I’m so sure I’m going to enviro-hell. I am so guilted by the environmental impact of children – starting with the diapers and wipes as a baby and then entering into cheap plastic toy hell with all the goody-bags and Happy Meals and Kinder Eggs.
I try to find appropriate homes for the things we no longer want; I store away toys that are missing pieces (because one day, that piece will show up), until one day I simply give up and turf anything that no longer interests my kids into the garbage because I’m just sick of all the stuff. (And I’m cheap! I do not buy STUFF! How does it seep into my household?!)
Anyway, I am a pretty avid recycle police, making sure the correct things are recycling and correcting my fellow neighbours when they tell others that they can definitely recycle Styrofoam and other such blatant recycle fibs. (They might TAKE the Styrofoam if it’s in your recycle bin, but it just messes up the recycling system and costs us more down the road. You’re doing it wrong. Don’t I sound like a fun neighbour?!)
So I was over the moon with giddy recycle nerd happiness when I heard that all kinds of new things are going to be accepted at the recycling depot. Chip bags, granola bar wrappers, ziploc bags, bubble wrap and those net bags that carry your avocados will all be recyclable at one of these locations!
Lucky for me, one is very close to my home. My system is that I turf everything into a cardboard box in my garage, and when it’s full it goes in my trunk. Then, I drive around with it for 7 to 10 days. (Even though I stop at the Shoppers NEXT to the recycling depot every other day for milk, it only occurs to me as I am pulling away that I was supposed to pop in). Eventually, at some point, I pop inside and dump out the glass jars, batteries, lightbulbs, and old cords/electronics in their area inside the recycling depot. Now I can just add the “flexible plastics” (that’s what us official world-saving recyclers call those chip bags) and reduce my garbage size!
I’m not going to lie, part of the motivation for recycling is because we literally fill up our giant garbage bins every 2 weeks, even though I mad compost and as briefly mentioned above, recycle HARD. It’s embarrassing! So aside from being committed to recycling everything in this piece, I’m going to work on being more committed to no waste where I can. No little bags, no to-go coffee cups, as little packaging as possible! I hope you’ll join me!