CHIÈVRES, Belgium - Every year, America Recycles Day serves as a reminder of why recycling matters. This day, observed on November 15th, encourages individuals and communities to take action by reducing their waste and promoting sustainable practices. Recycling is more than just a routine; it is a crucial step towards the safeguarding of our planet's resources and ensuring a healthier future for generations to come.
Benefits of recycling
When recycling, you divert waste from landfills and incinerators, which are not amongst the greenest waste management methods. You also lessen the exploitation of raw materials (timber, minerals), water and energy and their related impact on air, water, soil pollution, and climate change.
On these aspects, recycling is much more efficient than producing new goods from scratch. For instance, recycling aluminum cans saves up to 95% of the energy needed to make the same amount of aluminum from its original source. For one sheet of paper you recycle, you save one liter of water, two and half of watt-hour energy and fifteen grams of timber.
Another underrated benefit of recycling is the cost savings on the Garrison operational costs, as trash and bulk waste treatment costs remain higher than recyclables.
How can you make a difference
Know what can be recycled
Every installation within the USAG Benelux garrison has its specific recycling program, rules may differ due to country and region specificities or contract requirements. Familiarize yourself with the local recycling guidelines. Information can be obtained from your Environmental and Housing Divisions. And remember, recycling is required by local regulations! Not all garbage should be disposed in household recycling bins. Good recycling practices is also an easy way to display the “good neighbor” attitude.
Empty and clean your recyclables
Before tossing your recyclables into the bin, make sure they are clean. Rinse out jars, cans, and bottles to remove food residue. Clean recyclables reduce contamination of the waste management chain and thereby improve the efficiency of the recycling process. Waste does not need to be perfectly clean, but this practice will also avoid attracting insects and unwanted “visitors”.
Flatten cardboard boxes
Flattening cardboard boxes saves space in your recycling bin and makes it cheaper and easier for recycling facilities to process them. Simply break down the boxes and remove any non-recyclable packing materials like bubble wrap or Styrofoam peanuts.
Become a living ambassador of waste recycling
Stay up to date on the most recent recycling rules on-post and within your local community. They may evolve over time as countries and regions become more ambitious on their waste recycling targets. Become a role model for your family, friends, and colleagues and be ready to share your new expertise with them: the more people properly recycle, the more impactful we are as a community.
Live up to your ambitions: go towards zero waste
Recycling is not THE perfect answer. Indeed, recycling materials still requires energy (collection, transportation, transformation and reuse in industrial processes). It also generates some pollution still. In addition, apart from aluminum, most materials cannot indefinitely be recycled and the products they’re made of need to be recycled at some point, going then to landfills and incinerators.
If you want to go beyond just recycling, the internet and its influencers can be a good source of inspiration to go zero waste. Or you can attend one of the local communities zero waste workshops. You’ll find there are a million ways to become a promoter of this very true statement: “The best waste is no waste”.
Looking ahead
As we celebrate America Recycles Day, it’s important to remember that recycling is a year-round commitment. By making small changes in our daily habits, we can collectively make a significant impact on the environment. Let’s use this day as a reminder to recycle more, educate others, and strive together for a sustainable future.
DID YOU KNOW?
As of a couple of months ago, all plastics can now be collected into your recycling bins (not only PET bottles and the HDPE containers, but also yoghurt pots, lids from your favorite take-away, wrapping films, plastic bags, etc.). On most of its installations, USAG Benelux has modified its Solid Waste contracts to streamline its waste sorting practices with the sorting rules of the local communities.
The US Government pays the local waste fee for each US personal living off-post, thus allowing off-post residents to make use of the local sort centers and the curbside collection system. When people bring their off-post waste to dump it in on-post containers (illegal, as per USAG Benelux Policy), it means paying twice for the same service.
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