First let me explain what it used to be like. We have to drive to a recycling drop off point. It used to be that they only took plastics and glass. I would save all my items and when I got enough I would travel around 7 miles to the drop off point. Many times I would find the bins full and have to bring my stuff home. After I had been putting all sorts of plastic containers into the bins I saw a public service announcement on television that announced that I was not supposed to be putting plastic "containers" into the bins. They did not mention which numbers were allowed so I was left to guess what was okay and what was not okay. The final nail in the coffin of my recycling efforts was the fact that they said that it was a crime to make what I saw as mistakes at the recycling center and that there were video cameras watching me! Since it already was a pain in the neck to have to save the stuff, I finally just gave up. It was causing me way too much stress.
Last weekend my daughter was with a friend who was running some errands with her mother. They ended up going to the recycling center and she came home and told me that they had made some positive changes. You can now save magazines, cardboard, food boxes, junk mail etc. They now list plastics #1-7. You no longer have to separate anything except plastic bags. So I decided to see for myself and brought a small bag of recyclables to the center. Sure enough things were definitely better. I had rinsed out everything but didn't get the peanut butter container clean. I read a memo inconspicuously taped onto the side of the bag bin that was quite pointed about cleaning the containers. They specifically mentioned peanut butter jars and said that if I couldn't get it clean that I should just throw it out at home. They warned me that I "shouldn't ruin it for everyone!"
So, although they seem to still be a bit nasty about the whole affair, I plan to make a second attempt at recycling. However, I will not let myself become stressed about the process.
1 comment:
Wow, that sounds like an enormous pain. Our town recently switched to single-stream recycling, which is awesome--everything goes in one bin, which gets picked up every week. We don't even have to bag the papers anymore (although I still do). I can't imagine what it must be like to work through on the back end, but for this family, it's a blessing.
Kudos to you for making a second attempt!
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