Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Wisteria and Recycling Tour





















Wisteria finished. I am in love, and it was love at first sight. The pattern was a delight. I can't wait for the cooler weather to get here so I can wear it before my belly gets too big.


Also, I had the informative experience of taking a tour at Willimantic Waste Paper Company today along with other GO GREEN committee members. It was so interesting to hear about how our recycleable goods are processed and then baled for their next adventure. Trash is an international commodity and the processed/separated goods are sold to India, China and other countries and are then repurposed.

Here is a photo of one of the separators that sorts things from paper, to metals, to plastics.




This image shows a conveyor belt with people sorting out various recycleable goods. The recyclables are thrown into big piles which are then baled and sold. The following picture is an example of baled cans.
I was floored to see how much recycleable content is thrown away (not separated) from the bulk trash. It only takes one more second to throw something away in a recycling bucket versus a trash can. Willimantic Waste sorts through the trash to pull out the recycleable materials for residential waste.
I highly recommend touring a recycling plant. It is so interesting to learn what happens to our trash once we put it out to the curb or recycling depot. Green in action. Think about what you can do to reduce your waste!

2 comments:

livnletlrn said...

Can't believe you finished Wisteria already. Beautiful, same as that growing belly!

Jenny said...

Wow! They recycling plant is just COOL! We just saw one on the way to the IL's last weekend, never thought about touring it. I should take the kids, maybe... I will say our trash goes out to the curb about once every 5 weeks while 3 bins of recycling go out every week. :) And I haven't had to recycle plastic bags yet this year. Woohoo! Go Team Green!! :)