Recycling isn’t just a Buzz Word

On a walk with my daughter the other day, I became increasingly bothered by the trash lining our streets. It was trash day, so to be expected there was a trash can at the bottom of every driveway – that wasn’t what bothered me. What bothered me was a peak inside my neighbors’ trash. Now before you think I was digging through the trash, let me assure you the trash I saw was spilling out of trash cans, could be seen through trash bags or was laid next to the trash can. The scary thing is that there may have been even more offenders, but I didn’t look through nice sealed trash cans.

On our walk, I saw the following things in the trash: a bedding set, an outdoor planter, cardboard boxes galore, beer cans, a framed and matted print in mint condition and more. Have my neighbors never heard of the Salvation Army or Goodwill? Both of which would have picked up the home items and given them new life. Maybe I am extreme, but I was crushed as I envisioned all of these castoff items lying in the landfill.

There were plenty of items in these piles that could have been recycled through our curbside recycling program, like the cans and the cardboard, but recycling isn’t just about the recyclable materials that the county picks up, recycling also means giving new life to old things. I don’t want to be “that” neighbor, so tempted as I was I did not take the print home with me to send to charity. (That and I wasn’t sure I could carry the giant print and push my daughter’s “pink car” at the same time.)

Since I won’t be going door to door in my neighborhood preaching about recycling… I will do it here instead. LOL

Recycling isn’t hard (especially for those with curbside pick up), but it does take a mental shift to remember to do it. We are big recyclers in our house, but we are always on the look out to make it easier. To that end, we just purchased this pullout double recycle bin to install under our cabinet. We are excited for it’s arrival.

To make this recycle bin purchase a deal, we redeemed our MyPoints & Swagbucks to cover the cost of this purchase. Yep, we used our rewards to get this bin for free. So now we will even be organized in our recycling.

Recycling isn’t just a fancy buzz word, it is a little something we can all do to help preserve our planet. It isn’t just for the super granola (which I am not) it is for TheSuburbanMoms and their families, it is for all of us. So think before you toss… can this be recycled or repurposed and given a new life? Recycling, pass it on…