Corner Post Editorial
Are we keeping America beautiful?
by Becky Legel, posted Nov. 14, 2007
From the time we start kindergarten, we hear the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” at least once a month, if not more. In a society that is so concerned with global warming, it is surprising that many people still don’t remember a simple mantra that may help solve the problem. As much as we have heard, repeated and seen the mantra, we still seem to be having issues putting it into action.
On USA Weekend Magazine’s Make a Difference Day, which was Oct. 28, 2007, I went to report on a stream clean-up at Little Cedar Creek, a few miles east of Columbia. I got off of Interstate 70 at exit 133, drove past beautiful fields with trees changing color and found where volunteers were getting ready for a long day’s work.
Melanie Cheney, a Missouri River Relief Stream Team assistant, told me to prepare myself.
“I’ve never seen this much carpet in a stream,” Cheney said. “This should be an interesting challenge.”
The bridge over Little Cedar Creek hides what has been used as a dumping ground for carpets, appliances and other things people didn’t want. It appeared that very little water could actually make it under the bridge because so much carpet had been dumped.
The carpet was soaked through, which didn’t make it easy for the volunteers dragging it up the bank. I stayed for a few hours, observing the volunteers cut up the carpet so it would be manageable to bring to the dumpster. According to a Nov. 3, 2007 article in the Columbia Tribune, about two tons of carpet were removed from the water after five hours of work.
However, the weight of the carpet wasn’t the hardest thing for some volunteers.
The hardest part of the day for Angie Evans, a registered nurse at Capital Region Medical Center, was “not being angry about the dumping that happened here.”
I would think that it would be difficult for anyone in our society not to have a reaction to using streams as a dumping ground. But, apparently, this is not the case.
The stream team assistants offered several reasons why people might dump things into a creek. They might be too lazy to take their waste to the proper dump or they might not want to pay the fees at a regular dump.
Both of these reasons can be refuted with simple information that can be found on the City of Columbia Web site, www.gocolumbiamo.com.
The Public Works Department offers free roadside carpet pickup on regular trash days as long as the carpet is cut to size specifications. The department does not charge for large items like carpet or furniture as long as people call ahead. They do charge for appliances, but a fee of $10 per appliance will have an impact less harmful on someone’s wallet than the appliance would have on the environment.
Dumping materials at the landfill would not be too expensive either. According to the City of Columbia Web site, the Columbia Sanitary Landfill charges $10 for refuse disposal or $32.50 per ton.
Recycling is also an option. The City of Columbia Web site says, “Many household items are easy to recycle … many items cannot be recycled by the city, but should not end up in the landfill.” It offers a list of resources for where to recycle these items including appliances, batteries, cardboard, clothing, packing materials and tires.
It’s about time that we all start taking those three words, “reduce,” “reuse” and “recycle,” a bit more seriously. There is no need to harm the environment with waste when it could be easily thrown away or recycled by our city.
