If you just used the Garden’s new composting and/or recycling bins, congratulations, you just helped us create a more sustainable future!
In alignment with our exhibit Washed Ashore, we are making changes throughout the Garden to help all of us make sustainable choices. This particular change included adding four recycling bins to the front-half of the Garden, and a composting bin at Dottie’s. This allows us to redirect waste to a more useful end.
Why does it matter? Composting is using organic matter, like food scraps, leaves, wood and paper, to help create healthy fertilizer or renewable energy. Without proper aeration and care, the organic matter is wasted, literally. Recycling is putting something, like plastic, glass or aluminum, through a physical or chemical process to be used to create something new. If left in a landfill, plastic can have toxic effects on the environment.
How can you help? Follow the guidelines below for choosing which bin to place your waste in for optimal recycling and repurposing!
Use the composting bin for: paper waste, food waste, cardboard food containers, compostable foodware from Dottie’s.
Use the recycling bin for: empty plastic, aluminum or glass cans and bottles
Once our bins are full, Waste Management (WM) will pick up our waste. Anything in our compost bins will be taken to Anaergia’s Sun Valley Waste Management Recycling Park, where it will be processed and prepared to be used to create renewable natural gas. This natural gas is used for gas stoves, heating homes, generating electricity and even vehicle fuel. Our recycling bins will go to Waste Management for proper processing.
Thank you for joining us on our mission for a more sustainable future. To learn more about sustainability and the Garden in general, take our Washed Ashore Adventure Tour! Click here for tickets.
