How to Recycle
And Save the Planet
by Mother Nature
Chapter 1: What is Recycling?
You’ve seen the green bins on the curb and watched the trucks rumbling by to pick them up on collection day, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself: Self, just what is recycling thing?
One of Three Options
Before diving into recycling, let’s look at some other alternatives. Try this on for size…
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Say it again.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
That’s right, you have three options to consider before chucking something in the landfill. Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Let’s look at each one.
Reduce
Your first option to avoid chucking an old item is not buy it in the first place. Practice this daily mantra.
I am not a lemming.
Consumption does not equal happiness.
Screw the shareholders and the economy! I’m not buying a bunch of crap I don’t need.
Try saying this as soon as you wake up in the morning and every time you have an advertisement shoved in your face. It’ll go a long way to helping your old pal Mother Nature and possibly your own sanity.
Reuse
Your next option to avoid the landfill is to repair or repurpose old items. Say for example you have a rusty old garden wagon you’ve been tripping over. You’re thinking it’s time to send it over the rainbow bridge and get yourself a shiny new one.
But first ask yourself:
Can it be repaired?
Or if I don’t need it, can I fix it up enough so someone else could use it?
If the answer is yes, invest in some sand paper and a can of spray paint and take some time to make it usable again.
If the answer is no, consider what else you could do with it. Maybe the wheels are so rusted they don’t move and the cost of repair is more than the cost of a new wagon. In that case, ask yourself:
Is there something else I can do with it?
The wagon’s wheels are seized, so it’s not going to be rolling anywhere. But could it serve a purpose staying in one spot? Could it be a decorative item in your garden? Perhaps stenciled with Live, Laugh, Love, and holding a few potted plants to add some rustic charm?
If you can do that, congratulations, you’re reusing!
Recycling
Sometimes you’ll have an item that can’t be repaired or reused. In cases like these, it’s time to recycle. Recycling is the term used when a discarded item is broken down to its base materials so those materials can be used again to make new products.
Lots of things can be recycled. And lots of things can’t. So how do you know what can go in the curbside bin and what can’t?
All of this is covered in the next chapter.
Chapter 2: What can I recycle?
Think about our rusty old garden wagon from the previous chapter. If it’s beyond repair, can it be recycled?
What if the wagon contains a mix of metal and plastic parts? Can it still be recycled?
We’ll cover that and more in the upcoming pages.
Your Recycling Program
Unfortunately, the answer to the questions posed above is often: it depends. And this is what leads to confusion and frustration.
It depends on a few things. What types of metals does your recycling program accept? Will they take rusty metals?