April 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 56

RECYCLING

hicles with smart-cities' data hubs,
more efficient hauling can lead to
significantly reduced costs.
Plastic bottles present a recycling
challenge all their own. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic is
one of the most ubiquitous waste
materials in our environment. It is
now found in abundance in every
ocean and in both polar regions.
Globally, it is estimated that more
than 500 billion plastic bottles are
produced each year, but only 14
percent are recycled. The rest are
landfilled, burned or discarded in
our environment. It is a staggering
and depressing amount of waste
that could be reduced and re-used.
But, there may be good news on
the PET front. An enzyme that
breaks down PET plastic was accidentally discovered by an international team studying bacteria in a
landfill in Japan that has naturally
evolved to eat plastic. PET plastic,
made from oil, " is incredibly resistant, " says Professor John McGheehan, the project leader. Scientists hope that the newly isolated
enzyme can be optimized to break
down PET plastic faster and on a
larger scale than ever before.

There is more good news. A recycling plant in Lawrence, Ohio, has
recently been licensed to re-process
polypropylene plastics, which, up
till now, could only be recycled into
a lesser grade of grey or black plastic of significantly less value. The
new pyrolytic process can produce
high-quality, almost clear polypropylene plastic from lower-grade
plastics. This technological breakthrough could make recycling of
low-grade scrap polypropylene
highly profitable, while reducing
wastes and costs.
These are only a few examples
of potential breakthroughs. There
is no magic bullet, however, to rescue us from the waste we produce,
but technological advances such
as these show real promise, even
if they are still a long way from
achieving economies of scale.

What Parks and
Recreation Can Do
Park and recreation agencies have
an extraordinary opportunity to
educate the public regarding recycling. Possibly some of our greatest contributions toward recycling
goals will not be the weight and

volume of what we recycle, but the
impact we have on changing public
behavior.
Today, virtually all park and recreation agencies have some type of
public-facing recycling program,
and some are quite extensive. Kyle
Lowe, assistant division chief for
the Natural and Historical Resources Division of the Maryland-National Capital Park and
Planning Commission in Prince
Georges County, Maryland, says,
" In 2018, we created the 'One-Million More Challenge' with a goal
of going from 1.7 million pounds,
our 2017 recycle number, to at least
2.7 million pounds of waste that
we diverted from landfills or recycled or re-used. In 2018, with an
all-agency effort, we topped that
number and recycled 3.2 million
pounds of materials. We achieved
it through a rollout of new indoor
recycling containers, new signage
and expansion of recycling in outdoor park sites, with a long-term
goal to have 100 percent participation in recycling at all parks. "
Park and recreation agencies
serve millions of meals per year in
afterschool and summer programs.
The food waste from these meals is
mingled with trash. Brendan Daley, director of strategy and sustainability at the Chicago Park District
(CPD), notes that his agency alone
serves tens of thousands of meals
to children in its summer food nutrition program. " Until now, " he
says, " all the food waste from these
meals has been consolidated with
other trash. We are looking at nine
park sites to develop a pilot for a
comprehensive food composting

A trash audit can provide valuable info on
what is being disposed of in your trash
barrels and recycling bins to inform your
recycling and education efforts.
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April 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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