Notes on recycling
Information Superhighway to Nowhere
I usually recycle things because I want to keep them out of landfills, and because so many things that I throw away can easily be reused in some form, and I would venture a guess that most recyclers have similar motivations. (Though we might decide to do so for very different reasons; having grown up down the road from a landfill, I'm a little disturbed by the sheer amount of waste that humans can accumulate.) But recycling information is a world of its own.
Though I've never thought of it unless I received misdirected calls, our phone numbers are often recycled. Shira Barlow, a UCLA undergraduate, was definitely made aware of this fact when multiple calls revealed that she has Paris Hilton's old phone number. Andrew Blankstein of the Los Angeles Times reports about several other people who have received the recycled phone numbers of people like Chris Rock and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Barlow doesn't seem to mind the many wrong numbers, an unexpected benefit to recycling.
On a more tactile note, I hope that the many mobile phones that are being replaced by Apple iPhones this month are being recycled. It's a little frightening to think that the hundreds of thousands of iPhones sold over the last week might each send one older phone into the garbage. Fortunately, recycling phones is possible and easy! http://exphone.org lists options for donating and recycling, even if you didn't buy an iPhone but just have old phones lying around.
Closer to home, the Franklin Humanities Institute's theme for their 2007-08 faculty seminar is ... Recycle! I look forward to seeing the results of their work.
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One simple thing you can do is not take a bag when you make a small purchase (especially a soda or something that you will consume immediately). If you plan on shopping take a bag with you. Preferably a cloth bag, but if you already have a plastic bags saved then reuse them. If you stop and think if you really need it (a bag or whatever object with extra packaging) you can really make a difference. There is an unbelievable amount of waste on completely unnecessary things. Locate either a recycling center in your neighborhood or check into curbside recycling. Newspapers, glass and cans can be recycled easily - just clean them. But it doesn't stop there. Find out what items your neighborhood recycles - there are probably more than you realize. You can help preserve resources, prevent excess garbage that will be dumped into landfills or left floating in the streets. And consider Precycling. When you are shopping, look over packaging. By purchasing items in bulk or getting fruits and veggies loose rather than prepackaged in plastic you instantly reduce what you will throw away. There is a lot that can be done, without a lot of effort if you just stop and think about what you are doing and the impact that your actions will have. Every little bit helps, so think it through.
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My website: Tomasz Gorski