Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Going Green: Myth Busters—Recycling Edition

aeliasen
Employee
Employee

Here’s another installment of our Green Myth Busters series.  This week’s edition focuses on some common myths about recycling in general. You may have heard some of these before, but here’s the real scoop on all things recycling: Recycling is hard and time-consuming With increases in resources, recycling is easy!  Check with your city to learn the recycling guidelines. Some city recycling programs require items to be sorted, but a number of cities allow commingled recycling like we do at Southwest.  If your area does not provide recycle bins, set up an area in your home to collect recyclable items to make it easy to transport recyclables to the recycle center.  Make it a habit to recycle!  We certainly do at Southwest, and as a result, our Employees and Customers have helped us keep 9800 tons of comingled recyclables out of our landfills since 2008—that’s equal to the weight of more than 233 Boeing 737-700s! Very few items are recyclable Many household and office items are recyclable.  With our co-mingled recycling program, we can recycle plastic, paper, aluminum, and cardboard, but here are a few others you can recycle at home or through special recycling programs—check out www.earth911.com to find recycling programs near you:
  • Glass
  • Metal
  • Light bulbs
  • Batteries
  • Printer cartridges
  • Used Oil
  • Cell Phones
  • Electronics
Also consider taking clothing, appliances, and furniture to a homeless shelter or secondhand store. That’s a great way to recycle items and put them to a great use. Recycling is expensive and won’t save money Recycling can actually be less expensive than other waste disposal programs—and it cuts back on the amount of waste in landfills.  Another way to cut back on waste is to repurpose items and go paperless. Set a goal to have zero waste and see the savings stack up. Recycled products are lower-quality Oftentimes, recycled products look no different than non-recycled items. They pass the same testing and ratings that non-recycled products undergo. By purchasing and using recycled products, you help cut back on the number of materials used and energy required to produce these items. Do you recycle at home and work?  Let us know by commenting below.  DING!  You are now free to be green!