Lee County Solid Waste Experience Report

Before this fieldtrip to Lee County Solid Waste Facility, I lacked knowledge regarding the fate of our trash. My idea of a waste facility went along the lines of a big dump site or landfill; contrarily, I am familiar with what items are deemed recyclable in Lee County. My experience at the Lee County Solid Waste Facility, operated by Covanta, showed me how garbage has the potential to provide electrical power to over 250,000 homes. Waste to Energy is a primary example of how America can become more sustainable and produce less heaping landfills. Carrying around a trash bag made me conscientious of how much trash I accumulated.
In a week, I accumulated roughly a pound of trash. This weight measurement excludes food contaminated items, human waste items, and biohazard items from the hospital. The bag contained mostly paper towels, a few plastic cups, a glass bottle, and a large laundry detergent container. By recognizing my abundant use of paper towels, I am able to correct this by using dishwashing towels. Half of the paper towels were used to clean the dorm room and the other half were used for drying dishes or wiping up small messes. Luckily, Lee County’s waste facility has an outstanding recycling plant that is able to use these
This may be partly due to the embarrassment felt when carrying a trash bag in public; also, at home nobody would judge having a trash bag. In addition, I noticed that my few plastic items were coffee cups that I would buy out and about. Some days I did bring coffee with me in a reusable cup and received a discount when getting a refill by doing so. It may be more beneficial to me to bring a reusable cup anywhere I go, therefore I will not feel guilty about the waste I could have prevented. However, the Waste to Energy facilities demonstrate how we can make something detrimental to the environment into positive ways of sustainability and paves the road for future similar