by Jolene Toves

Guam - With all the festivities set to take place at this year's carnival i-Recycle's Peggy Denny is encouraging island residents to be mindful of the ongoing recycling efforts.

"We are aggressively recycling at the carnival so we are as usual recycling aluminum cans plastics one and two's so predominately bottles food waste that goes to a pig farmer biodegradables which is basically anything that is paper or plant based," she said. "We also break down cardboard and recycle that any glass that is generated steel cans scrap metal basically."

This year the i-Recycle program is being more aggressive by weighing everything that is collected to demonstrate to the mayor's council and residents how much is diverted from the landfill and its impact. Denny says they want to play a significant role in extending the life of the landfill and be able to quantify their efforts using hand held scales to weigh aluminum, plastic bottles and biodegradables while other items such as cardboard will be estimated by volume. As for glass an average will be given by the recycling sites...once all the items are collected and separated they will send them to the appropriate partners. To make the job easier for the i-Recycle team there are a few things residents can do to pitch in.

"They need to be aware that aluminum cans go in the aluminum can bin if you have a can and you can't crush it with your had then you know its not aluminum and it can be set down at the base of the recycling cart because it will be recycled as scrap metal," she said.

All containers whether it is aluminum, steel or plastic must be empty. Denny says ideally you want to take the cap off and throw it away, empty the container and place it in the appropriate bin. She stresses that plastic bottles 5 and 6 as well as styrofoam are not recyclable, saying, "But chopsticks and paper plates napkins can all go into the biodegradables which is also labeled compostable."

Meanwhile food waste has to be strictly foodwaste she asks residents to be mindful as they are striving to one day reach a zero waste carnival so far efforts at the carnival are going well. "Like I said we always have post deposition sorting where we have to go through and separate the bins and ensure that the right items are in the right bins but we have already diverted a truckload and a half of corrugated cardboard," she said.

She adds that since the carnival opened they have also diverted about eight bags of plastic, and a full 32 gallon container of foodwaste.