In our history we have used the world's resources as if they were infinite, or infinitely renewable.
There has always been more wood than we could chop down, more land than we could cultivate and more fish than we could catch.
Most of us now realize this is not the case. There is only so much water, land, and so many animals, vegetables and mineral resources to go around. We must start using them in a sustainable manner that allows potentially renewable resources to recover before we use them again.
And, it's not just about maintaining the health and productivity of the natural environment, it's also about maintaining the health and productivity of the social environment. Nature and society are critically interconnected.
Recycling is the cornerstone of sustainability.
The role of recycling plays in preserving our environment is far more important than most people realize.
Recycling is the most important part of the answer to the question of living sustainably. Instead of throwing away valuable materials that ultimately end up in a landfill, recycling recovers valuable materials and allows them to be repurposed.
These materials will be handled one way or another, so devising a system that allows for recyclables to turn into consumer goods once again only makes sense in the long run as we work to protect the irreplaceable natural capital of the planet.
Since 2007, Harley Hollan Companies has made strong efforts to recycle and divert large amounts of waste from the landfill.
With hand sorting and a transfer station, we have recycled more than 500,000 tons of materials. In 2009, Harley Hollan opened a free, public recycling drop-off center at 5677 S. 107th East Ave., and in 2010, we became the first company in Oklahoma to offer Styrofoam recycling.
With the building of the transfer station, we have eliminated the two largest obstacles preventing people from recycling: pre-sorting and getting the recyclables to a recycling site.
Customers who rent containers and the general public who bring recyclables to our site can place all their debris into one container and then it is sorted at the transfer station. Neither have to worry about any extra steps to recycle.
At the transfer station the debris is sorted by hand on an extensive conveyor system that separates metals, rock, lumber, Styrofoams, green waste and many other commodities.
We divert more commodities than any other company in the northeastern Oklahoma area. On average, 80 percent of the materials that go to the transfer station are diverted from the landfill.
Many of Harley Hollan's customers are also embracing sustainability by requesting LEED-certified reporting for their construction projects. For those companies, Harley Hollan tracks each bin, then the material is separated and amounts of each commodity are calculated. Our staff creates diversion reports for each job site. This report indicates how much debris is being recycled, including a breakdown of the individual commodities and how much waste is being sent to the landfill.
It is important to maintain the balance of our planet as we take innovative steps to ensure we are reducing, reusing and recycling on a personal, corporate and global scale.
It is our responsibility to leave to our future generations an environment that is as varied and bountiful as it is today.
Sherry Brunner is director of sales and marketing for Harley Hollan Companies, which received the Environmental Stewardship Award at Sustainable Tulsa's Henry Bellmon Awards Thursday.
Reader Forum
The incarceration rate in Oklahoma is among the highest in the nation with approximately 26,000 people behind bars at any given time.
The Nov. 28, 2008, Tulsa World published my Readers Forum piece, "Antietam," in which I reported on a visit my then-8-year-old grandson, Stevie, and I made to Antietam battlefield in rural Maryland.
