Now, you may think to yourself, “Why do so many phone books end up in the trash? Isn’t paper easy to recycle?” Well, unfortunately, not all paper is created equal. In fact, many recyclers will not take phone books due to the fact that the pages in question are exceptionally light – due to the fibers being shorter than normal, a cost-cutting measure known as “mixed paper” – limiting their ability to be recycled and re-made into new paper products. It’s actually to the point that phone book paper can contaminate a batch of otherwise acceptable-quality paper, rendering the entire mix unless. However, there are ways to recycle phone books that require thinking outside the box, and doing so enables you to prevent the waste and pollution that simply discarding them into a landfill would cause.

The most obvious way to recycle a phone book is to use it to make yet more phone books; while the short fiber paper does not lend itself to other paper products, it can be re-fabricated to serve as new directories, although the fibers will require additional strengthening via the addition of scrap wood or other similar materials. But that’s not the only way that phone books can be put to use once their (very) short-lived usefulness has come to an end. Phone book paper fiber can be utilized in conjunction with other substances to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, including useful items such as insulation materials, ceiling tiles, paper towels, fertilizer, grocery bags, cereal boxes, and certain types of lightweight copy paper.

According to studies, if everyone in the United States took steps to recycle their phone books annually, an astonishing 700,000 tons of paper – equating to over 2,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space – would be saved. In fact, for every 500 print telephone directories that are recycled, 7,000 gallons of water, 3.5 cubic yards of landfill space, an average of 23 trees, and over 4,000 kilowatts of power are saved. And again, that’s just from 500 books…imagine if everyone across the country got in on the action, and how much better it would be for our natural resources, environment, and economy.

It should be noted that a typical phone book can be wholly recycled, but it is important to make sure before doing so that there aren’t additions to the books in question that would interfere with the process; for example, many phone books come encased in plastic bags or wrapping to protect them from the elements – short fiber paper doesn’t react well to water – and that would need to be disposed of before turning the book in at a recycling center

Of course, if a recycling center is not within driving distance and your municipality doesn’t offer pick-up services, there are other ways to utilize an old phone book instead of tossing it in the trash. For example, the paper can be shredded and used for reptile bedding or as part of a home composing system, as most phone book pages are printed with vegetable and/or soy-based inks due to the fact that pages are typically uncoated.

Naturally, the end goal is to cease the use of print phone books altogether, as the digital alternatives are better in every conceivable manner. But until that happy day, the next best thing you can do for your environment in the here and now and for generations to come is to make sure you recycle your phone books until the time comes that they are no longer made.

Tag: Recycle

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