By GREG JORDAN
I recently bought a couple of diecast model fighter planes for my collection and had them shipped to my address here in Mercer County. Both the models arrived in a timely manner on my doorstep.
Soon the new fighters were on my shelf, but something else was on my floor — a cardboard box and several dozen Styrofoam peanuts. In the past I would have saved the box and tossed the foam packing junk in the garbage; now I started thinking about how I could get more mileage out of them. How could I recycle them?
I ripped up the box and put it aside for Bluefield’s curbside recycling program. When I received yet another box from my friend Amanda — a care package of books — I toted the pristine box and all the packing peanuts I had collected to a nearby shipping store. The clerk happily accepted both.
Besides the successful recycling program in Bluefield, Princeton has been encouraging its residents to have their junk cars, old appliances and mobile homes hauled away for free and recycled. A Princeton business, Recycle West Virginia, has been preparing tons of metal for recycling.
These tons of recycled metals, paper and cardboard reappear if you look for them. Last Christmas I received a new stereo. When I got it home and unpacked it, I found the stereo cushioned in pressed cardboard instead of the usual Styrofoam. The stuff reminded of the same stuff used to make egg cartons. Once I had the stereo out and hooked up, its box and its packing went into one bag and onto the curb for recycling. For the packing, it was likely a second or even a third trip.
It’s great to see this stuff, this garbage, going into recycled products instead of landfills or along the highways. I’ve helped with roadside clean-ups for several years, and it’s incredible what people will toss.
What turns up in the midst of brambles and asphalt? My fellow seekers and I have found a handgun, bread bags, tires, a washing machine, wrappers for candy bars that can’t be found in stores now and much more. Future archaeologists will probably deduce that we were a pretty messy bunch of people.
Fortunately, there are times when one’s trash really is another person’s treasure. On a day when Bluefield was having a pick-up for residents who wanted to rid themselves of junk, I saw a woman trying to get an armchair into her van. Another passerby and myself helped her get it aboard.
“I can’t believe anybody threw this away,” she said. “All I have to do is re-cover it.”
The chair was worn and frayed, but still solid. I was a bit surprised that it had ended up on the curb. Something similar happened to an old office chair I had set out for trashing; when I checked the next morning, somebody had claimed it.
More recycled products are turning up in the media, too. My mom likes to watch home improvement shows, and one day I spotted some surprising recyclables for landscaping. The host arrived at the work site with a pick-up truck load of “Kryptonite.”
No, it wasn’t that stuff that makes Superman sick. When I saw the greenish material, I thought it was volcanic glass. I was surprised when the rocks turned out to be recycled windshields. New products are appearing all the time.
I imagine that a time will come when recycling becomes more efficient. Remember when the first diet foods and drinks hit the market? The first diet cola had more color and less flavor than tap water, and the food was, to be kind, nasty. Now you can get diet menus that actually taste pretty good. Sugar-free chocolate tastes like chocolate instead of a crayon.
Eventually we will have cardboard and plastics designed with recycling in mind; this means much less sorting and less hassle. Someday we may even be able to skip looking for recycling symbols on butter tubs and cardboard boxes. We will be able to recycle without putting too much thought and effort into it. It will just be a way of life.
Until that day arrives, recycling will take some thought and effort. We will have to spend a few moments checking those little triangular recycling symbols, sorting, bagging and remembering to set it on the curb for collections. It’s a little trouble, but it’s also worth the effort.
Recycling gets litter and junk off our roadways and back into useful service. It frees up space in ever-shrinking landfills, extends their service and reduces costs for the public at large. Natural resources are preserved and energy is conserved.
Recycling may not be fulfilling all of its promises now, but the first diet foods made those watching their weight think that the time of good taste with good nutrition would never happen. They waited, the technology was perfected, and now the results are in grocery stores. We just have to be patient and wait for the day of easy, thought-free recycling to dawn.
Greg Jordan is a reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com
