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Sun City Recycles

By Martin Byhower

PHOTOS BY JAIME CALDER

Chair of the Sun City Recycles Committee Mary Ann Lish sets out her trash and recycing receptacles in preparation for
her biweekly recycling pick up.

Throughout most of human history, wooden furniture – waste items made entangled in refuse. And we humans are
most “trash” was the kind of of natural components – turn into trash not exempt from these dangers either.
benign stuff that is now studied when they are disposed of in ways that When liquid combines with garbage it
by archaeologists (think pottery sherds don’t allow them to decompose naturally. creates a substance known as “leachate”
and arrowheads). Trash does not exist Put these materials into a landfill which contaminates the soil in which we
in the wild. Waste produced in the lacking oxygen, and they break down grow our food and the waters we use for
environment is naturally recycled or into methane, a gas far worse for global cleaning, cooking and drinking.
broken down to once again become part warming than carbon dioxide.
of the natural ecosystem. Recycling is great, but the best thing you
Though we have historically managed our can do for your planet and pocketbook
Society’s problem with trash first began waste by transporting it to a designated is to first reduce the amount of waste
when humans started producing items area, landfills are not a perfect solution. you produce. Once you’ve cut back on
made of non-degradable and/or unnatural Landfills are expensive to create and consumption, you can then find ways
materials which can never decompose. safely maintain, and they reduce to reuse or repurpose items that may
The problem was further complicated property values for houses near them. otherwise be tossed. If your excess items
by the production of materials which Exposed waste materials (especially serve no useful purpose, recycle.
release hazardous materials into our plastics) are a huge hazard to wildlife
environment. Even materials such as who can be killed by consuming toxic The most common questions I hear are
kitchen scraps, yard waste, paper and wastes or maimed when they become what should I recycle, how do I prepare
it for recycling and where do I put it?

Sun City Texas Recycles: www.sctexas.org/recycle

48 | SUNRAYS APRIL 2017 ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG