Study Finds Carpet in 62% of Loads to Ohio Landfil
Toledo, OH, January, 5-- In its first-ever statewide trash inventory, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources found that carpet or carpeting materials were found in 62 percent of the loads.
Three of every four truckloads contained loose wood. Construction and demolition debris was found in 52 percent. Small appliances were in 42 percent.
The report found that 42 percent of all garbage that winds up in landfills is, by weight, some form of paper - whether it's newsprint, office paper, cardboard boxes, or other products, according to Toledoblade.com.
The inventory is to be released today in a report called "What's in Our Garbage? Ohio's Waste Characterization Study."
The inventory
The report claims Ohio residents can do better at recycling: More than 60 percent of the material that residents throw out is paper, plastics, glass, and metal that can be recycled, the Ohio DNR said.
The agency's results are based on 460 truckloads of trash that employees sifted through during the spring and fall of 2003 at 14 landfills and transfer stations.
North Toledo's Hoffman Road Landfill, where most of Toledo's trash goes, was one of the 14 sites studied. Others in northwest Ohio included one jointly managed by Ottawa, Sandusky, and Seneca counties as well as one jointly managed by Defiance, Fulton, Paulding, and Williams counties.
Plastics ranked No. 2, accounting for 16 percent of the garbage by weight. Food was No. 3 with 15 percent of the total, followed by yard waste with 9 percent, textiles with 6 percent, and glass with 5 percent.
Tin cans and other metal products accounted for 4 percent of the total by weight, as did disposable baby diapers. Empty aerosol cans and medical waste each accounted for less than a half of 1 percent by weight.
The inventory will help the Ohio DNR set priorities for divvying up recycling grant money, Andrea Misko, an agency spokesman, said.
