The City of Fayetteville produces enough trash each year to fill up the Donald W. Reynolds football field seven stories. Seven stories. In my experience, seven has always been a lucky number, but in this case I really don’t think it is something to be proud of. If you’re like me, you may have trouble visualizing just how much all of this in your head. So we’ve provided a visual we received from Dan Dean, an Arkansas Energy Corp member here in Fayetteville. For all of you number and statistics people out there I figured that wouldn’t be enough, so I went on a journey with my computer calculator to figure out just how much trash we’re talkin’ here (haha, trash talkin’, get it!…aaah).
The football field is about 360 by 160 feet. An average story is about 10 feet tall, and there are seven stories in our scenario. Now here’s the tricky part: MATH! Multiplying those all together to get a volume, I came up with about 4,032,000 cubic feet of trash. To put that in layman’s terms of things we see in our everyday lives, that’s about 1.8 billion iPhones, 110,000 Vespa scooters, or 23.8 million ducks.
Fayetteville produces enough trash to fill the Donald Reynolds field up to seven stories tall!
Fayetteville produces enough trash every year to fill the Donald Reynolds field up to seven stories tall!
But in all seriousness, that’s ridiculous! Seven stories! The good news is that, based on the current resources available in Fayetteville, about 50% of this waste can easily be recycled each year. In order to do this, all we have to do is come together as a community and take advantage of the recycling resources we have.
Citizens of Fayetteville Recyclin’!! – Photo courtesy of NWA Online
Did you know that Fayetteville has a free 24-hour Recycling Drop-Off point? The drop-off is located at 1420 S. Happy Hollow Road. All you have to do is bring your recycling and dispose of it in the proper bin. It’s super easy. Each bin is clearly labeled with what objects you are allowed to throw in and even has some pictures for examples. You can recycle everything from mixed paper to glass to cardboard to every type of plastic you could imagine. The glass is especially fun to throw into the bin because it shatters upon impact! It really helps you blow off steam, or if you’re not mad, well, it creates quite a lovely, chaotic symphony of shattering to top off your day.
I know lots of you reading this are probably students like me, and you’re probably saying things to yourself like: I really don’t have enough time to be driving to this drop-off point all the time, why is this girl tellin’ me what to do, how dare she, I’d rather just hang out with my BFFs and drink tea and watch Doctor Who while trying to figure out where the party is tonight. Trust me, I totally understand. That’s what friends are for. Maybe you live around a lot of your friends or are pretty tight with your neighbors. Make a plan and trade-off every week or month as the person who takes everyone’s recycling to the drop-off. It’s like car-pooling for recycling! Except I’m not sure if that counts for getting you into the HOV lane…Oh well!
Remember, don’t be afraid to ask those around you for help. Let’s help each other and recycle more!
Links:
- City of Fayetteville Solid Waste & Recycling –www.accessfayetteville.org/government/solid_waste/index.cfm
- Organizing recycling areas in apartments and homes! –
- Set Up a Recycling Center (Container Store)
- 7 DIY Recycilng Centers for Small Spaces
*Note: The above calculations are not exact and are based on approximate values.
Originally posted on May 30, 2012 by Holly Tallen.