Page 15 - Overland Park Overview Fall 2018

Banish the Bag
In old western movies, when cowboys were out on the range and it got “too quiet,” they knew trouble was brewing.
When it’s quiet at a recycling facility, it suggests trouble. If the noise stops, it means the machinery and recycling has stopped because something is wrong. The villain may be a simple, lightweight plastic bag.
Mixed recyclables like those collected at curbside in Overland Park go to materials recovery facilities (MRFs) for sorting by material:
plastic bottles
aluminum cans and steel (tin) cans junk mail, paper
newspapers
milk cartons and
corrugated cardboard
Each component is compacted, wrapped with wire to make bales, and shipped to facilities where they’re processed to make them ready to make new products.
It’s important that recyclables are rinsed, empty and loose when they arrive at a MRF and start the journey toward being properly recycled. The cleaner the bales of materials, the higher their value.
One major obstacle on this journey is the humble but ubiquitous plastic bag. Plastic bags used to hold recyclables are one of the worst contaminants in a recycling process on
a list of unwanted materials that includes scrap metal, wire, chemical bottles, diapers, syringes, needles, propane tanks, and hangers.
None of these items should be included with curbside recyclables since they can hurt employees and disable machiner y.
Plastic bags shut down the recycling system several times a day because they wrap around rotating axles, wheels and disks. When the machines are silent, production stops and receiving lines back up, resulting in a reduction in efficiency and value while labor costs go up.
At times, plastic bags slip through the sorting process and wind up in the paper bales. Since plastic, obviously, is not paper, it is a major contaminant and can lead to the paper being not recycled.
For these reasons, plastic bags, garbage bags, shopping bags, zip-lock bags, bread bags, newspaper bags, and plastic film, such as shrink-wrap, plastic wrap around cases of water bottles, packing pillows, bubble wrap, and flexible plastic food packaging are excluded from our local programs.
While plastic bags and film are not acceptable in curbside recycling bins or at our drop-off recycling center, your local grocery store may accept plastic bags. The bags, including bread, newspaper, dry cleaning and other plastic bags, must be empty, clean and free of moisture or food.
To keep the plastic bag villains away from MRFs and your curbside recycling bin, use cloth shopping bags, reuse plastic bags at home, or recycle plastic bags at a participating store.
Turning autumn leaves into healthy lawns
Your lawn and landscaping has had a tough year with extreme heat.
Summer always stresses plants in the Midwest, and this year is no exception.
Fortunately, taking the easy way out when cleaning your yard this fall may help.
One of the biggest timesavers is to stop raking your leaves. Mulching, shredding and leaving the leaves on the lawn, rather than raking and bagging, will:
Help increase the moisture level in your soil over the winter and will help your lawn green more quickly in the spring.
Increase the water holding capacity of your soil, which is especially useful for absorbing rainwater runoff.
Help to break up heavy clay soils.
Increase nutrient and organic content in the soil.
Increase the activity of earthworms, microbes, and other beneficial soil organisms.
Contrary to popular belief, mulching in your leaves will not smother your grass. Studies have shown that hundreds of pounds of leaves are easily accommodated on a typical lawn.
What kind of equipment do you need to make this happen? Your lawnmower. Its blade easily shreds leaves into pieces one-tenth of their original size. Your once-daunting bounty of leaves will disappear into a layer of particles easily digested by worms and bacteria.
Begin leaf-mulching when leaves are relatively dry and before they are too deep. Set the mower to a normal three-inch height. Remove bagging attachments and block off the chute on a rear-discharge machine. Walk your mower slowly over the lawn, giving the blade plenty of time to shred the leaves. If your mower has a side discharge chute, you will probably want to begin on the outside edge, blowing chopped leaves onto unmowed areas, and continue mowing inward.
If your first pass over the lawn has left a significant quantity of whole leaves, repeat while mowing at a right angle to the first cut, perhaps walking even more slowly. Leaves, especially damp ones, take more work than grass. As with grass mowing, you’ll need to do this more than once, but it will take less time and your back will thank you for avoiding the rake.
While your yard won’t be as green immediately after mulching, the leaves will protect your lawn, decompose over the winter, and slowly release nutrients your lawn will need once winter retreats for another year.
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