By Lynn Jenkins/Times Sentinel columnist
April 30, 2008 06:13 pm
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The week of May 12 is heavy trash collection week according to the Town of Zionsville’s Web site (http://www.zionsville-in.gov/street/). Some items too large or heavy for regular trash day will be picked up for disposal during that week. Acceptable and unacceptable items are listed, along with those which require a fee (refrigerators and tires). Some acceptable items listed include furniture, household appliances, large toys, bicycles and swing sets.
“Junking.” That’s what we called it when I was growing up in Louisville, and earlier days when I lived in Hendricks County. Akin to visiting yard sales and antique stores, junking is the art of finding a treasure that someone has discarded; except that with junking the treasure is free. I was once with a local interior designer who found a great lamp curbside, and we hauled it home. She intended to refurbish with polish and a new shade for a client.
You’d be amazed at what some people toss. Some of it is perfectly good stuff: books, bikes, chairs and tables, toys, clothes, electronics and more. Items dumped on heavy trash day are taken to the landfill.
The problem with dumping good stuff — items that someone else might find usable — is that it is taking up limited space on our crowded planet. Yes, hard to believe, but we are running out of land for all our trash. This is why in Indiana it is illegal to dump yard wastes in landfills. Unlike a compost pile which can turn salad to soil in a few months through the aerobic work of microbes in the soil, most landfill trash is not biodegradable: metal, plastic, Styrofoam and glass. Some of these can and should be recycled to save space. Products such as wood, cardboard and papers also don’t belong in a landfill.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency we generate almost five pounds of trash per day — per person, per day. Moreover, the number of landfills has steadily declined. Some regions are running out of capacity for trash. To remedy the situation in those regions they haul trash to neighboring regions or states. This creates excess transportation costs and carbon emissions. A simpler answer would be to encourage recycling, composting and other methods of trash reduction.
Some countries, such as Germany, and some communities have decided that a pay-as-you-trash system works effectively. Rather than allowing up to 10 cans of trash per household as we are allowed in Zionsville, the city of Bloomington reversed the standard policy for garbage pick-up. They encourage residents to recycle by charging per bag of trash, rather than charging for recycling. Each 32-gallon bag or can must have a $1 city trash sticker attached to it. All recycled items are picked up free. Now that makes good sense. Maybe Zionsville should consider free recycling with a charge per item for trash pick-up. It’s a much more earth-friendly system.
Another way to save landfill space is to reconsider what you “need” and where to put what you no longer want. “Shabby chic” it used to be called, a style which considered worn and well-used items to suggest charm and even a sense of historical elegance. But now the term is “eco-chic.” It’s a sense of style that places value on the earth and environment, rather than on “things.” It recognizes that tossing old and buying new goods places strains on the earth with carbon emissions from manufacturing and transporting, as well as from limited landfill space. An eco-chic lifestyle places value on life, nature, earth and community rather than on stuff.
Consider keeping older items rather than replacing them just because there is a newer style available. If you are set on replacing an item, consider replacing with a pre-owned piece rather than something brand new.
Consider how you will dispose of your old item. Whether clothes, furniture, toys, books, appliances, there’s a better place than the landfill. It may take a bit more effort than just hauling it to the street, but the effort is worth it for those who reuse it and for the planet. Anxious to receive your items are the traditional resale shops, as well as not-for-profits such as Goodwill and Salvation Army stores. And if you think such places are only for donations then you’ve not embraced the eco-chic badge yet. It’s a fun challenge to buy used, save money and help the planet.
Zionsville also boasts a new chapter of the international Free-cycle Network™. It’s a grassroots and not-for-profit group that, according Stephen Carlsgaard, moderator of the Zionsville site, “matches people who have things they need to get rid of with people who can use them. By using what we already have on this earth, we reduce consumerism, manufacture fewer goods, and lessen the impact on the earth. Our goal is to keep usable items out of the landfill.”
Hopefully this column will encourage less dumping during heavy trash collection week. And for those of us who just can’t get junking out of our system, we’ll wave as we see you raiding the treasures left on the streets of Zionsville. It’s a time-honored tradition that now has eco-chic written all over it.
Lynn Jenkins is a Zionsville resident and publisher of a new magazine, Indiana Living Green. E-mail her at Lynn@IndianaLivingGreen.com.
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