European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Reducing the flow of garbage Bynina Killham Washington Post in this world Benjamin Franklin once said nothing is Curlain but death and laves and garbage face it human beings arc trash. Machines incapable of consuming anything Wilhour creating a pile of garbage seemingly twice i he volume of the product. The United sales now produces More than 400.000 Onsol. Trash a Day and space is running out landfills Are Over towing. Waterways Are clogged and beaches Are becoming lethal playgrounds in 1986. The total solid Wasle in the United states added up to 160 million tons a full b percent of which came directly lion the Kitchen As food waste. There Are 16.100 landfills nationally half of which Aro expected to close by the Yeai 2000. The one Landfill that serves the District of Columbia and suburban Virgina is expected to be completely filled in the year 2003. The Landfill to Montgomery county. My Wisi Boillod in May of next year a new application has been submitted to extend capacity Unhul 2004. Haw can you help break the wave of trash. According to Eric a. Goldstein senior attorney Al natural resources defense Council in new York three Steps can be taken to substantially alleviate Load generated garbage first he says to take a Nice hunk out of the problem people should set up composting programs in then  composting the degradation process brought Aboul by bacteria and fungus organisms can effectively turn organic Kitchen and Garden refuse into a moist Black soil conditioner. And oven apartment. Dwellers with balconies can compost according to Pegi Ballister Howells of the Rutgers cooperative Extension Lor Middlesex county a. To Start composting the Virginia cooperative Extension service suggests laying Small twigs or chopped Corn stalks. Down first to Aid in aeration and drainage. Then add both Garden Yard waste accounts for a Lull in percent of Landfill mass and Kitchen refuse such As husks co fee grounds crushed egg shells and Canning wastes. Next add a layer of a nitrogen Rich material such As fresh manure or Resh grass clippings Hay or Green weeds you can buy synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in the form of blood meal or cottonseed meal do not add meal it will attract rodents. Water the pile to keep the. Contents moist. If you smell a Strong whiff. Of ammonia the pile is either Loo tightly packed or too wet turn the Heap add some coarser material for aeration and snarl Over. Every three or four weeks Fork Over the pile pushing outside material to the inside so thai everything Breaks Down. A a3 Lor the apartment method Here s How take a stack color is important because it absorbs heat plastic bag nil it three quarters Lulu with cooking and Plant refuse again Only vegetable refuse blowing through a garbage dump in Maine that hundreds of herring gulls seam to prefer Over few Ocean Tor reeding. Meal products could attract rodents add a nitrogen product and fill with water it will not decompose if dry. Set out on the Balcony it needs the sunlight and poke holes in the bag to let the water Drain out. Every once in a while suggests Ballister Howells. When you. Walk past you can give the bag a kick ii moves things around and aerated  if the bag loses its oxygen she says anaerobic bacteria will flourish and things Witt begin to get smelly. A second trash reducing idea according to Goldstein is to be sensitive to waste in your shopping decisions. According to a report by world watch Institute an Independent non profit research organization packaging accounts for about 30 percent of the weight and 50 percent of the volume of household waste. The packaging explosion has gone too far says Goldstein. We Don l need to wrap something in one layer then \ re wrap in a bigger layer and then put it in a plastic bag this is an area where Consumers can make a big  Tho amount of packaging for food doubled even tripled after world War ii says Goldstein. In 1958, the per capita consumption of packaging material in new York state was 404 pounds per year. By 1986, it had risen to 800 pounds. Advertisers and marketing experts have assumed and in some cases it s True thai packaging Sells so make sure he says that you re buying or the product., not the package one obvious answer says Goldstein is bulk food shopping. Ii not Only benefits the consumer in Price reduction and the environment in waste reduction he says it also benefits the producers themselves in overhead reduction they spend less on packaging they lose less in the profit Corner. When i m in the Market says Goldstein the bulk food Aisla is the most heavily populated aisle As the 1990s approach that will be an important trend emerging.". According to a May 1967 arli Clein supermarket business news bulk foods is in fact declining As Many supermarkets Cut Back on the number of items available or Cut out tha program completely. Safeway which started its. Bulk food program in.1983, sees no Greal increase or decrease in the amount of Peoples who shop from the bins. It has what Ann Cockrell of Safeway Calls a stabilized customer base. A third contribution bring a Satchel. Follow european shopping fashion and take your own bag to the store. It stupid when you go to get something that is already packaged to dump it into another plastic bag. Then when you get Home you unpack bags and they re All strewn All Over the Kitchen you realize that the products you bought make up just under half of tha total  other shopping decisions might what it it. And How Price have Rhan a wasteful society the Chan Cluj to Pool solution include insisting on recyclable cardboard rather than styrofoam egg Cartons reaching Lor milk in the paper rather than plastic Cartons and asking or paper bags when checking out. Currently Safeway and giant Oiler the Choice of paper or plastic. At Safeway in the second Quarter of 1983, customers chose plastic Over paper 3 to 1. In an Effort to do its bit for tha environment Safeway is testing at its Vancouver. Wash., stores a photo degradable plastic bag that Breaks Down into fragments when exposed to Light and eventually reduces to Carbon monoxide and water. Giant places its plastic paper bag ratio at 60-40 in favor of plastic. Ii has not yet incorporated a photo degradable bag in its stares pm Loring for the moment to research bags that can decompose without sunlight something Mark. Roedat of gland says will be More useful in an area served mostly by landfills. Recycling should come Back Lull Force says Goldstein to help combat the trash problem and according to a National poll of .1,000 adults taken by Perin and Schoen associates 91 percent said they would be isl thing pay a Tew cents More for products packaged in recyclable or biodegradable  world War ,.wehad a lot More. Recycling because of the Recd to. Preserve precious metals for the War. Then As materials returned to abundance we became extravagant Goldstein noted. The legacy of the Post War Era while being a very productive Era for us is that we became a throw away  Olga Sweeney of us recycling centers inc., in Rockville and Hagerstown md., says Many residents have gotten the message. When she opened the Center in 1986 in Rockville 40 people showing up on saturdays was considered a Good Day. In the past Tew months the number of people has quadrupled. Recycling is very suddenly big business and i think it s because that garbage Barge from new York scared a lot of people she said. Call your local Extension service or look in your local yellow pages for nearby recycling censers a \ items to separate irom your garbage and Recycle include Glass bottles and jars aluminium beverage cans tin foil aluminium pie plates from Frozen foods cardboard Brown paper bags and newspaper recycling of paper is especially important As it is the largest single component in Landfill waste taking up 36 percent. Page 16the stars and stripes Friday. November 11,1988