| Recycle this, recycle that. Everyone has heard by | | | | from recycling could help cash strapped |
| now that we must recycle everything we can to | | | | communities. |
| save the earth. But is that really true? A plastic | | | | There is a Native American prayer my wife once |
| grocery bag takes 1,000 years to decompose in | | | | gave me. It says,"May the footprints we leave |
| landfills. If that one little bag takes that long, | | | | behind show that we've walked in kindness |
| consider your mall shopping bags, your trash bags. | | | | toward the earth and every living thing. May our |
| There is a growing industry in recycling, taking one | | | | lives be a dance of celebration, and may the wind |
| thing and making it another. Old tires are shredded | | | | speak of peace to all our children's children." If you |
| and used as playground tread. Grocery bags are | | | | won't consider it for yourself, think of future |
| remanufactured into clothing. These are examples | | | | generations that will have to deal with our waste. |
| of the economical aspect of recycling. | | | | Plastic grocery bag = 1,000 years in a landfill |
| Lemore, California started a rigid recycling | | | | Disposable diaper = 400 years |
| program 15 years ago. The residents were | | | | Aluminum cans = 500 years |
| required to comply or face fines. Recycling has | | | | Milk Jugs = 500 years |
| taken this rural town and provided new | | | | Glass Jar = up to 1 million years |
| playgrounds, a water park, and funded municipal | | | | Styrofoam = possibly never- think of your take |
| endeavors such as the police department, fire | | | | out containers, your daily java fix |
| house, and pre-school funding. This is the power | | | | In order to facilitate decomposition in landfills, |
| of recycling. | | | | oxygen is needed to aerate the trash. A simple |
| If you think that you are only one person, what | | | | banana peel can last up to 40 years in a landfill |
| difference could you possibly make? Consider | | | | without proper aeration. Recycling in EVERY |
| this...if we ALL made the effort, our landfills would | | | | household can reduce our waste by up to half. |
| be smaller, there would be less waste, funding | | | | Try it, it just might save the planet. |