The landfills are filling up and soon the earth will be one large garbage heap. As time goes on people are starting to realize the impact that humans are having upon the world they live in; they are becoming more aware of ways in which they can help to mitigate the negative effects that those impacts are having upon the environment. Every inhabitant of the Earth has a responsibility to take on the role of environmental steward to the planet. Although Fairbanks, Alaska, has a few good recycling centers, the local community needs to put into place a glass recycling program because there is a large amount of glass that is going straight into landfills, littering is increased due to a lack of places to recycle, and glass is a material that is easily recycled given the correct resources.
Glass that is put into the garbage is taken to a landfill along with the rest of the non-recycled waste. Unfortunately this waste accumulates and causes a very large amount of land to be used up as storage for the garbage as the very long process of decomposition takes place within these landfill facilities. Glass is one of the worst materials in relation to the amount of time that it takes to break down; Earth911 says, “A glass bottle can take up to one million years to break down…” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). Recycling glass offers opportunities to not only make something useful out of something that is “used up,” but it also frees up a lot of room within the landfills that could be used to store other waste products. With no resources available to recycle glass, it is not only ending up in landfills, but also littering the streets.
Littering is of course a problem everywhere, in every city in America, and in every country in the world. However, in Fairbanks, Alaska, the problem is especially bad due to the fact that there is no local glass recycling program. An example of this is the fact that the author knows first-hand that one local restaurant which will remain unnamed, dumps all of it’s glass bottles into a pit in the ground behind the building; when asked why they do this, the establishment expressed that they would like to recycle the glass but there is no way to, therefore they would rather just throw it out back then send it to the landfill. This type of an attitude is the direct effect of a lack of recycling resources around the Fairbanks area.
Glass is one of the easiest and most useful materials to recycle. An online environmental website called Earth911 says that, “Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled infinitely without any loss of purity or quality” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). This means that a product made of recycled glass is absolutely no different from a product that is made from non-recycled glass; a glass jar for instance could be made entirely of recycled glass and one would never know the difference. This is an important fact to take into consideration when thinking of how critical it is to have a glass recycling program in place in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A local glass recycling program was instituted at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2004, however it was cancelled after a year because, “…the glass recycler in Anchorage was no longer able to process the glass coming from Fairbanks.” On the Associated Students of the University of Alaska website they went on to say that they are, “…presently looking for an economically feasible method of shipping plastics [and glass] to Anchorage” (Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, n.d.). This means that the local community of Fairbanks, Alaska, needs to work with the University of Alaska in finding a feasible transportation method of glass to Anchorage in order for Fairbanks to operate a local glass recycling program. This obstacle is not a huge hurdle; it is something that has not been given enough energy to in order to overcome. Some would argue that the program has already failed once therefore it would be foolish to try it again; however there is no proof of this, and someone making that argument would be committing themselves to an argument by using a logical fallacy. Not only that, but many people feel that the time and resources needed to recycle glass are just not worth it, but as this essay has pointed out, glass is actually one of the most easily recycled materials there is and the only thing standing between the community of Fairbanks and a glass recycling program is to find a cost effective way of shipping it. The community of Fairbanks, Alaska, has a large mix of environmentalists cohabitating with industrialist miners and people with a large variation of views on the earth and the world. However, the one thing that most Fairbanksians have in common is that the majority of the residents enjoy being outside in the clean fresh air of Alaska; if glass continues to pile up in landfills, litter the streets, and get scattered throughout the beautiful landscape of Interior Alaska the clean fresh air will soon begin to smell like one large trash dump.
Overall the idea of a glass recycling program in Fairbanks, Alaska, would benefit the community and the environment greatly. There is no reason why the people of this community cannot find a solution to the one hurdle that stands in the way of being able to recycle all the glass that is filling up the local landfills and littering the land. It is time to act; it is time for each person to take responsibility for the land that they call home.
“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” (n.d.). Earth911. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://earth911.org/recycling/glass-recycling/benefits-of-glass-recycling/
Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://asuaf.org/recycle/faq
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