Complete Story
03/04/2020
76% of Waste Could be Diverted From Landfill
Source: Beth Burger, Columbus Dispatch, March 2, 2020
ARTICLE PROVIDED BY GARY JONES, Director, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs, SGIA.
During a study of the waste stream into the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio landfill, consultants examined waste in all four seasons going through 180 commercial and residential trash samples weighing a total of 39,000 pounds.
More than three-quarters of the waste going into the Franklin County sanitary landfill could be recycled or composted, according to the results of a waste-stream study conducted over the past year.
Residents and businesses could do a better job of diverting many of the items on the list by using established recycling pickup or other programs. For example, the SWACO study concluded that the amount of cardboard that goes to the landfill could fill 21,800 garbage trucks. Lined up, the trucks could stretch from Columbus to Cleveland.
“Forty-one percent of that 76% could be diverted today through programs that exist today,” said Kyle O’Keefe, SWACO’s director of innovation and programs. “So a lot of this is about educating people on the action that they can take.”
The work ahead comes even after efforts to reduce the flow into the landfill.
