Lately I've been noticing our recycling can has been filling just as fast, if not faster than, our trash can. That makes me happy. I would like to think that we recycle more than we through away.It really has become a developing habit to recycle. I still catch Spouse throwing things in the trash now and then that can now be recycled, so I say "Uh-uh... recycle!" or I just pull it out of the trash myself and toss it into the recycling can.
When we first moved here 2 years ago, the recycling center was very picky about what they would accept. We had to separate our recyclables, and each of the different recycling collection dumpsters had multiple drawings of unacceptable items with a red circle and slash.
We had separate dumpsters for cardboard, plastics, cans, glass, and newspapers, which meant sorting and separating it all. That was a pain, and probably caused many 'not to bother' with recycling. But a year later, the individual collection dumpsters were replaced by 'all-in-one' dumpsters with no restrictions. No more sorting and no more restrictions. Now we can recycle a whole lot more than we could before.
We also got a new, walk-in collection dumpster for electronics and household items. Instead of throwing that old TV, computer, or mattress in the trash, you can now walk it right into the recycling dumpster. I love it!
Let's face it: we must all get into the mindset of recycling as much as possible. The health of our planet depends on it. That means we need to think 'recycle' about more than just plastic water bottles. So my new mantra is 'Reuse, reduce, recycle'.
Crush du Jour: Mike Radon
4 comments:
Portland went to "co-mingled" recycle items all in one bin last year sometime...it's awesome! But now we've moved, and we're in a condo building. but we do have seperate recycle and trash chutes which makes it very easy.
Don't know if you notice this part though.
What it means is that our garbage stream is now mostly organic matter.
Once separated from the plastic bags it's put in a pile. From that pile you get methane and mulch.
That's why power plants are starting to spring up near landfills. Free fuel.
So recycling makes sense from more than one perspective.
That said, we don't recycle. It's been sort of a poorly implemented program in RI. Sure the outlying burbs do but the urban core doesn't. We have private trash pickup here.
I like the walk in program though. You don't know how many televisions I've seen sitting at the curb. The geek in me says "Go and harvest components like power capacitors, and things of that nature." But I know that would freak Keyron out. You see, you have to discharge the power capacitor. My former method was to place a large screwdriver across the terminals. Sometimes that would weld the screwdriver to the terminals.
The correct method is to put a resistive load across it. Bah!
We recycle a ton of stuff in Portland and only have to separate out the glass. We only create one back of trash every 2 weeks. Oh, composting all of the food scraps helps too.
Nice crush...love the preppy pink and the cleft chin.
I rarely bring the garbage can to the curb for collection every week. But my recycling bin is out at the curb EVERY week. The grocery store is VERY liberal with the plastic grocery bags when bagging. But when I go through self check-out, I use about 75% fewer bags.
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