I never thought little ole me could make a difference when it came to recycling. After a field trip with a group of 1st graders to Tuscaloosa ESD, I learned just how important one person can be.

ESD1
loading...

Ashley Chambers, Environmental Education & Outreach Coordinator, led the field trip and I was as amazed as all the kids. We watched a short video with the ESD mascot Ricky the Racoon then took a tour of the facility on Kaloosa Ave.

The blue bins are free and will be picked up the same day as your garbage and trash. The tour encouraged the kids to separate their items in the bins. Newspaper and Magazines, Cardboard and plastics.

Plastics have categories. Plastics #1 - Water/soda bottles and other containers marked with #1 PETE. Plastic #2 - Milk jugs, detergent/shampoo bottles and then plastic film.

ESD asks us to separate out metal too. Aluminum cans and steel cans like soup cans.

It takes a soda can about 500 years to even start decomposing in a landfill. A water bottle...1,000,000 years! Recycling is easy and big bails produced at ESD are sold to be turned into new things.

ESD2
loading...

Those bails weigh about 2,000 pounds and are worth about $550 per!

ESD3
loading...

ESD named the bailer "Walle" after the movie. Remember how he gathered trash and crushed it into cubes?

After learning of the hundreds of thousands pounds of garbage that goes into the landfill in Coker, I picked up a few blue bins and started to do my part. If we all did, our kids and their grandkids will thank us!

ESD also takes electronics, and now Glass! Learn more on how to get started here.

 

 

 

More From 95.3 The Bear