Sturgis awarded $25,000 for recycling

Good news this morning that the city of Sturgis will receive $25,000 for larger scale recycling options.  Stated in an article in the Rapid City Journal today, Sturgis recycles old newsprint and corrugated cardboard and that these funds will allow for holding trailers and a larger baler for cardboard.  Instead of these usable materials heading to the landfill, they will be separated and taken to recyclers.  Good news!  Randy Nohava, Public Works Dept Director also notes that "a good 85% of that stuff is worth money".

Just today, we started our week of "tracking our trash".  It's really making me think about everything we thoughtlessly toss in the trash that will soon head to the Belle Fourche landfill.  Already, the orange plastic bag the RCJ came in this morning, a piece of saran wrap, an old receipt and even lint from the dryer.  And this just in the first 30 minutes of a Sunday!

Track your trash - recycle, reuse and be smart

Swirling trash in the ocean bums me out.

Do you ever think about the amount of trash your family creates every week?  It's probably more than you think.  And I'm not talking just plastic trash -- stuff that can be recycled or reused often gets thrown in the trash and then magically, the garbage man comes once a week and takes it all away leaving us a big, empty can to refill again. 

I can't remember the last time I went to a landfill or, as we called it when I was a kid, the dump.  The dump was always a fun trip with my dad.  We'd throw some branches, an old couch and a bunch of trash into the back of our light blue Ford pick-up and off we'd go to the dump.  My brother and I would love to poke around but never found anything good.  And there were always seagulls which was perplexing to me since I grew up in the middle of California, 150 miles from the ocean.

If each of us took more care to consider our trash, little by little, I think it would help the volume of swirling mess and maybe it would help us to consider that this earth is a living organism and it should be treated with respect. If we as individuals don't do something, who will?