Day 344

Thoughts: Our plastic earth.

Recycling is not in our bests interests, according to the large company owners. You may be wasting your time throwing anything in the ‘recycle’ bin.

“All the recyclables are going into the same landfill as the trash.” – I had heard this circulating, and now I know it to be truth after speaking with Kevin who deals with plastic everyday and who is the CEO of More Recycling Carting in Columbia, South Carolina USA.

Kevin’s team is responsible for picking up 150 clients trash each day each truck – and there are 4 trucks running, “and that’s alot of trash” says Kevin, and he’s not talking about plastics. That’s a whole other story.

Kevin explains, “We dump our stuff at the landfill. And when it is dumped out – there is so much waste that could be recycled – the landfill doesn’t want us to take pictures – because they need it there to sell the methane gas (a biproduct of decomposition). Waste management own the landfill which produces methane gas – and they sell it from the landfill to the gas companies. The gas companies then sell it to the people – used for power – to fuel trucks – one big circle.

So I ask ‘isn’t that being productive?’ He said, “If we recycle more there will be less methane gas produced, which is not good business for Waste Management or for the gas companies– and to top it off they don’t make money on recycled material – the market for recycled materials is pretty much dead – there is no one buying the garbage – the cardboard.

“When they tell you we are recycling so much – that is a lie. Worldwide – pretty much. The United States at the present time is the number 1 country for producing methane gas.

So what is the point to recycling? Kevin explains that the problem is no one is buying it – paper, cardboard, they want it for free because there is no market for it. So it ends up in the landfill. It then decomposes into methane gas which is then sold to the companies that need it.

Why isn’t there a market for it? Kevin thinks that the current economy is a reason as there is less work for builders and less houses being built, hence no one is buying wood to build homes, then they are not building any windows that need to be boxed, so no one is buying cardboard.

The current economy - It devalues the recyclable material next to nothing.

Proof that garbage companies pick up recyclables and take it to the regular landfill rather than the recycling plant! “It does not pay for me to pick it up and try to sort it, because I’m picking it up, taking it to my place, then workers sort through it, picking it up again, then hoping to sell it to someone which is not happening” explains Kevin.

The solution? People taking responsibility for their own waste. We, us people need to recycle more on our own– find innovative ways to stop throwing away things – raw food from stores, restaurants, raw food could be used to feed pigs, farm animals, compost for the garden, orange peel are great vitamin for soil, egg shells increase the ph in soil. “So many things we could do with food and use it that it ends up in a landfill. If everyone was doing this it would make a huge difference. If we stopped throwing away food on a daily business – break it down yourself – compost – it would change the world.”

In the restaurants there is usually 40% more piled on your plate then what you need – when you train yourself to eat only enough food that you need – you are living a simple sustainable life on earth.

When you over eat and over indulge you are using up the earth’s resources. When you have a million people doing that – that is a lot of consumption and a lot of weight the earth has to support – not just in bodies – but everything that comes along with that obese lifestyle – packaging, containers, plastics, paper, you don’t get that big eating apples and bananas. When a person is obese it not only affects that person – but the entire earth and population as well.

The Earth diet is living a simple sustainable lifestyle and eating foods that nature intended to support your existence as a human being in a human body.

Lastly Kevin shares with us that,

A plastic bottle lasts 100-200 years in a landfill.

It’s a lot easier when you see what is going on – and a lot of them don’t know that it can be recycled – it is lack of knowledge.

Money doesn’t matter – you can still make healthy choices.

How do you store your foods?

The plastics that are used in food containers, bottles to hold water and beverages, and the lining of cans that hold commercial foods often contain dangerous chemicals. The chemicals in the plastics can seep out while food or beverages are stored in them or as food is being cooked in a plastic container. The chemicals in plastics can create a wide range of health problems.

Some alternatives to storing food in plastic are:
-Glass
-Metal
-Crockery
-Wood
-Cotton and hemp bags

This blog thanks to the wonderful Kevin, CEO of 'More Recycling Carting' and Jamie-Lee Golden!

Read more from Plastics Everywhere Side effects.
Life Without Plastic

Quotes: When walking, walk. When eating, eat. Zen Proverb quote

What I Ate Today:

Meal 1: A beetroot, carrot, celery, ginger and garlic juice :)

Meal 2: A grapefruit.



Meal 3: A Raw Macadamia Nut Bar! Created with cacao, agave, macadamia nuts, lime, dates and spring water!



Meal 4: Seafood Marinara! Created with shrimp, squid, mussels, scallops, tomatoes, basil, oregano, cilantro, tomatoes, sun dried tomates (no added anything), garlic and olive oil :)



Meal 5: A clementine!

Recipe:All recipes will be posted in The Earth Diet book published later this year. Other recipes available free on The Earth Diet website www.TheEarthDiet.Org

Exercise: The Farmers Markets! Setting up - and got a great arm work out carrying the tables and produce to the markets from my house! :)

21 days to go!!!