April 22nd, 2021 is Earth Day - a worldwide movement promoting the need to protect all life and the environment of our world through conservation efforts. It started in 1970 organized by Denis Hayes in support of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in the United States. Earth Day was a response to the 1969 Santa Barbara, California oil spill that took harm to more than 10,000 sea life. Since then Earth Day has evolved in providing education on topics including, but not limited to recycling, composting, sustainability, renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions, and plant care. Here at your Mackenthun’s Fine Foods, we take pride in supporting efforts with our community to conserve the planet. Did you know that Mackenthun’s has a 3-bin system for waste available inside and/or outside the store? They are for waste, mixed recycling, and organics. Confusing to some, check out these tips to figure out which bin you need to use. rganics The organics bin allows items thrown in to be compost. Compost is decomposed organic matter such as leaves and vegetables scrap to be transformed into nutrient-rich soil for gardens, farming, and landscaping. What determines if an item is organic or not is its molecular makeup - the items must contain hydrogen and carbon bonds. In other words, anything that is “plant matter” can be thrown into the organics bin to be composted. This includes flowers, leaves, sticks, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetables, paper towels, napkins, newspaper, cardboard. There is even a small list of “non-plant matter” that can compost as well which are eggshells, hair, pet fur, lint, and cotton rags. Why compost? Composting not only reduces the amount of waste in landfill, it reduces carbon emissions from transportation and reduces methane emissions from waste sitting in the landfill. Be cautious of disposing organic plastics (they will be labeled as compostable plastic most of the time) - they cannot be mixed with standard organic bins and a separate organic bin designated for composting plastic needs to be available. Unlike standard composting, there are very few facilities that specialize in composting organic plastics. The process involves heavy industrial composting equipment. Unfortunately, home composting does not work for organic plastics. Mixed Recycling Mixed recycling is the process of recycling a variety of different plastics, aluminum and tin, glass, and paper into new products. Paper is one of the few items that can be both composted and recycled. Some paper products like bath tissue and paper towels are too thin to be recycled while paper dinnerware products are contaminated with food debris and grease. Please remember when recycling products, rinse them free of food debris - it does not have to be completely clean. When waiting collection, it reduces the amount of pests and unpleasant odors. If products are contaminated with grease, these cannot be recycled and must be thrown as waste - even grease-soiled pizza boxes cannot be composted due to the risk of attracting pests and creating unpleasant odors. Please note - plastic bags CANNOT go into mixed recycling. Instead, locate a plastic bag recycling bin at your local grocery retailer as these go straight to specialized plastic film recycling plants. Plastic bags can cause problems to the machines used in standard recycling such as gumming them up like wet flour in a pasta maker. Another tricky thing about recycling is that not all plastics are created equal. Refer to the image below to learn which plastics are recyclable and what should go in the waste bin. Disposing Other Materials Lightbulbs, batteries, electronics, ceramic, scrap metal, aerosol cans, paint...where do we dispose of them if they are no longer needed or working? These can neither be thrown in the organics, recycling or waste bin. Instead, there are special facilities that these items go to to be disposed of. For example, retailers like BestBuy allow for disposal of electronics, Home Depot for batteries, and Ace Hardware for oil-based paints. For more information on where to recycle these items appropriately, contact a retailer or your local county recycling center. Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/zero-waste/compost/why-should-i-compost https://www.kare11.com/article/news/verify/verify-do-you-have-to-wash-recyclables/89-487133563 https://www.hennepin.us/-/media/hennepinus/residents/recycling/zero-waste/zero-waste-guide-composting-organics-recycling-101.pdf?la=en&hash=4B8822153BBD8D3BFCEE81BAEAFFA26E6151B594 https://apps.npr.org/plastics-recycling/ https://www.paintcare.org/drop-off-locations/ https://www.ecocycle.org/plastics-recycling
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