Kermit the Frog had it right. Sometimes it's not so easy being green. Not when it seems so much simpler to just toss your refuse in some random garbage can and be done with it. Outta sight, outta mind. But the long term affects of this short-sighted thinking for our shared planet are potentially devastating.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no tree-huggin', Preble's mouse savin', hybrid-drivin' Enviro-Nazi. On the contrary, I recently contributed to the world's population explosion myself by giving birth to twins. Which is, coincidentally, why I drive a gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly suburban assault vehicle. And I eradicate as many mice in my very own back yard as I possibly can with help from an Australian Shepherd who thinks she's a cat.
Where I grew up in the Midwest, recycling was something along the lines of passing off "ABC"* gum to a schoolmate as a joke or hanging an old truck tire from a rope in a backyard cottonwood for use as a swing.
Moving away to San Francisco after high school, I became much more familiar with recycling and conservation as a way of life. Imagine having to actually ask for water when one was seated for dinner. Or having a box labeled "PAPER" next to the water cooler in the office break room. Of course, the peer pressure to comply was also a motivating factor. I didn't relish being called an ignorant Midwestern hick. (This fear also broke me of my habit of referring to the freeway as an "innerstate".)
After we got married, my husband and I moved to Las Vegas. Perhaps it was Nevada's geographic proximity to the Golden state or the influx of former Californians as residents, but the recycling there was effortless. Color-coded bins were provided for plastics, glass, and newspaper free of charge and the truck came weekly into our neighborhood to empty them for us. Simple.
From there we relocated to Seattle. In this jewel of the Pacific Northwest, the recycling took on a decidedly militant nature. I remember being asked (in a rather accusatory tone, I might add) by a new neighbor a mere three days after we moved into our house why I hadn't put anything out in my recycling bins for pick up. How fun it was for me to admit I was still trying to figure out how to get the washing machine hooked up so that I wouldn't have to make a run down to the Fred Meyer for extra underwear, let alone sort my plastics. But again the recycling truck popped around weekly (or even twice weekly if you paid a nominal charge and requested that schedule). And again the peer pressure kicked in. You either recycled or you were mildly ostracized by your more earth-friendly compadres.
Now we live in Parker, a small town-cum-suburb, which seems to pride itself on its beauty. At least if the number of overzealous HOA's replete with rules and regulations and the city council with their "improvement" agendas are any indication. But they sure make it hard for a gal to recycle.
Case in point: The trash removal company our HOA contracts with comes weekly for garbage but only twice monthly for recyclables. Which means at our house we have literally stacks of plastics and paper stored in the garage in between pick-ups. (God forbid we should store it outside next to the house....our HOA representative would suffer a coronary on his next drive-by.)
It is actually pretty easy to recycle once you get the hang of it. Only takes a couple seconds to rinse out a baby food or yogurt container before throwing in the plastics bin. Ditto with the milk jugs (only with the added benefit of working out some latent aggression by stomping them flat for extra room during storage). And we would be carrying the newspapers to the garage anyway so why not stick them in the paper container instead of the trash can?
Every two weeks we drag several recycle bins out to the curb stuffed full with milk jugs, baby food containers, newspapers, and the like. Our two garbage cans also come to the edge of the street to wait, but they aren't overflowing, unlike the landfill where their ride will end.
Recycling is a choice. No one will make you do it. But think of this....
We Coloradans are a lucky bunch. We live in a state literally brimming with natural, majestic beauty. I choose to recycle because I try not to take that beauty for granted.
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Already
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