Natural Living

While recycling has become second nature for some, many people still either don’t or can’t recycle even the basics like aluminum cans or glass bottles.

Excuses for not recycling abound – “I don’t know where to take my recyclables”.  ”I don’t know what my town/city recycles”.  ”Its too much trouble to recycle”.  ”Recycling doesn’t really help the planet”….these are just a few of the ones I’ve heard most frequently.

Recycling is easy though.  Mr. T. and I have recycled for years and we’ve done it all ourselves (no services were/are available in the little towns we’ve lived in).  With a little information and a few tips and tricks, recycling everything you possibly can will become second nature for you!

First – The Information!

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to add another chore to my already gigantic list of things I have to do in a day – I’m going to need some convincing on exactly why I need to think this new task is important.

Recycling whatever materials in your home/office/daily lives that you can is important for a wide variety of reasons; the most basic of which is that we are not living with an infinite supply of natural  resources.  The more we can reuse resources instead of having to tap into the finite supply, the better off we’ll be as a society and as a planet.

Reusing items can take many forms, one of which is the act of recycling.  When you put that little bit of extra effort out that it takes to recycle your cans, bottles, paper, etc., those items are all reused to make something new; instead of having to drill, blast, dig, etc. for more “ingredients” to make a product out of “new” mateirals.

But that extra effort is too much you think……I already have so much else on my plate.  When I start to feel like that I ask myself “What is the earth’s burden?”  As much as I may be a busy working mom of 3 blah blah blah, the earth is mother to billions – providing for us all.  The least we can do is take care of our trash like good boys and girls!

Now, that may sound cheesy or lame to some – but it’s the truth.

You expending a bit of extra thought power and energy to recycle can be just one small way you can help make things easier, more earth friendly and ultimately cheaper to produce….so you can purchase something else made of recycled materials to keep that circle going.  And, so this beautiful planet will be around for your great, great, great, great, great, great, grandkids…and their grandkids, and theirs too……….and on, and on, and on!

Now, Find Out What, Where, When and How Your Community Recycles

Some people don’t recycle simply because they don’t know what to recycle, how to recycle it, where to take it, or even when it gets picked up.  This information is easily accessible at the website Earth911.

All you have to do is enter the material you want to recycle, and then enter your address, zip code or, city and state.  The info will come right up.

Its also best to call the facility listed there for more info in case they have any special rules about what you need to do that aren’t listed on the earth911 site.  For example, at our recycling facility (also our town transfer station – or fancy speak for where the trash waits to be taken to the area dump.) they  need you to thoroughly rinse everything because its handled a lot there and having clean recyclables helps keep down bugs and rodents too.  In some localities rinsing isn’t required, in others you have to rinse and get rid of the labels.

Following these rules is important too because it helps the facility get the most money for the items as possible – which is important and so beneficial for your community.  Here it has helped our town in a myriad of different ways especially during this difficult economic crunch.

Last, But Not Least, Some Tips and Trick

Over the years, we’ve realized having a good system in place for recyclables makes it so much easier to recycle as much as possible in just a few minutes every 2 weeks or so.

In some locations (where my inlaws live for example; in the suburbs of a major city) recycling is mandatory and bins are provided by the town’s solid waste contractor and picked up at a pre-determined time each week.  If this is what your community does, you’ve got it made!

Remember though, you could still be able to find private entities that recycle items independently for one reason or another; sometimes as a way to raise funds for a non-profit. And this goes for all recyclers; don’t assume that what your town offers is all you can recycle.  Earth911 or a quick “Google search” should be able to show you these facilities, if not, ask the folks at your dump or often your town offices will know this info.

If you don’t have a town that provides curbside pick up recycling – they often have recycling facilities at the dump or transfer station itself.  This is how we’ve always recycled; taking the stuff ourselves to the dump (we’ve always hauled our own trash too) to be recycled.

To make it easy we’ve slowly bought or found containers for each type of item we can recycle.  We have a huge bin (Mr T’s old tool bin he kept in the back of his first truck) we throw all the paperboard, paper and junk mail into, garbage cans for glass, returnables (our state has a refund), plastics and aluminum.

Then, we just found out we can recycle more types of plastics than before via the next town over’s facility, so we’ll need to get a few more containers so we can separate them as they’ll have to go to a different location than the rest of the stuff.

Having separate containers makes it easy to dump the bins and go – no separating or sorting.  You can also make it easier and cleaner to fit everything in your car by using bins that fit nicely into your trunk and back seat.

Overall, when you look at it, theres really no reason not to recycle.  Even if you live in a city or town with no facilities, try the next town over, or the one after that.  Put some energy into figuring our how you can make less trash and reuse more.  You’ll save your town (and possibly yourself money – and you’ll save you planet even more than that!

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