Its mission is twofold:
- To tell world leaders that recycling is simply too important not to be a global issue, and that a common, joined up approach to recycling is urgently needed.
- To ask people across the planet to think resource, not waste, when it comes to the goods around us – until this happens, we simply won’t award recycled goods the true value and repurpose they deserve.(https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/about/)
Here in Jacksonville we have many recycling champions- people who recognize recycling includes, but is definitely not limited to, what you put in your red bin. They work tirelessly to manage our resources rather than waste.
Linda Kestner is undoubtedly one of the most visible, vocal and voracious advocates of such a shift in thinking. She continues to promote recycling at every turn, and even in a time of high consumption and convenient curbside trash disposal, she believes that scarce resources can be better conserved, and the negative environmental impacts of pollution can be reduced:
“Every Individual can choose to consume less, recycle at every opportunity, and become informed as local conservation programs evolve, buying only what we can consume and in packaging that can be recycled. Take the step of reducing the number of plastic bags you use and avoid single-use plastic items (bags, straws, lids, cups, cutlery). We know that plastic breaks down very slowly if at all, and unless incinerated, never goes away, eventually polluting the land, rivers, streams and oceans permanently.”
We are thankful to Linda for her tireless work to make our community cleaner and greener.
-
- Refuse to buy what we do not need
- Refuse to buy what we do not need
-
- Reduce what we do need
- Reduce what we do need
-
- Reuse or repair what we do buy
- Reuse or repair what we do buy
-
- Recycle what we cannot refuse, reduce, reuse, or repair
-
- Rot –- compost the rest
http://www.district10comopark.org/the_5_r_s_of_zero_waste.html
Here are some resources that may help us all experience a shift in our thinking:
- For a local impact story, …OPB is examining the ways plastic is altering our relationship with the environment and what we can do about it.
- With the plastic industry expanding like never before and the crisis of ocean pollution growing, FRONTLINE and NPR investigate the fight over the future of plastics.
- Last year, Planet Money ran a show about why it doesn’t make sense economically and, heartbreakingly, even environmentally to recycle plastic. But if recycling most plastic is not working now — and if it didn’t work 30 years ago when the numbers and arrows first popped up — did it ever work? And why did it take us so long to learn the truth? In this episode, NPR reporter Laura Sullivan, with the support of PBS’s Frontline, sets out to find out who is responsible: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land
- If you want to reduce your single-use plastic consumption, but you’re not quite sure how best to do it – read a book from our selection to help you go green
- Check out these easy ways you can start reducing your waste in your everyday life!
For a generation now, we’ve been told that plastics of all types can be recycled. As the story goes, this makes it totally OK to buy more and more things made from plastic because they’ll all get recycled…right? Turns out, that’s not really the way it works. Five of the seven designated types of plastics are hardly ever recycled.
According to one Environmental Protection Agency estimate, just 8.4% of plastics marked as recyclable are ever recycled. So who’s behind this plastic recycling shell game? Watch this short New York Times video to discover The Great Recycling Con — and see what you can do to generate less waste: https://roguedisposal.com/resources/education/recycling/exploring-the-great-recycling-con
Resources provided by Linda Kestner.
