Recycling

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. I have heard my grandma say that more than once. She said it was the motto during the depression, and war times. And to this day my Grandma lives this way. She has a whole drawer dedicated to storing the plastic bags from her produce, elastic bands, sour cream and butter containers, styrafoam trays, used foil, paper clips, push pins and more. She is such an organized lady that there is a place for everything and everything is in it's place.
Since we have become more conscious about our bodies and what we are putting into them, and doing to them it has naturally progressed to an awareness about the world around us. Translation, I am concerned about the environment. To put it out there I don't believe in Global Warming and I am still upset about the Nobel Peace Prize Al Gore won from his fear based documentary on it. That aside, I feel I have a duty to do what I can to help take care of the earth that my Heavenly Father and Jesus created for me. I have come to think that it is disrespectful to not have and awareness and desire to do my part in helping to maintain, preserve and beautify the gift of the earth.

A few months ago my friend said to me "did you know that Harry's (Whole Food Store) has a recycling center behind it?" I said "yes". But I didn't do anything with it, for two big reasons, I am lazy, and I fear new things. What if I got back there and didn't know how to use the recycling center? What if someone saw and laughed because I didn't know what I was doing? Yes it is much easier to just throw it away.

We recycle now. I have always had intentions to recycle but as I said above I was holding myself back. What changed? It was a box of Organic Bunnies (organic version of goldfish) that sparked the start. I was reading the side of the box and is had a reminder to not throw the box made of recycled paper away, but to recycle it. I started thinking about how full my garbage can was day after day, and how many boxes I put in there. We buy cereal bars, granola bars, bunnies, graham crackers, and cereal. Most everything that comes out of the freezer is in a box.

The next step for me was were to put it? We live in an apartment and I use the excuse all the time that there isn't room for anything else. But, a box is so small once it is folded down, and I have a space on the floor in my pantry. So that is my current recycling center. When I go to Harry's now I take my 5 gallon bottles to refill with water, my paper bags to reuse for my groceries, and now I fill up a bag with my cardboard boxes. It brought me a great sense of satisfaction to throw them into the recycling can, and a proud moment when Alison said to me afterwors, "mom we are saving the earth." It wasn't hard to do at all. There are 3 big garbages each are labled for what you can put in there, done deal. The scariest part of it is that I drive down a one way street the wrong way to avoid driving around the building!

One other effort we have made is to reduce the amount of water bottles we buy. Danny and I have each purchased a water bottle, and I know they have already payed for themselves in the amount we save from buying water bottles. I bought my water bottle about 3 months ago so I have already saved on buying over 12 water bottles!

For more information on Recycling
From the Web:
Why Recycling Is Important
As stewards of the environment, we are responsible for preserving and protecting our resources for ourselves and for future generations.

Getting Back to Basics
Recycling is really just common sense, and until the “modern era,” it was a common household activity. Before the 1920s, 70% of U.S. cities ran programs to recycle certain materials. During World War II, industry recycled and reused about 25% of the waste stream. Because of concern for the environment, recycling is again on the upswing. The nation's composting and recycling rate rose from 7.7% of the waste stream in 1960 to 17% in 1990. It's currently up to around 33%.

The Garbage Crisis
The world has changed a lot in the past century. From individually packaged food servings to disposable diapers, more garbage is generated now than ever before. The average American discards 7.5 pounds of garbage every day. This garbage, the solid waste stream, goes mostly to landfills, where it's compacted and buried. As the waste stream continues to grow, so will pressure on our landfills, our resources and our environment.

Last year the amount of energy saved from recycling aluminum and steel cans, plastic PET and glass containers, newsprint and corrugated packaging was equivalent to:

• The amount of electricity consumed by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
• 29% of nuclear electricity generation in the U.S. in one year.
• 7.9% of electricity generation from fossil fuels in the U.S. in one year.
• 11% of the energy produced by coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
• The energy supplied from 2.7% of imported barrels of crude oil into the U.S.
• The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger automobiles in one year.

I ask everyone to find out what your excuse is for not recycling, and then figure out what you can do to change it. We have a responsiblity to keep the earth beautiful because it is a gift from God. I know you will be blessed for even the smallest effort, we have.