What do TFC Recycling, the City of Virginia Beach and the Farmers Market have in common? Recycling, of course! Great weather made for an amazing day to learn how each one of us can make a difference through recycling.
Recycling games, awesome inflatables, music, pony rides and a petting zoo were just some of the activities that kids enjoyed. The TFC Recycling truck was a huge hit with the kids as they were encouraged to sit in the cab, blow the horn and pretend to pick up one of the big blue bins! Taylor, The Recycling Dog, was on hand to show kids just how easy recycling can be!
We hope that everyone who joined us had a great time and that each of you learned something new about recycling! Be sure to tell your friends how easy recycling can be and we hope to see you all again next year!
America Recycles Day: One day to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year.
Since 1997, communities across the country have come together on November 15th to celebrate America Recycles Day. More than a celebration, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to the promotion of recycling programs in the United States. One day to inform and educate. One day to get our neighbors, friends and community leaders excited about what can be accomplished when we all work together.
This year, TFC Recycling and the City of Virginia Beach are joining together to get Hampton Roads excited about recycling! Come out to the Farmers Market on Saturday, November 13th to support your city’s recycling program and enjoy FREE exciting family activities!
Live Entertainment
Hourly Drawings
Gift Certificates to “Green” Restaurants
Pony Rides and Petting Zoo
Food Vendors
Environmental Exhibits
Recycling Games
Inflatables
Crafts
Free T-Shirts
Giveaways
Please join our TFC Recycling Family as we show your family just how easy recycling can be! See you there!
A recent report from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has revealed that 77.8% of our state’s annual solid waste, which turns out to be 12.5 million tons, was sent to landfills in 2009. Of what wasn’t sent to landfills, 13% was incinerated, and the last 9.2% was managed in various other ways, including mulching and recycling. While the total amount sent to landfills actually decreased 2.5 million tons from 2008, 68% of what is ending up in the landfills is “municipal solid waste,” which theoretically could be the easiest to reduce.
The definition for “municipal solid waste” according to the state of Virginia is any domestic trash (biodegradables and recyclables included); construction and demolition debris; and vegetative and yard waste. The great news is that amount of domestic trash and vegetative waste can be easily reduced by households taking the initiative to reuse, recycle, and even compost.
Items like clothes, toys, and electronics can be reused or given to thrift or consignment stores, keeping them in circulation and out of the ground. Recyclables include flattened cardboard boxes, mixed paper, #1 and #2 plastics, glass, and steel, aluminum, and tin cans. Items that can’t be recycled, like plastic bags for example, can easily be reused at the grocery store. Some grocers are even adding an incentive for shoppers now, by giving discounts to customers who bring their own bags. Compostable materials, like leaves, grass clippings, plant stalks, vines, weeds, twigs, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells and nutshells, once broken down can greatly improve the quality of your soil, and can be used in flower beds, gardens, and even planters.
To find more information about what waste is going where, check out the DEQ website, and for more tips on how to lessen your share of waste, read more on our blog.
TFC Recycling services the communities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Chesterfield County.
TFC Recycling is now ready to start Suffolk’s Curbside Recycling Program. We are excited to bring you the convenience of recycling pick up at your doorstep. We appreciate your patience with us in launching the program.
In order to start receiving your curbside recycling we have a few things you will need to do:
Step Two: Within approximately one week of receiving your completed service agreement, you will receive an invoice in the mail. You will have the option to pay online, by check, or over the phone. Online billing is our preferred method and your invoice will include directions on how to setup your online billing. You may send your invoice with payment via mail if you do not wish to enter your credit card information over the internet. To initiate your service and receive your bin, effective July 20, 2010, you will need complete the agreement and remit your payment by June 30.
Step Three: After receipt of your payment, your 96-gallon big blue bin will be delivered starting the week of July 1st.
Step Four: Start recycling! You will be notified via email or mail of your pick up date in July. Recyclables will be collected every other week to coincide with your regular trash pick up day.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and this year TFC wants to not only celebrate our beautiful planet, but also our local community, which has been working so hard to keep it clean!
Yesterday a member of our team, LeAnne Benedetto said, “we were a green company before ‘green’ was even cool,” and though she just might be right, we’re really excited to see everyone catching on and pitching in to conserve our environment.
Virginia Beach and TFC with the award
The city of Virginia Beach, which was the first community to partner with TFC for curbside recycling, was recently recognized for their efforts by receiving the 2010 American Forest & Paper Association Community Recycling Award. Virginia Beach recycled close to 23,800 tons of paper and paper-based packaging in 2009, which was more than 68% of all recyclables collected.
The 2010 American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Community Recycling Award was presented to the city of Virginia Beach in mid-April and the annual award recognizes outstanding community, business and school paper recycling programs across the country.
Congressman Glenn Nye said, “Families here in Virginia Beach understand how important it is to protect our environment through recycling, and we know that individual steps like recycling paper at our homes and businesses can have a huge impact. I’m proud that Virginia Beach has been able to set a strong example for the nation,” – and we’re obviously proud, too.
Chesapeake had a good green year as well, tripling their recycling volumes since February of 2009 after partnering with TFC. We collected 1,125 tons of recyclables from the Chesapeake recycle service big bin containers in February 2010, and according to city officials’ statistics, tonnage per month in February 2009 was only 308.
Today also actually marks a big day for Suffolk as the official announced deadline for the “Suffolk Sign-Up,” promoting the curb-side recycling program. We’ve had a great response and have even seen over 100 new sign-ups in the past few days, raising the numbers to nearly 2,000 households registered. Since it’ll take 2-3 weeks to evaluate the numbers, we still encourage residents interested to continue to sign-up – every signature helps!
TFC's last E-cycling event in Virginia Beach
Lastly, if you’re in York County, make sure you check out the annual Earth Day festivities going on at the Riverwalk on Yorktown Beach today from 10am-2pm. A TFC truck is down there right now, collecting electronics for the York County Electronics Recycling event. Bring any and all out of date electronics past the point of being reused (except televisions)!
Happy Earth Day, Hampton Roads, and keep up the great work!
There are many reasons to recycle. Aside from simply trying to do the right thing and not be wasteful of natural resources and energy, here are some other reasons.
Reduce Landfill Waste
Perhaps the most important is to slow down the rate at which we are filling the earth with our trash. At the rate things are going, we will soon run out of room. If everyone recycled, we would save energy and some of the earth’s precious resources. Aside from reducing the amount of trash put out on the curb every week, many people participate in Hampton Roads residential recycling programs.
Paper
The more paper we recycle, the less we need to produce. The fewer trees we cut down for paper, the cleaner our air will be. There will be fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Recycled paper uses about 60% less energy and about half as much water as making new pulp. Making paper requires chlorine, a toxic chemical.
Energy
It takes less energy to create recycled plastic and aluminum, among others, than it does to create it from scratch. The less energy we use, the fewer fossil fuels we use to create power.
Green Products
Many recycled items now go into making recycled products rather than going into the landfill. Aluminum foil, paper and plastic are just a few examples of recycled products. In fact, there are companies that create “new” products out of completely recycled items. For example, one uses sawdust, straw, bamboo, rubber and plastic to create a material that can be molded into other products. They create goods such as decorative interior designs, door panels. By recycling, consumers create material for companies that are trying to create green products.
Employment
The more people recycle, the more jobs are created in the recycling industry. As a snapshot, just in Hampton Roads, recycling removal has created many jobs. As we continue our recycling efforts, employment of workers nationwide will increase in this industry. Workers are needed in the recycling centers themselves. In recycling alone, workers are used to pick up the recyclables, run sorting machines, package up the materials and turn them into recycled material. Think of the far-reaching effects of the industry nationwide.
