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Recycling Louisville, Things You Can Recycle

What Can I Recycle in Louisville Kentucky?

Disposing of waste in a clean and environmentally friendly manner is hard. From overrun landfills to bigger issues like this “garbage patch” in the Pacific Ocean, we clearly have some problems surrounding what to do with our garbage. Recycling is one solution and a great way to practice sustainability and conservation from home. Most cities, including Louisville, even have recycling pickup programs to make recycling as easy as possible. However, sometimes recycling can be confusing. Keeping track of everything you can and can’t recycle can leave you feeling lost, and may prevent some from recycling at all. That’s why we’ve put together this simple guide of what you can and can’t recycle here in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Do Recycle 

Paper and cardboard are recycling no-brainers. Things like newspapers, broken down cardboard boxes, and paper/cardboard drink cartons are all items that you can recycle with no issues. Similarly, you can also recycle most plastics. Things like water bottles, milk jugs, and food packaging are also allowed to be recycled in Louisville. Glass is another material commonly accepted. So if you have some old bottles or jars around the house make sure not to throw them away! The last material on our list of recycling “do’s” is metal. This includes empty cans, foil, and small foil/tin pans.

Don’t Recycle

Although the categories above contain many recyclable items, there are some notable exceptions. For example, although most glass and plastic items are accepted by the city, plastic bags and lightbulbs are not. Luckily, many stores like Kroger have their own recycling programs if you’d like to recycle your used shopping bags. Louisville also provides special recycling programs for recycling out of the ordinary items such as light bulbs, cooking oil, electronics, and batteries. Also, unfortunately styrofoam is not accepted for recycling pickup in Louisville, meaning throwing it away is the best course of action currently.

No fluids or hazardous materials are ever accepted for recycling pickup in Louisville. However, if you’re willing to put in a little extra effort, there are alternatives. Although potentially toxic materials like oil/lead based paint and old motor oil cannot be recycled normally, there are special facilities that accept them, like Louisville Metro’s hazardous materials disposal bin at 7501 Grade Lane. Always be extra careful when attempting to dispose of materials like these, since in the wrong places they could cause significant damage to the environment. 

What to do if you can’t recycle

Sometimes recycling just isn’t a reasonable waste management solution. Maybe you have too much waste to recycle, or maybe you are trying to dispose of materials that are not usually accepted for recycling like wood or old furniture. If this is the case, then Moon Mini Dumpsters might be what you need. Moon provides dumpsters of many sizes, from 6 to 40 cubic yards, to customers across Kentuckiana. Also, Moon Dumpsters is environmentally friendly, making every effort to recycle as much as possible, so you don’t need to feel guilty about throwing things away. If you live in Louisville or Lexington and are looking for waste management solutions, click here or call at (502) 772-2821  to learn more about Moon Companies!

Consider renting a Moon Mini Dumpster, no matter what size project you choose to undertake. Our driveway dumpsters come in 6, 9, 12, 16, 20, 30, and 40 cubic yard capacities. Affordable and lightweight, a dumpster will be delivered directly to you and placed on boards for surface protection. We are environmentally-friendly, locally-owned, and willing to work with any time frame. Give us a call at 502-772-2821 to learn more!

What does not in my backyard mean?

Waste Disposal: Where Does Waste Go?

When you throw your garbage or yard waste into a dumpster, it can be easy to never think about it again. All of that has to go somewhere, though. But where? There are a few main places your waste is most likely to go, depending on what it is and the waste disposal practices and regulations where you live. Let’s take a look at the main places that waste goes.

Landfills: The Main Form of Waste Disposal in the United States

Landfills are simply disposal sites for waste. Landfill workers carefully contain and monitor waste and waste byproducts in landfills to avoid contaminating groundwater, soil, and the air. Eventually, when landfills are completely full, they shut down. You can think of them as a way to isolate waste from the surrounding environment. In the United States, landfills are where most waste goes.

Recycling Centers

Recycling centers help repurpose items like plastics, glass, paper products, and metals. These centers sort through recyclable items and then compact them into ‘bales’ that can be sent to mills where they are processed into new materials. What is recyclable for you depends on the infrastructure and policies in your area, so always check your local and state practices.

Recycling, while still much less common than landfilling, has become more widely adopted in the past several decades. In 2015, for instance, 67.77 million tons of waste were recycled in the United States, with to 137.7 million tons of waste going to landfills. Compare this to 25 years prior- in 1990, only 29.04 million tons were recycled, with 145.27 million tons being landfilled. Recycling is a preferable alternative to landfilling today, since it means reusing materials as opposed to trying to contain them in a landfill.

Composting

Composting is another of the main ways to deal with waste. Compost facilities use controlled aerobic decomposition to help turn organic waste into a nutrient-rich soil conditioner. Many food scraps and bits of yard waste are compostable. The end product of composting can help grow plants and food. Many people create their own compost, and some communities have composting centers or facilities where community members can drop off organic matter waste. Composting has the benefits of lowering carbon footprints, enriching soil, and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.

Waste Combustion: A Declining Method of Waste Disposal

Combustion is another approach for disposing of waste. Municipal solid waste incinerator facilities burn waste at an extremely high temperature. They then use steam produced from incineration to create energy. However, this process has significant negative impacts on the environment and local communities. They increase pollution in their communities, most of which are lower-income communities of color in the United States. Support for this form of disposal in the US seems to be diminishing, particularly because the remaining facilities in the United States are aging and have old, inefficient technology. But in other parts of the world like Europe, combustion waste management is quickly becoming more accepted. These facilities also have better technology that is potentially safer for the environment and communities.

Moon Dumpsters  makes sure that waste disposal is as environmentally-friendly as possible, with efficient trucks and green disposal practices. To learn more about Moon’s full-service dumpster rentals and get the dumpsters you need, visit our website or call us at 502-772-2821 today!

Indiana Recycling is Working!

IN recycling coalitionA study commissioned by the Indiana Department of Commerce (IDOC) as part of the National Recycling Coalition’s U.S. Recycling Economic Information (U.S. REI) Study shows that recycling in Indiana is working!

Recycling in Indiana

IN recycling study statsIndiana’s recycling/reuse industry boasts:

• 1,700 recycling and reuse establishments
• $3 billion in annual payroll
• $19 billion in annual revenues
• 75,000 people employed

The recycling industry contributes $285 million in state government tax revenues annually.

For more information about recycling in Indiana visit the Indiana Recycling Coalition.

Written by Bob Jones