Tuesday, April 22, 2008 My Turn • Recycling is worthwhile 

People across the world celebrate Earth Day today. Approximately 200 million people across the United States celebrated the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

Since then, many steps have been made to clean up the air and environment in general, including restricting hazardous substances such as lead paint, amending the Clean Air Act to set national air quality, auto emission, and anti-emission pollution standards and Congress enacted laws for safe disposal of nuclear waste.

However, it shouldn’t just be one day out of the year or an issue like global warming to make us aware that we need to take care of the environment.

There are some simple things we can do daily to prevent litter and less nonbiodegradable waste from getting into our landfills and one of those things is recycling.

We have long heard the benefits of recycling. According to recycling-revolution.com, recycling conserves natural resources, such as timber, water and minerals; manufacturing with recycled materials, with very few exceptions, saves energy and water and produces less air and water pollution than manufacturing with raw materials.

Recycled tires can be made into a variety of items including rubberized asphalt and traffic cones.

Plastic has caused some concern because of its non-biodegradable qualities. However, recycled plastic can be made into picnic tables and benches, toys and even fleece.

Too often I see plastic bags littering the highway or the streets and rivers in Lassen County. If you use plastic shopping bags, they can be re-used for household purposes.

The local grocery stores also have places set up for customers to drop off their surplus of plastic bags for recycling. This keeps them out of the landfills and out of the streets.

Another way to recycle is to compost food, especially fruit and vegetable waste. The compost works well in a garden.

There are two places in town that will take glass, plastic, tin, copper, brass, meat packaging, food jars, newspaper, cardboard, paper, and magazines — and they will give you money for some of the items you bring in.

Recycling will also prevent the general household trashcan from filling up too quickly. Recycling can be easy to set up, just designate containers or a larger area for plastic, glass, paper, etc. When the bins or area gets full, take them to the recycling place.

Recycling may seem like another chore, but the money you earn will probably add up and it will make this place a nicer one to live.