Recycling In Lancaster by Chazz Sapp
Recycling is important, but make sure it’s correct. It is more than just filling your recycling bin up to the brim.
When it comes to recycling, many people believe that it is just about taking items and containers that do not belong in the trash can, excluding large items that don’t fit in the trash nor the recycling bin. According to LCSWMA (Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority) only four things need to be placed in your recycling bins.
- Corrugated cardboard
- Plastic bottles and jugs with a neck
- Metal food and beverage cans
- Glass bottles and jars
Listing these four things here dispels the common myth of just throwing everything and anything into the bin. Recycling is much more than just reusing previous material and putting it back into something new. One of the main things that is important is that it has value.
“However, recycling is actually a system of collecting and processing used material that still have value. This means not everything is recyclable. There must be someone to buy the used material and transform it into a new product. And just because a product has a recycling symbol on the bottom does not mean it’s recyclable”- LCSWMA
Now that you know what to recycle it is now important to know where to take your recycled goods. There are many placed to take your things within the county and as a bonus they are all open twenty-four hours a day.
- Transfer station complex
- Lancaster waste-to-energy facility
- Frey farm landfill
An important thing to keep in mind is that this is something extra or on the side than your regular trash/recycle system on a recent basis. All of the locations mentioned above are all optional to use and residents are not required to use them.
To focus on one of the facilities mentioned, Lancaster waste-to-energy facility, is one of the more interesting sites mentioned. Lancaster waste-to-energy quite literally takes you waste and transforms it into energy.
“tubes surrounding each boiler convert water into steam. The steam spins a turbine, which is connected to a generator that has the capacity to produce thirty-six megawatts. Approximately twenty-five megawatts is sold into the local energy grid, which is enough to power the equivalent of twenty-five thousand area homes.”- LCSWMA The way that recycling in Lancaster county works to me is very interesting in a way that is a very give and return system. Residents put in their recyclables, gets transformed and gets put it back to the community in the form of energy for their homes