Every day can be a recycle day according to Al Yougel, Executive Director of Keep Peachtree City Beautiful, Inc. Recycling, he feels, cannot be just a one day feel good thing, but should be a deep seated habit. Yougel explains recycling details in the following questions:

Why is recycling important? As stewards of the environment, we each have an obligation to preserve and protect resources for ourselves and for future generations. From individually packaged food servings to disposable diapers, more garbage is generated today than ever before. In fact, the average person generates almost 5 pounds of garbage daily and this garbage goes mostly into landfills. I was surprised to learn that last year 2.6 million tons of material that could have been recycled were put into Georgia landfills. Recycling is really just good common sense.

What is the impact of recycling? Recycling is one of the easiest ways to help significantly lower carbon emissions and to increase the life of our landfills. Last year the amount of energy saved nation wide from recycling aluminum & steel cans, plastic & glass containers, newspapers & corrugated packaging was equal to:
The amount of electricity used by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
The energy supplied from 2.7% of imported barrels of crude oil.
The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger cars in one year.
By increasing our recycling rate the above numbers can only grow.
Recycling a 36” stack of newspaper will save one tree. To make one aluminum can from raw materials takes 20 times the energy than making it from recycled ones. On average each person empties 142 cans each year. Recycling is really just good common sense.

How does recycling work ? There are three parts to the recycling process: collection, manufacturing & buying.
Collection is the most recognizable of the three. Most communities now have recycle bins for curbside collection because it has been proven that recycle rates are highest when it is convenient and when items are captured where they are used. New technology has eliminated the need to sort items before collection making participation even easier. Since 66% of beverage containers are emptied in the home, for example, it makes sense to collect them curbside. Unfortunately, Peachtree City presently has no real viable option to dispose of recycle material at the curb. I am looking forward to the day that changes.
Manufacturing is using recycled materials instead of raw materials. This is a fast growing industry. Besides cans into cans, and jars into jars, some recycled materials end up in clothing or as floor coverings. Items to be recycled must have value and they do, especially in today’s market.
Buying is buying products with recycled content. Obviously, to make recycling economically attractive there must be people willing to buy these products.
Recycling is really just good common sense.

Why don’t more people recycle? I believe that people don’t knowingly want to waste. It’s just that they must be educated and shown the way, and we have not been doing that. Raising public awareness about the opportunities and benefits of recycling will help as will knowing what to recycle and making it easy for the public to recycle. In Peachtree City some people are separating their recyclables and taking them to collection stations. These are the motivated citizens. For those who do not recycle, changing their attitudes means changing the way things are done. I believe the answer is single stream curbside recycling. Single stream does not require sorting the bottles, cans, glass, paper, etc. Single stream accepts everything to be recycled in one bin. Still, I realize that we cannot make everyone recycle. That just is not possible, nor is it necessary. What is necessary, however, is to do the greatest good for the environment and for future generations. Recycling is really just good common sense.