PRAIRIE GROVE, Ark. — During Earth Week 5NEWS is paying special attention to recycling, and how you can do your part:
Boston Mountain Solid Waste in Prairie Grove has collected 1,300 tons of recycling in 2022 alone.
“Recycling is definitely a really important piece of the puzzle, but it's important to remember that it's not the first thing we should be doing. The first thing we should be doing is reducing waste before it starts by reusing things and then recycling everything that we can,” said Sustainability Coordinator at Boston Mountain Solid Waste Taylor Osburn.
Osburn says a lot of things end up getting recycled that are not recyclable.
“It's actually called 'wishcycling,' and it's when we want to recycle something so badly that we put it into the recycling bin, even though it's actually a contaminant that can't be recycled,” she said.
Some of those items that are commonly mistaken for recyclable are non-bottle plastics like fruit or salad packaging, plastic containers, and plastic buckets. Osburn says when it comes to plastics, the easiest type of plastic to recycle are bottles.
“What can be recycled really depends on the community that you live in. So something that may be accepted for recycling in another city may not be accepted in our city,” she said.
The City of Fayetteville has two recycling drop-off locations; one on South Happy Hollow Road and one on North Street. They also have six food composting drop-off locations throughout the city.
City of Fayetteville Waste Reduction Manager, Brian Pugh says Earth Day is every day and encourages people to do their part. He says they divert seven thousand tons of materials out of landfills every year.
“We would like to see more people participating at the curb on our recycling program, we have about 50% participation. That's kind of hard to determine on the drop-offs because there are people coming in and out all the time,” said Brian Pugh.
Pugh says Fayetteville has really promoted waste reduction and composting.
“We have a goal of 40% diversion from landfill by 2027. Right now, we're about halfway there,” he said.
The City of Fayetteville will be hosting a city-wide Earth Day clean-up and celebration on Saturday, April 22 from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Marion Orton Recycling Center.
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