This series examines local sustainability and ways you can do your part. To learn more local sustainability, visit the City of Ames website.

The City of Ames is launching a new curbside recycling program July 1, along with a pilot program for larger apartment buildings. You probably have already received the 96-gallon blue recycling container for this program. Why is it so important for Ames residents to recycle?

Why recycle?

• Cost-effectiveness: Recycling reduces transportation and landfill disposal costs compared to sending materials to the landfill.
• Conserving natural resources: Recycling helps preserve resources by turning used materials into new products and avoiding the need to consume more natural resources.
• Supporting local: As in our glass example discussed below, recycling contributes to our local and regional economy, enabling less reliance on imported materials.
• Future generations:– Recycling helps create a more sustainable future with less reliance on expanding landfills.
• Environmental impacts: Recycling results in reduced greenhouse gases, litter, and pollution in our air, land, and waterways.

What happens to material that is recycled?

Let’s use glass as an example. When a glass bottle is recycled in Ames, it ends up in Kansas City, MO, at Ripple Glass, one of the largest glass recyclers in the Midwest. Ripple sorts, crushes and cleans the glass to produce a sand-like material. This material is then sold to manufacturers who make new glass bottles, which are then filled with beverages, sold, consumed and recycled again.

This process is part of the “circular economy,” a system where materials are reused again and again instead of being thrown away.

What happens to the glass that is thrown away?

That glass takes up valuable space in the landfill, where it does not biodegrade over time. As a substitute for recycled glass, the glass manufacturer must use raw natural resources, including sand, soda ash and limestone. In addition, it takes more energy to create glass from these raw materials than it does from recycled glass.

Glass is just one of many great examples. There are many similar stories about other recyclable materials like metal, paper, cardboard and plastic. When recyclable materials are thrown away, valuable resources are permanently lost in the landfill instead of being used to make new products.

How do I know when and how to recycle?

Your blue recycling container has some guidelines about how to recycle. You should have received a mailing from Aspen with specific recycling instructions and dates when you will put your recycling container out for pickup along with your regular trash. Find out more about how to recycle your glass, metal, paper, cardboard and plastic on the city’s website.

—Nolan Sagan is the sustainability coordinator for the city of Ames. You can reach him at [email protected].