Contributed by Jill Farris, Valley Community for Recycling Solutions
Recycling can be confusing! Fortunately, there is a global and national movement to fix our problem. The mission of standardizing recycling labels on bins across the US is gaining traction, from Denali National Park to schools, businesses, and sports stadiums.
The easier it is for people to “recycle right”, the faster recycling becomes a solution to creating a less wasteful economy. At least that’s what we’ve learned on the job at Valley Community for Recycling Solutions (VCRS), the local non-profit focusing on partnerships and training plus advocacy in order to reduce waste in this great land.
Education holds so much value when it instructs how to save our natural resources and shows what happens to reusable materials. Get the most bang for your buck! Turn waste products back into useful materials instead of burying reusable resources in a landfill. An efficient circular economy is achieved without extra costs or losses.
The standardized labels on bins help teach consumers how to “recycle right”. As part of the National Park Zero Landfill Initiative, the non-profit Recycle Across America (RAA) is fixing the crisis at federal and community levels with their solution; society-wide standardized labels for recycling bins.
We use (RAA) standardized recycling label system in the VCRS drive through bay and in our classroom, thanks to a generous grant from Subaru of America. Also, attendees at the Alaska State Fair had a chance to see the great work of RAA in action, and to appreciate the huge, nationwide impact a simple label change can have to improve recycling effectiveness.
This summer, RAA staff members brought us new signage on their way to Denali National Park, enhancing major improvements to recycling recovery. The Zero Landfill Initiative, a pilot program, was introduced by the National Parks Conservation Association and Subaru of America with the goal of reducing the total amount of landfill-bound waste in three parks.
After upgrading systems at Denali National Park’s recycling facility, up to 46% of waste has been diverted. Along the road to recycling, VCRS is one of the many partners working to make this program sustainable. We aim to help pave the way for more participants to take the extra step to find a recycling bin. We have been given a great opportunity to spread this message, pushing it forward from our rural back yard into the growing population of Mat-Su community schools, homes and businesses.
The commitment to doing all they can to preserve global natural resources resulted in the first Subaru manufacturing facility in Indiana to achieve zero-landfill status in 2004. One of the starting points that the Indiana plant undertook to work towards its zero-landfill status involved conducting waste audits, literally, dumpster diving, which provided a way to determine what kind of waste the plant was generating.
“I think it’s important to dumpster dive because you actually see what is in there. You can’t get rid of it if you don’t know what it is,” said Denise Coogan, environmental partnership manager at Subaru of America. “We went around everywhere in the [Indiana] plant, we tipped over the dumpsters, and we asked, ‘What are we generating?’ All roads lead back to good inventory, so you must know what you’re generating before you can ever realize how you’re going to get rid of it.”
Continued efforts to nurture the culture will help the Matanuska Valley become zero-waste in 2049 by building relationships with partners who share the same beliefs.
“The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous and enduring, and thus more intelligent, even competitive.”
- Paul Hawken
