- March 28, 2024
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I hope you had a wonderful holiday season with your friends, family and neighbors. Now that the New Year is upon us, it is time to adopt our resolution list for 2014. Please join Orange County in our goal to recycle 50 percent of our waste by the end of 2014.
Orange County’s municipal solid waste has a big impact on our environment. In 2012 alone, more than 18 million tons of waste went into our landfill. This includes more than 4.3 million tons of paper products, 3.9 million tons of construction and demolition debris, 3.6 million tons of metals, and 1.6 million tons of plastics. Many of these items are not biodegradable. This, coupled with the ever-shrinking capacity of our landfill to take new waste, has compelled individuals and governments to find new, more environmentally sound ways to dispose of our waste.
Recycling reduces the amount of waste entering the landfill. Public and private sector organizations across Orange County recycled 9.6 million tons of materials – or 35 percent of the county’s solid waste – in 2012. Some of the waste can be reused “as is” while the rest is reduced to its component raw materials for reuse in new products. Recycling also reduces the demand for environmentally unfriendly activities such as strip mining, fossil fuel exploration, and forestry in virgin woodlands. For instance, recycling one ton of paper produces an equivalent amount of raw material that would come from 17 trees. Recycling is also more energy efficient than exploration for new sources of materials. Recycling of aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin sources.
Recycling is also cost effective and creates new economic opportunities while using a minimal amount of new material. The textile recycling industry offers an interesting insight into the positive economic impacts of recycling. More than 90 percent of discarded textiles are recyclable, and a competitive market has emerged for both the reuse and recycling of these items. Many discarded clothing items are resold “as is” to the developing world, allowing many economically disadvantaged people to purchase high quality name brand clothing for just around $1. Many items are also broken down for raw materials. For instance, old sweaters from the United States are sold to places such as the United Kingdom, India, Italy, and the Philippines where they are turned into blankets for both local use and export. Other items are broken down for use in industrial applications ranging from wiping materials to insulation. These processes reuse existing materials, create jobs along every step of the supply chain, and add value to products that would have otherwise been discarded.
You too can participate in making 2014 the greenest year on record. If you live in a single-family residence in unincorporated Orange County, be sure to order your recycling bins from our Solid Waste Division. If you live in one of our many municipalities, do the same from your city’s solid waste department. For residents of apartment or condominium complexes, please drop off your recyclables at the nearest transfer station. You can find the nearest transfer station at Orange County’s Solid Waste website, ocfl.net/WaterGarbageRecycling.aspx
I hope that you will do your part to help Orange County reach our goal of recycling 50 percent of our waste this year. If you need further information on Orange County’s recycling efforts of have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or my staff, Edgar Robinson and Lynette Rummel. We can be reached at 407-836-7350 or by email at [email protected]
Here’s wishing you and your family a wonderful, safe and green 2014.