What You Can Do
You can help the environment by using less and recycling! Doing so also will help extend the life of Sunshine Canyon Landfill, and delay the day that new disposal alternatives will be needed.
Did you know?
- Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles an hour. Recycling 1 ton of plastic saves nearly 4 barrels of oil.
- Enough paper is thrown away every year to build a 12’ wall from New York to Los Angeles!
What can you do?
Reduce the amount of waste you produce! Here are some easy ways:
- Bring your own bags when you shop. Designate a reusable cloth sack as your shopping bag, and use neither paper nor plastic. If you are buying something small, carry it home in your pocket.
- Buy products with less packaging. About 33 percent of municipal waste is packaging. When choosing two products, pick the one with the least amount of unnecessary packaging. Reuse packaging when possible.
- Avoid throwaway products. You can easily find reusable alternatives to paper napkins, plastic silverware, and paper plates. Store food in reusable containers instead of using plastic bags, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap.
- Start a compost pile. Don’t trash your kitchen and garden waste. Composting can cut your household’s waste by 500 pounds per year and create fertile soil for your garden.
- Reuse and recycle. Roughly 50 percent of the average person’s trash can be recycled. Don’t forget that hazardous waste like batteries, your printer’s ink cartridges, and cell phones can be recycled. Always buy recycled paper. Just 1 ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. You can bring recyclables to Sunshine Canyon Landfill or, to save time and burn less gas, take them to a recycling center closer to your home:
- Consider these Top 10 Reasons to Recycle:
- Americans make up only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we produce 40 percent of the world’s waste.
- Recycling saves energy and fossil fuels.
- Recycling saves natural resources, like trees and metals.
- Recycling creates fewer air emissions.
- Recycling costs less than disposing of waste.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run your TV set for an hour. Recycling one ton of aluminum cans saves enough energy to run an average home for 10 years.
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. It also saves 4,100 kilowatts of energy—enough to heat your home for six months.
- Enough steel is thrown away every year to build all the cars in America. Recycling steel uses only 25% of the energy and 25 percent of the water that making it does, and produces only 25 percent of the air emissions.
