April 22, 2021
Charging people by how much garbage they send to the landfill can reduce waste by up to 20%.
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Humans are wasteful.
Take Columbia, Missouri. It’s estimated each household produces 2,000 pounds of trash per year… which comes out to 35,000 tons annually for this college town and that s just residential curbside customers.
To lighten the load… Columbia started a pay-as-you-throw program in February, which encourages residents to throw away less through a price plan that varies per household. Before we made the changes we did last fall, there was no limit to what a customer could put on the curb, Steve Hunt, said. You could literally put your entire contents of your entire house on the curb.
‘Tis the season for gift giving. And waste.
If you’re surrounded by endless wrapping paper, festive bows and Christmas cards this holiday, it’s important to note proper recycling protocols especially for paper products, the most recycled material in the U.S, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Millions of Americans can also do their part during the holiday season by recycling paper-based products at home,” Heidi Brock, President and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Brock added that a common mistake people make at the end of the year is “Wishcycling.”