Members of The Little Garden Club of Rye recently visited the Westchester Materials Recovery Facility in Yonkers.

Members of The Little Garden Club of Rye recently visited the Westchester Materials Recovery Facility in Yonkers. During their tour, the women learned that 1.8 million tons of waste is generated every year in Westchester County – that’s nearly 2 tons of garbage per person! This is a good reason to focus on reusing and recycling as much as possible. The facility sorts, crushes, bales, and ultimately sells what they collect for re-use. It turns approximately 70,000 tons of glass, aluminum and plastics into a $4 million to $10 million profit each year.

One interesting tidbit learned: most of our paper and cardboard is sold for re-use to China. It gets there via the otherwise empty cargo ships returning to China after delivering wares here.

— Photo courtesy of Mary Julian