Recycle...Where?

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

Recently Lynn Weston,  Rich Sanitation Director,  said that most of the dumpsters were filled with cardboard boxes and that is consistent with national information that 41% of waste is cardboard boxes and as we do more online shopping it will get worse.  According to  Recycle Utah:

One ton of recycled cardboard saves:
390 kWh hours of electricity.
46 gallons of oil.
6.6 million Btu’s of energy.
9 cubic yards of landfill space.
Cardboard and paper waste make up 41% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Recycling cardboard takes 24% less energy and produces 50% less sulfur dioxide than making cardboard from raw materials.  https://utahrecycles.org/get-the-facts/the-facts-cardboard/

Amazon has advertised a site for sending back the boxes filled with items you want to donate to charities for free. https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/xde6cauvpfp66o2 .  This reporter printed off a label and filled the box with donations.  I then took it to the post office.  The site promised that a donor would be notified when the donation was received and would be given a receipt for tax itemization.

Donating is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Open Your Box: Unpack your merchandise from your Amazon shipping box.
2. Pack Your Box: Fill the box with usable clothing, accessories and household goods you no longer need and print your free shipping label from GiveBackBox.com
3. Send Your Box: Let UPS or the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) deliver your box of donations to charity for you.

In the summer the area around the lake has thousands of aluminum cans which go into the dumpsters, according to the same source:

One ton of recycled Aluminum saves:
14,000 kWh of electricity.
1,663 gallons of oil.
237.6 million Btu’s of energy.
10 cubic yards of landfill space.
Aluminum takes 200-500 years to fully degrade in a landfill.

Recycling aluminum takes 95% less energy than making aluminum from raw materials.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.
There is no limit to the number of times aluminum cans be recycled.
Recycled aluminum can be returned to store shelves in as little as 60 days.
About 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled every minute nationwide.

In Montpelier,  Idaho,  there is a place to recycle which also helps the animal shelter. Sandi Gunderson Warner wrote. "You can recycle cardboard, paper, aluminum, and metal at Hennings on Bern road on the road to Montpelier. Turn where the round brick building and the ANH shelter are then keep going until you see the vehicle graveyard and buildings. It’s Hennings Salvage. While you’re there check out their yard barn. Glass has to go to Logan. A good reason to recycle aluminum and metal at Hennings is you can donate whatever they pay to the Animals Need Help Shelter which does add up when many of us do it."

In Rich County there are no places to recycle.  One can take organized recyclables to  Logan.

USU Resouce Recycling
1300 North 850 East, Logan, Utah 435-759-2011
Newspaper
Heritage Glass
130 West 700 South Bldg E, Smithfield, Utah 435-563-5585
Glass - ClearGlass - ColoredGlass - BlueGlass - BrownGlass - GreenGlass - All ColorsGrass Clippings
Mountain Fiber Insulation
1880 East Anvil Boulevard, Hyrum, Utah 435-245-4081
Cardboard - CorrugatedNewspaperPaper - Mixed
Valley Metals
45 North 1000 West, Logan, Utah 435-752-0571
Cardboard - CorrugatedMetal
Sunrise Recycling
Logan, Utah 435-753-8944
Cardboard - CorrugatedAluminum CansMagazinesTin CansGlass - ClearGlass - ColoredPlastic - #1 PETPlastic - #2 HDPEPaper - AllInkjet InkToner

There are skeptics.  "Not everyone agrees that recycling is worth the effort.   Recently, journalist and science columnist John Tierney wrote a piece for the New York Times called "The Reign of Recycling," challenging many of our long-held recycling beliefs. He provides recent research and statistics from institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency which suggest that reprocessing everything we use (like plastic, glass, cardboard, and rubber) might not be as good for the planet as we think it is. "

https://www.bustle.com/articles/125641-is-recycling-worth-it-the-answer-might-surprise-you?utm_term=share

He did agree, however that recycling cardboard and aluminum cans does make economic sense.