I was reading Stephanie's blog this morning about helping her kids be more green. And it got me to thinking about some of the recycling faux pas we have had around here.
The other day, the recycling bins were out at the street, patiently waiting for the garbo to come along and throw them in the recycling truck which may, for all I know, be emptied directly onto the landfill. Anyway, I spied some recycling in the garage, which I KNEW had been deposited there by the chore-doer. Sought out said chore-doer and asked, "Why is there recycling on the garage floor when the bins are out there at the street?" In his infinite wisdom, he had determined that there simply wasn't another angström of space in the bins so he thought it would be much better to wait until the bins came back empty and THEN put the stuff in (like 3 envelopes and a small box). This time, I HAD an inquiring mind, and I suspected that PERHAPS he did his space estimation from the house, rather than actually walking out to the bins. Since I know that space is the final frontier, and that recycling can almost always be squooshed some more, I directed him to march the recycling right out there and find a spot for it.
And then there was the "recycling" I noticed in the bins the other day. It was the bottom of a baby wipes box (may or may not have been recyclable) which contained: A FULL JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER, an expensive bag of chili spices, a partial box of Lemonheads, and a clip from the dry-erase board. I can see the box and clip being overlooked, but wouldn't one NOTICE that the wipes box weighed like an entire pound and wonder about that? Apparently not.
And lastly, there is the problem of the milk cartons. I buy very expensive organic milk, and God knows it would be nice if the cartons could be recycled, but they can't. How many times have I said they cannot be recycled? One too few apparently.
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6 comments:
That was quite a good train of thought you chased, to think that the space "estimate" might have been made from the house, which is after all only 80 feet from the street. I commend and applaud you!
Don't you just love the photo Joel made in Photo Shop?
So can the milk cartons be recycled? I'm not clear...?
I do love the picture Joel photo-shopped! And the whole post mom did was great too!
The milk cartons cannot be recycled and the problem was that one certain person was always putting them into the recycling, instead of the trash. Hope that is more clear!
funny... and infuriating when you are the mom... stuff.
We have been trying to get into recycling... but we have to use a bunch of gas to get to the recycling place.
THEN they ship it all to the lower 48, so I am weighing the problems for the landfill vs emission from the big ships that take it all the way to the states... then when you add our car and the gas and the chaos it creates inbetween recycling runs...
We are becoming 'big stuff' recyclers... part time recyclers. oh well.
Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting! I enjoyed your "Aussie" post as we lived there for 1 1/2 years in the early '90's. As for Alaska, I met my future brother-in-law on a missions trip to Alaska when I was 18 and he was 16 and we both loved our time in Alaska. Just yesterday I was thinking about how much I miss my ulu knife that went missing a couple years ago. As for recycling, I know that for some people it is such a huge thing and almost more trouble than it is worth. I also look for ways to reduce and reuse, and maybe if your recycling has to be shipped across the ocean, you're more ripe to reduce and reuse rather than recycle! Looking forward to reading your blog and having you visit mine.
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