News 12 at 6, April 22, 2008

BELVEDERE --Today is the 38th year for Earth Day and one of the ways you can celebrate it is by starting to recycle.

Recycling is not necessarily an idea that has caught on here in droves, but it does have a lot of benefits. It helps the environment and keeps the landfills from overflowing. But not everyone here in the Augusta area is buying into it.

When it comes to recycling, Robert Burns is all in. "It's important because it conserves space in the landfills," he said.

Space that's filling in fast all around the country. That's in big part because people aren't taking advantage of recycling options like ones at the Aiken County drop-off in Belvedere.

Todd Reams says there are plenty of places to take your recycling to, but people just don't. "No, I don't think they recycle enough," he said.

Recycling doesn't have to be just for your cans and bottles; you can recycle say, old light fixtures. The idea is that most stuff can be reused. And, that will keep more things from taking up space in landfills.

Despite that, the scene on many streets on trash and recycling days includes a lot of trash cans out and almost no recycling bins.

But it's not as hard as you think. Most counties offer a number of recycling options for you. Richmond County and North Augusta will pick it from your curb. Columbia, Aiken and Edgefield Counties set up a number of sites to drop off at. Most try to make it as easy as possible.

"We don't even ask them to separate it," said Monique Wood, of Augusta Disposal and Recycling.

But even as easy as that sounds, Monique said people just don't do it. "I would say 10 percent recycle."

And, Robert Burns says that's a problem. "I think a lot of people don't appreciate how much of an affect they have upon it."