Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I am a former woman of waste. No matter what it was it went into the garbage can. When my husband and I lived in an apartment, it was a generous hike to the dumpster and yet I still didn’t grasp the idea that there was just too much trash! When we moved into our house, we were enlightened by the world of recycling.

Each house in our area comes with two recycling buckets provided by the city, picked up every two weeks. I began recycling some paper, plastic, and aluminum. It was until I realized how much less actually goes into the trash bag until I started hardcore recycling. Not a piece of paper, plastic, or aluminum gets thrown away. I have a pile set aside and every so often I take everything to the garage and separate. I also ordered some extra bins from the city so I could separate items and make it easier on the workers. Since starting this practice, (along with some composting of kitchen scraps), I have almost removed the need to buy trash bags more than once every couples of months (and I buy a box of 15). I figure, I am paying for the recycling service whether I like it or not, I might as well use it!

Now you might ask, how am I supposed to recycle? I live in an apartment, or we don’t get curbside pickup… Well, start recycling in other way. I reuse plastic jugs of all sorts to make iced tea and lemonade. I save margarine containers to use as Tupperware. You can also FREECYCLE (a free trading group offered through Yahoo) anything that is salvageable or you think someone might need. Crush those aluminum cans, store them, and make a trip to earn a few bucks! Do your part to help save the earth, and those trash bags!!