Gotta Love Recycling

Isn’t the idea of taking something no longer wanted and turning it into something new fascinating? It’s kind of like magic.

I’ve been into recycling for about 20 years, but the beauty of the concept was never clearer than the time I took a tour and saw how recycled tires were converted into carpeting for the trunk of a car. Amazing.

And when you buy a package of recycled paper in a store, it looks virtually the same as any other paper. How do they do that?

For years, we had to save and sort newspapers, bottles, cans and other recyclable items and pack them in the the car and drive them to a local recycling station. To make collecting and sorting items easier, my former boyfriend installed several large brackets on the wall in the garage just outside my kitchen door. We put the recycling bins there, and all we had to do was open the kitchen door and toss the items into the proper containers (one for newspapers, one for cans and bottles, and one for other paper).

Later, the county began to pick up recycling and everyone could just deposit containers on the street on recycling day for pickup. The recycling center provided signs that volunteers could put up to remind residents in subdivisions or sections of town “Recycling Day is Monday.” (I’ve stuck the sign in the ground at the entrance/exit of my subdivision every two weeks for about ten years now — and, amazingly, our area has the highest recycling rate in the county! And someone even thanked me the other day when they saw me putting it out, saying they always forgot about it until they saw the sign.)

Now, the county has distributed all-in-one recycling bins that look like garbage cans on wheels. The great thing about them is that you can toss any kind of recyclable item in, without having to sort first. It’s a real timesaver!

Statistics have shown that the recycling rate increases dramatically when citizens are provided with containers like these – and garbage collected decreases significantly.

Regardless how recycling is done where you live, please check it out and consider participating, if you don’t already.  It takes only a few minutes, and it’s something everyone can do to help the environment — and feel good about.

Save