E-M:/ I have an idea . . .

[jmgear <jmgear@acd.net>]

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Enviro-Mich message from jmgear <jmgear@acd.net>
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Instead of obsessing over Canadian trash, let's get our own house in 
order and do this statewide!
As Gahdhi said, be the change you want to see in the world.  If we slash 
our own trash production,
we could either stop Canadian trash or render it irrelevant.
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*Kent County: Bring on the plastics *
Thursday, June 22, 2006
By Ted Roelofs*
The Grand Rapids Press*
GRAND RAPIDS -- All those plastic grocery bags stuffed into your kitchen 
drawer? That stack of black plastic plant trays? Those yogurt cups?

Bring 'em on, says Kent County -- which is expanding its curbside 
recycling program to include virtually all plastics except Styrofoam and 
plastic stretch wrap.

Hailed by environmentalists, the change should add several thousand tons 
of plastic to the 12,261 tons recycled in 2005 at the county's recycling 
plant. That means less garbage in the landfill.

. . .

"That's not the way we want to use these resources."
Until now, the county recycling plant in Grand Rapids has accepted just 
two types of plastic for recycling, those marked "1" and "2" -- which 
includes water bottles, drinking bottles, juice containers, milk jugs 
and detergent soap bottles.

The plant now will take types 3 through 7, which encompasses everything 
from plastic plant trays to grocery bags.
Dennis Kmiecik, manager of the county recycling plant, said the change 
stems from rising demand for recycled plastics driven by high oil prices 
and upgrades in technology that allow companies to use plastics with 
different melting points.

"Recycling right now is driven by the economy," he said.  ...


*Send e-mail to the author: troelofs@grpress.com*




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