Water Bottle Project for Earth Day

Junior year I took Advanced Placement Environmental Science with the best teacher on the planet, Ms. Cohen. After our AP test we had about a month until the end of the school year, so we focused on our Earth Day projects. This was a huge celebration on our patio. Students had tables where they presented their projects. There are games and lots of stuff to buy like water bottles. My friend Brianna and I did a project where we focused on plastic water bottle waste and getting better drinking water for the school. We learned that America only recycles a fourth of the plastic water bottles they use and it could take 500 to 1000 years for a plastic water to decompose in a landfill. We informed our school about the importance of recycling and reusing. We bought water bottles with our school's logo on it and we made around $500 and with that money we bought a filtered water fountain.

It was actually really awesome because we were the first school in the area to have one. There are 218 schools in the school district with 53 high schools; which is the eighth biggest school district in the country with about 135,000 students. Once I thought about it like that, I was really proud of myself. We even had a ribbon cutting ceremony when we got it and the superintendent came. This project made me get into sustainability and I found I have a passion for it.

All About Composting

My recent posts have focused mainly on recycling, so you are probably really curious about the composting in Philadelphia. There is not much to say. We do not have it an infrastructure like other cities like Portland, Oregon. In fact we do not have any laws about composting. We do not have facilities which would cost money,and the public should be in the know about composting benefits. The Philadelphians who do recycle do it on their own free will. They are the ones who care about the planet, and we should be just like them. The problem is that we do not know where to start. I have always recycled at my house, but with composting it was always something that sounded weird and I did not know much about. When I started attending Unity College (America's Environmental College), I saw the composting center located in the cafeteria. There are signs saying what can go in it (which is basically everything) and what cannot.
Basically the reason why there is not composting in Philly is because it is so expensive to start a program. Once the program is started people actually have to follow it and know what they are doing. The city works with a company for anyone who wants to compost. They are called Philly Compost. It was a company formed in 2009.

The pros of composting are that it keeps waste out of landfills and it is actually easy for anyone to start. You just need a separate composting bin and you let the bacteria do the work. Many things can be composted like vegetables, fruit, egg shells, pasta, tea bags, nut shells, leaves, coffee. Many of these things we deal with on a daily basis. People could say composting is too difficult, but it really is not. If you cannot remember what is composted or not keep a list on your wall, so you remember. Then you just have to contact Philly Compost so that they can pick it up for you. There are workshops if you need help at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. I have volunteered here my senior year and it is a great nature preserve and they love being sustainable. If online sounds more like you there are free classes by the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania. Composting is amazing and everyone should do it in Philadelphia.
For a chart to help you get started.

Why Should Our Priority Be Recycling Glass?

Photo credited by UK Green Home

Glass is one of the best things that are recyclable. It can be recycled again and again and be made into brand new products. This saves companies from making glass from new materials. "Over a ton of natural resources are saved for every ton of glass recycled." The furnace that remelts the glass saves more energy than if a company created new glass and so it can benefit companies. This helps lower emissions for our environment and also saves money in their wallets. The container industry buys 3 millions tons of recycled glass every year. Philadelphia could be making so much money if we recycled more glass and sold it to these type of companies. That money could be going towards green spaces and schools, so that the city is a better place to live. Poorer neighborhoods could improve their parks and schools with this money, giving them more reason to recycle.
Unfortunately many types of glass is not recyclable. Some examples are pyrex and windows. This makes glass end up in landfills which can make those trash sites really difficult to maintain. If the glass ends up at a recycling center it could slow down production and make defective products. People could fret about this problem, but I do not think it is a very big deal. Trash should be sorted at trash sites and stuff that is recyclable should be sent to the recycling center, and vice versa. This way the proper waste are at the proper centers. A way this problem could be fixed completely is by informing the public with block leaders and commercials. Another conflict that has arisen are with companies. There are color standards for glass, that ways it is easier for them to be recyclable and made into something else. In a way companies like to have complete control on their product design, but that is not the case. I feel that this is a small compromise they have to make to save the planet. All companies mainly care about it making money, and reusing glass saves them money. They should not pay extra for having a cool color for their glass bottles and I think that customers would not care what the bottle actually looks like, they care about the taste.
Recycling is so important, especially in a huge metropolitan city like Philadelphia. For six tons of recycled glass saves one ton of carbon dioxide. The city is polluted and we need to do our best and protect it before it becomes worse. If more and more carbon goes into the air then climate change could start happening faster than it already is. Waters will rise which could increase the Schuylkill River to flood even more. We could get cancer from breathing in all the fumes. This is not a good situation. Recycling is such a great way to solve some of our issues. Last year alone the city made $6.6 million in recyclables and another $8 million by not having the disposables in the trash. This money can solve our problems, and Philadelphia could be one again one of the best cities in the world.

Why More Money Should Be Spent on Recycling?

Kovalchuk Oleksandr

The annual recycling costs in the city of Philadelphia is around $1.8 million dollars. This seems like an astronomical amount to many, so you will probably think I am crazy when I say I think they should raise it. It costs around fifty dollars for every ton of recycling to manage it. This includes the cost of energy to burn fossil fuels and labor costs. This is a great con for recycling. It is basically what is the point. It costs so much money to recycle a material and then when you try to resell it as something else you cannot make your money back. We have to burn fossil fuels to reuse the plastics or metals. This is so ridiculous. Our city should be moving in the right direction which we are because our city has been recycling more and more, but not as much as other major cities. We need to spend more money on recycling facilities so that they can be more energy efficient. Another reason why we need to increase the budget is to help create more neighborhood leader. It has been proven that neighborhood leaders can persuade their community to recycle. They make a fun competition. The purpose of the leaders is to get people to care. They have to discuss climate change with their peers so more people can understand. The problem with people who do not recycle is that they are very unformed. This has to change or our environment will not change and get better.

Can Recycling Fix the Economy in Philadelphia?

Photo by Samuel Borges 

Recycling in the city of Philadelphia generates revenue, reduces garbage disposal costs, and creates jobs. They have a recycling rewards program which pays citizens to recycle. So far this program has been a success. The program is called Recyclebank. Besides getting money back for recycling there are so many pros of recycling. The first one that I will talk about for this post are jobs. In Philly the unemployment rate is 6.8%. Many of those people come from poor, minority backgrounds. They are not informed about the ways recycling can help them. If they recycle more, there would be more jobs needed in recycling centers. These jobs do not need college degree sometimes, and so it works in their favor for the most part. In 2010 there were 3 million jobs in green goods and services stated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. If more people had jobs in the city, then they could be spending more money helping our businesses. Less money could be used for the unemployed and that money could go towards helping our city be green. Some people could argues that recycling sites are unsafe and unclean. At some sites there is waste and debris dealt with in the same building. This can lead to the formation of diseases. Sometimes there is runoff which could effect the recyclables in the building and pollute the water around it. If recycling centers are hiring more people then more people could be more effective and could spread it all over the city. My counter argument to these statements are there needs to be more supervisors of the facilities, so that trash and recyclables will not mix. Most recycling facilities are separate from trash facilities, and so they would not go near each other. Problems at centers would not happen if government surveyors would do their part and see if any of the place is defected. There could be more money spent on opening new recycling centers. Jobs are needed in the city of Philadelphia and recycling might be one of the solutions.