Posted 4/02/2008

This is Public Health: Recycling Counts!

By Greg Dominick
HPEB PhD Student

Many factors affect our health -- people's attitudes and behaviors, social and peer influences, organizational actions, and our environment. In this pre-packaged, Saran-wrapped society, many of us do not consider how our behaviors and values concerning the environment may affect our long-term wellbeing.

Greg Dominick

Harm is done because we fail to recognize the connection between the impact of our actions on the environment and the environment's impact on our health and well-being.

Consider this: South Carolinians recycled about 1.55 million of the 3.2 million tons of solid waste deposited in landfills in 2007. That was an increase of about 3 percent from the 1.510 million tons recycled the year before.

The outcome of that recycling effort was significant, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions significantly, the environmental impact was equivalent to eliminating electricity usage by 1,733,032 households for one year; preserving 110,658 acres of timberland from deforestation; or conserving 1,537,622,535 gallons of gasoline.

DHEC says the state currently has a recycling rate of 31 percent for municipal solid waste. That is encouraging, but it is still short of the goal of 35 percent set by the S.C. Solid Waste Policy and Management Act.

Through small behavior changes, we can make a difference in protecting our planet. One of the easiest ways a person can do this is by reducing the amount of garbage collected in the community. Recycling plastic bottles, reusing empty cans and jars, and using reusable shopping bags and containers are a few of the simple steps a person can take to help the environment.

Recycling turns materials into other resources. Just as a single vote counts, individual efforts to reduce waste will collectively have an overall significant effect. The most common recycled materials are cardboard boxes, newspapers, steel cans, aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles, lead-acid batteries, tires, used motor oil, and large appliances.

Graduate students in the Arnold School of Public Health have received funding from the Association of Schools of Public Health to create a health communication campaign, "This is Public Health: Recycling Counts."

The campaign will take effect during National Public Health Week, April 7-13. Arnold School students will promote recycling efforts by engaging and interacting with Midlands residents at events at the Richland County Public Library, Southeast Branch, and with USC students in the Russell House and public health buildings.

Every county in the state has a recycling coordinator. To learn more about local recycling programs, call DHEC's Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling at 1-800-768-7348 or visit www.scdhec.gov/environment/lwm/recycle/counties.htm.

Join us in this recycling effort to learn more about how you can make a difference - and help the environment and your health.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Greg Dominick is a doctoral student in the Arnold School of Public Health's Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior. He earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Lander University and a master's degree in exercise physiology from East Tennessee State University.