Keep Liberty Beautiful is proud to have Mason, a young man from Bradwell Institute, working in our office until December. He is actively involved in our recycling initiatives, and his perspective on recycling is truly inspiring. When asked what recycling means to him, he shared his thoughts:
To me, recycling is all about renewal. It’s the process of giving objects a second life, either in the same form or in a completely new one. Every time I think about recycling, I imagine a cycle where things never truly end; they change, adapting to a new purpose and new roles. In Liberty County, recycling is applied differently depending on the location. For example, in the city of Hinesville, they pick up yard waste and convert it into compost, nutrient-dense dirt used in community landscaping and home projects.
Our local recycling facilities cater to a wide range of materials, empowering you to recycle more. Southern Metals Recycling specializes in scrap metal, from aluminum to copper. The county convenience center’s waste recycling facility supports a broader range of recycling items, including paper, plastics, and cardboard. Operational hours are 24/7. Fort Stewart Recycling Drop-Off supports glass, electronics, and many more materials for disposal for military family households and surrounding communities. Lastly, the Liberty County dump handles the waste not targeted for recycling; it is responsible for safe waste management and operates from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Each facility operates with a different service, so their presence and availability help keep Liberty County cleaner and more sustainable.
All the cities and the county within Liberty County are united in their goal to handle waste most efficiently and reuse it in ways that would benefit the community, maybe through composting or making new products. Recycling has given life to things and the planet after all. Whether it’s an old can finding a place in a new car or a plastic bottle getting a life utterly unexpected, recycling creates potential out of something that once was perceived as waste. It is an everyday small action that contributes to building a better world, a more sustainable one-second life at a time. Your participation in these efforts is crucial and greatly appreciated.
After asking my peers, I discovered that recycling means different things to different people. For my classmate, recycling is more about reusing. According to her, the most effective way of recycling would be to use an object continuously until it can no longer serve its purpose. That is to say, for her, it is less about throwing something into a recycling bin than giving life to an object. She reuses containers, refills water bottles, and even uses parts of old clothes in her jeans for different aesthetics. For her, recycling means to extract every ounce of value from it.
Another classmate views recycling as limited in definition, referring only to materials like plastic and metal. Recycling, for him, is a process whereby the items are thrown into the bin, where they’re processed and changed into another product. He does not regard things like paper, wood, or fabric in the recycling category because they break down over time. In other words, for him, recycling is the physical act of transforming old materials into new items. He’s focused on the tangible, industrial side of it.
Other students in my class also have different opinions. Some think it is worth recycling only when it’s easy; otherwise, it would be too much trouble if the process is too complicated, such as separating all different types of material. Others broaden the definition of recycling: They think of composting food scraps or donating clothes, wherein the object isn’t destroyed, per se, but finds a new life elsewhere. Recycling, in the opinion of one colleague, is a way to save some cash. She explained that in the case of items like glass bottles or aluminum cans, recycling by the people reduces the demand to purchase such goods anew and saves money this way for both enterprises and consumers.
For her, in other words, recycling is not just about the environment; it is also an economically reasonable decision. After all, none of these opinions are wrong; each gives another way to look at the responsibility that we can have for things we use. Each lends a little something to the idea of sustainability from a different angle.
Rivers Alive Cleanups are still going on. The St. Catherine’s Island Beach Sweep is on Saturday, October 19, from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at Half Moon Marina. The countywide Rivers Alive cleanup is on October 26 in every city within Liberty County. KLB provides all the cleanup supplies, and we have free T-shirts while supplies last. We have 550 Rivers Alive T-shirts available this year, so join us to get yours. Contact us at the Keep Liberty Beautiful office at (912) 880- 4888 or email klcb@libertycountyga.com. Please check our website, www.keeplibertybeautiful.org, for detailed information on all our upcoming events.