By: Collin Anderson
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For Earth Day, Fayetteville is hosting events across the city to promote recycling and saving the planet. This began with a trail clean-up of the Razorback Greenway. The goal of the event was more than just spring cleaning, it was also to educate people about recycling and improve rates across the city.
“By coming out here, people are raising their awareness of the litter,” said community programs coordinator Kristina Jones, “This is a quickly growing city. With the amount of people that are moving here comes an increase in litter that we’re seeing outdoors.”
Much of this litter is not just trash, but recyclables that were not disposed of the correct way. This means a large amount of reusable material is going to waste if it is just tossed aside without a second thought.
“It’s really important, how can we recycle and reuse those materials as best we can,” said environmental educator Heather Ellzey, “The earth gives us really everything we need, and it regenerates itself. Paper from wood, plastic is petroleum based, glass comes from sand.”
Despite being able to create more of these resources, the human race still finds a way to over use, consuming resources faster than it can regenerate. Ellzey says people are using nearly two Earth’s worth of resources. This means humans are using materials almost twice as fast as the planet can reproduce them.
Jones said, “If we can divert that material from the landfill, it helps to save resources, and it helps us to repurpose those materials.”
“Here in Fayetteville, we’re trying to collect the cleanest materials that we can so that that way we can ensure that it’s going to buyers that can process it directly into new materials,” said Ellzey.
Even local businesses are finding ways to reuse materials. A local decking company repurposes number two plastics into their product. But this transformation process is expensive and is one that not all parts of the state are able to afford.
“It’s definitely resource intensive for a city to take on a project like this. So a lot of the smaller communities throughout the state just aren’t able to take on that expense,” said Ellzey.
According to a study by The Recycling Partnership, only 12% of reusable material ends up being recycled. That is the eleventh worst in the country, just behind South Dakota. Ellzey said as a state, there is still a lot of work left to do. City park officials are encouraging Fayetteville residents to do their part to increase recycling rates and help keep parks and trails clean.