At our house recycling is a must, because Emily is all about being "Green" and saving the planet. She is always telling me all of the great things we can do with the trash. Like planting flowers in the bottles that can't be recycled, and other stuff like that. (I have to purge her room every once in a while just to make sure she is not "recycling" anything weird.)
I thought we were doing a pretty good job. We have two garbage cans in the kitchen. One for Garbage and one for the recyclables. We are also lucky enough to live in a city that offers the big recycling garbage can that we can put our stuff in and set out on Garbage day. The only problem is the city is not very good about getting the information about proper recycling to us. (I have been looking for it)
We were getting most of our stuff into the right cans and I was feeling pretty good about our efforts. Then, Emily went on a field trip last year to the DUMP. (I know that sounds really exciting.)
When she came home she told me all of the things we were doing wrong. Here are a few of them.
When recycling a plastic bag you can not just put one bag in. You have to put a lot of bags inside one bag and tie it shut. Then at the dump they throw the outside bag away and recycle the bags that were inside.
When recycling a metal can you should wash it out and remove the label. Then let it dry before you put it in the recycling. Because if the Paper or cardboard gets food and water on it then it is not recyclable anymore.
Don't recycle cardboard that has food on it (like the pizza boxes)
Then last of all before you throw that plastic bottle in the recycling.... TAKE THE LID OFF!
Before I would screw the lid back on my water bottles, milk jugs, soda bottles, etc right before I threw them in the recycling and I have noticed that I am not the only one with this habit. If the bottle arrives at the dump with the lid on it then it is just thrown in the garbage because they don't have time to unscrew all the lids. I guess in the recycling process the lid has to be off because the trapped air causes problems.
So for years my bottles that I thought I was recycling have just been thrown in the landfill. I am sure that other things I thought I was recycling have just ended up being thrown away too.
So in the spirit of Earth Day I thought I would just pass this on so we can all learn from my mistakes.
HAPPY LATE EARTH DAY!
8 comments:
I think this is an amazing and informative post, Hillary! I remembered you telling me about her trip to the dump. Mike is a big "greenie" too when it comes to recycling. (DRIVES ME NUTS!!!) But we don't follow all of those things at all...neither does Mike. I'll have to have him read this so his efforts aren't wasted.(notice I said 'his'-cause I haven't been fully converted myself yet-maybe one day?!)
thanks!
That is good to know, Centerville is starting curb side recycling in June or July so thank you for sharring.
What!? you're pregnant! That's so great! I know this is so so late! I'm so happy for you! 2 boys 2 girls...perfect! Congrats.
Also I have to tell you I had the biggest smile on my face when I watched the video below. That is so funny. He still sang the same song every time he got on the swings last year. love it! Too too cute. miss that little guy!
I'm glad you posted this. I wanted to re-post with your lid advice on mine. Now, I'll just linky linky to your blog. Thanks for all the information. And, just FYI, some cities (Riverton) don't let you recycle plastic bags or glass! Can you believe it. I, too have been recycling tons of plastic bottles with lids and I was so happy and now I am just sick thinking about it.
halfup the time they dont pick reycle anyway
First of all, I love Emily! I love these tips, who knew. All those efforts by so many of us totally wasted. I might have to share some of these on my blog too. We need to inform people (wink).
I am sorry I missed your call. I had a lot going on today volunteering, dentist for all the kids, Gym and soccer. I will call you tomorrow. I want to catch up!
Your doing a lot better than we are. I'm all for a clean enviroment but believe a portion of the gloom and doom may be overblown.
In our home we do need to do a lot better at recycling.
Awesome post. I learned a lot from this. I screw the lids back on my plastic bottles too! But now I won't. Same goes for pizza boxes.Thanks!
Post a Comment