Imagine spending your whole life around trash.
One woman in central Illinois has seen it all and now spends her days trying to clean-up the waste that's collected over the years.
WCIA-3's Charles Vance has her story.

For most of us, what we throw away is out of sight, out of mind. But for Cindy Eaglen, trash is more than just trash.

"I've been in it my whole life," Cindy says. My dad got in the garbage business in 1951 and i was two years old.. and i've grown up and lived my whole life in it and seen where it's been and now, where it's going."

Eaglen owns Illini Recycling in Champaign. She's seen it all and knows all to well why recycling is more than just the nice thing to do.

"The people are growing. The waste is growing. It has to stop," she says.

She says the trash really started piling up about 40 years ago and has only snowballed since then.

"It was in the early sixties when we became a throw away society," she says. "My dad hauled the Champaign Schools when I was a kid. And Champaign Central High School had eight garbage cans but they had trays that were washed. Silverware that was washed there just was't that much that was thrown away.. Today your schools have styrofoam plates and on and on paper napkins and the capacity is probably 10 times what it was then."

And that's just one location.

"When you look around Illini Recycling, you realize all that's here is just a tiny fraction of the garbage we create everyday."

And with landfills filling up, Eaglen says something's gotta give.

"If plastic is not recycled, that will be in the landfill long after your kids, your grandkids. It will be there forever. That stuff just doesn't go away."

She says the key is what she calls the three R's of recycling.. reduce... reuse.. and recycle. She says cutting down on your trash is just as important as taking your recycle bin out to the curb.

"Well, i think they need to look at the whole picture.. instead of just taking the curbside bucket out and putting it at the curb.. i think they need to look at ok... What can i do to reduce... Just any little thing helps," she says.

Eaglen says there are a few simple things that can cut down on your garbage.
Things like using a mulching lawnmower, donating discarded items, and reusing plastic containers.
She says the more people who do it, would make a huge impact.