Reduce, reuse, recycle for 25 years in Cape

In any given month, Cape Girardeau's recycling program collects about 175 tons of recyclable materials.

To put that in perspective, picture your friendly neighborhood dump truck hauling 20 to 30 African elephants -- among the largest mammals in the world -- every 30 days. That's enough mass for 70 granite slabs from an ancient Egyptian pyramid.

Impressed yet? We certainly are.

On April 4, the city celebrated 25 years of its recycling efforts. An article by Savanna Maue the following day told how the local League of Women Voters sponsored Cape Girardeau's original recycling pilot program, which started with 60 households and pickups once a month. In those days, participants separated their items by hand and dropped them in trailers that visited on designated Wednesdays.

By 2009, the number of participating households had jumped to about 2.300, and since then stands at almost 5,000 per week. That's primarily because the city switched to single-stream service in 2010, meaning residents no longer have to hand sort their cans, plastic bottles and detergent boxes.

Now, they simply toss recyclable items into a 96-gallon bin and roll it to the curb once a week, although glass bottles and jars still have to be separated by hand and dropped off at the Osage Centre, Arena Park and other local venues.

Aside from that one small inconvenience, recycling doesn't get much easier around here. And just think of all the metal, paper and plastic that doesn't find its way to landfills or worse -- gutters, empty lots and waterways near and far. It's a heavy accomplishment for our city of almost 40,000 people -- a quarter century's worth of progress.

As we head into Earth Day on April 22, Cape's recycling program is something we can be proud of in the quest to keep our planet green.