Businesses Learn First Hand How to Reduce Waste
In April, Entrepreneurs for Sustainability hosted a waste reduction and recycling workshop in partnership with the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. The 45 workshop participants were from businesses, government and the non-profit community. The workshop featured a tour to the Allied Waste Resource Recovery Complex in Oberlin, including recycling facility, landfill, composting operation and a landfill gas to energy facility. In 2007, the facility recycled 21,650 tons of fiber, 510 tons of metals, 488 tons of glass, 1,228 tons of plastic and 10,747 yards of yard waste.
What is not recyclable is disposed in the neighboring landfill. The 279-acre landfill accepted 1,120,507.67 tons of garbage in 2007. A dry, sunny day, allowed our bus to drive onto the landfill to see 25 garbage trucks lined up and waiting their turn to dump their loads. As one truck emptied and headed down the hill, another one got in line at the bottom of the hill, in a ceaseless cycle of landfilling. The landfill does produce something of value, however—energy from the methane gas that is collected. Six gas turbines produce power for about half the city of Oberlin.
After the tour, participants returned to the Metroparks Canal Way Visitor Center for presentations focused on reducing waste in the workplace. Speakers included the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, representatives from local recycling companies and speakers from Forest City, the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo who talked about their best recycling practices.
The workshop gave participants the opportunity to see first hand where their trash and recyclables go, while learning how to implement or improve recycling at work. Seeing and smelling a landfill helps reinforce our continual need to reduce, reuse and recycle so we can conserve our natural resources for future generations.
For more information contact Entrepreneurs for Sustainability (E4S) at 216-451-7755; www.e4s.org and The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District at 216-443-3749; www.cuyahogaswd.org.