As you well know by looking at my last post, I often have a difficult time staying on task and point. It may be one of my fatal flaws, but in this post, before I go on about recycling, I suppose since this is only the second post for this site, you almost don’t even know what to expect would be shared over the course of the next posts.

I figure, I would take a quick opportunity to let you know that this has so far not been exactly what I had in mind for such a  genius of a domain name taking on a manifestation this sort of a lame-o personal blog. There is nothing I can say that could comfort you, other than to come check us out again at a later time, as this will evolve over time.

Now, I want to let you know that I grew up in the 80’s, we had Earth Day and Earth Week events back where I was from. It was truly an inspirational time for me. I learned about recycling and got pine trees to plant in my McDonald’s happy meals. When I recycled back then, there was also a financial motivation. I collected huge garbage bags filled with empty can sodas from around the house. Getting them all weighed out at the recycle center, we received our 19 cents. I guess, after that first trip, it just didn’t seem worth it to recycle for change.

I continued to collect and turn in recyclables, though less enthusiastically, it still felt good to do so. And I  don’t know what happened when, for a period I just sort of stopped recycling. Maybe it wasn’t convenient anymore, there wasn’t recycle bins available, so I just threw my refuse into the trash bins, maybe even littered!

Recycling has since been revived in my life, for probably over 10 years now. Each year getting a little more serious. Those 13 gallon trash bags that used to get filled up and thrown out every 5-6 days, is now taking 30-45 days. Every mail piece is sorted, shredded, and recycled. Every piece of candy wrapper, is also recycled. When I am out, I just stuff it into my pocket, and drop them into my collection bucket(s).  I found a great site that collects all kinds of things that you didn’t think could be recycled, potato chip bags, used brita/pur water filters, even cigarette butts!, and so much more: http://www.terracycle.com/

Sadly for my space, because they do take so many things, I have been collecting all kinds of things here for the past years on end. It sure does end up taking up some space, which I will organize better “one day.” It gets really bad when I get busy, and the piles of stuff collect, unprocessed.

For example, when I process my soup cans. I first rinse the can of course, I think that should be the bare minimum! It’s just nasty to throw unrinsed cans into the recycle bins, which I have often seen! But, I usually take it one step further, and I peel the paper off the can, separating the metal and paper, each going into their respective bins. If the paper has too much sticky on it, I cut off that sticky portion, and just throw that away, as I think the sticky stuff may not be so good for the recycling process.

One of the things I wish I could see more of, which I know there have been some shows dedicating an episode or documentaries on various aspects of recycling, but I would like to see the processes of recycling materials, and see what actually happens, as it could help steer my buying habits, if certain materials are better at recycling than the other, etc.

Other questions are, where is recycling actually happening? Likely getting shipped outside to places like China: http://qz.com/117151/us-states-banned-from-exporting-their-trash-to-china-are-drowning-in-plastic/ , and even they are beginning to reject some of it.

So what is next? Reuse? Why cannot Coca-cola, ship their drinks in their reusable glass bottles? When their delivery man drops off more drinks, they can pick up all the used bottles. Picking up, cleaning, and inspecting for quality bottles will be an added cost that is unlikely to be met with enthusiasm.

I guess, if you take coca-cola as my example. Opt to buy the can drinks, over the plastic bottles. I believe that recycling aluminum cans is one of the most efficient processes in recycling.

Better yet, drink filtered water from your reusable water bottle, is better for your health and our environment!