Photo courtesy of National Recycling Coalition.
Today is America Recycles Day, which is the only day nationally recognized to encourage people to recycle. For the past eleven years, this date has been celebrated across the country increase awareness of recycling at our home and business. (See here as to events in your area.) As the world has evolved, isn’t it time to consider changing this day to America Reuse or Reduce Day encouraging us to reduce and reuse rather than just recycle? Shouldn’t recycling be the last resort?
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in recycling but as the recycling for cash coordinator at my school, I see what people recycle. Just to give you a short background, I collect yogurt cups, small electronic hand held items such as cell phones, broken crayons, elmer glue sticks, and electronic trash such as CDs and DVDs and their plastic cases. (Note, I don’t get paid for all of these recycling programs.)
Since my boxes are in the open, people just drop off their recycling. Once a week or so, I visit my boxes to see if any of them need empting. To be honest, it feels like Christmas every visit because I have no idea what was left there. I either get
- what I asked for, which means they are reading the bulletin,
- a deviation of what I asked for like a portable phone rather than a cell phone. (Even received a burnt out CFL once)
- or something that someone could use.
Just the other day, someone dropped off an unopened package of CD-Rs! (I snatched those…) In the past, I have received perfectly good software, videos, and DVDs, good crayons, and two dozen clear CD cases. Many times, I put all of these treasures in the teacher’s lounge. A day goes by, and I checked back to find out these little treasures are gone.
So, the question becomes why are we recycling what is perfectly good rather giving it away so others can reuse it?
Consider the following before you recycle:
- Freecycle
- Craigslist
- swaps and barter sites
- the National Christina Foundation and other nonprofit organization for computers
- Can you reuse something in another way rather than recycling it? Glass jars to store food, nails, or other items. Plastic water bottles to place in your toilet tank to reduce water usage. Cardboard and newspaper to suppress the weeds. (See my no till garden.)
And while you are at it, consider buying products that you can reuse over and over again like a reusable water bottle and shopping bag rather than a plastic bottle or bag. Remember, energy is consumed in order to recycle as well as to create new products out of those items.
So, readers how have you reused or reduced rather than just recycled?
This post is part of the Green Mom’s Carnival on America Recycles Day being hosted by Leslie at Recycle Your Day.
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wow – I LOVE that you’re doing this – congratulations for walking your talk in the best possible way!
alline´s last blog ..Saving money by being Green
I think some people don’t recycle or donate usable items because they perceive it as a “hassle”. My parents would have me go through my old toys and donate the ones I outgrew to “children who didn’t have toys.” We never did this around birthdays or gift giving holidays because my parents didn’t want me to associate the donation with getting a bunch of new stuff to replace the old stuff. It’s a lesson that I practice to this day. In fact, I got a bit upset when I found out that another relative just threw the usable toys her kids grew out of in the trash instead of donating them because throwing out usable toys was unheard of growing up. She said that she thought it was a hassle to take the toys to a nearby drop box or even her place of worship for redistribution.
Condo Blues´s last blog ..How to Conduct Your Own Home Energy Audit
Sounds like you have your hands full with all those recycling projects.
I have been using the word re-purposing. I totally agree with you that recycling should be a last resort. There are so many way to re-purpose something that is no longer used. Of course some items have no option to be re-purposed and have to be solely recycled.
I saw that you work with a school. On a side note, I teach an after school program here in Austin focused on social entrepreneurship and one thing the students pointed out as a problem is a lack of school supplies.
Luckily, we are able to incorporate our cell phone collection and re-purposing abilities for schools to carry out cell phone drives to not only do the right thing for the environment but to also raise funds for school supplies.
To get a feel of how we do the cell phone process, you can visit us at http://www.sellphoneforcash.com . We are currently reaching out to schools, non-profits, and companies to install custom web pages on their sites so that their audience can dispose of their old cell phones properly. In the US alone, there is over 100 million cell phones replaced a year with only 20% or less being recycled. We strive to make the re-purposing of cell phones as easy as possible for anyone wanting to do the right thing with their old cell phones.
Keep up the great work.
Condo Blues, I think this is the problem..too much of a hassle…Anna
Alline, I try…Anna
Yes, that is the main problem with re-purposing/recycling. It is too much of a hassle for people to do their part. Although recycling has been around for the longest time. I believe that the recycling movement is gaining some major momentum and that things are gradually improving.
Luckily, I live in a city where we are extremely green and conscious of our impact on the environment. So many businesses around here have some type of recycling in place. Whether it is having their own recycling receptacles for their patrons to deposit their recently bought wastes for recycling or random drop off locations around town to recycle. We have so many Goodwill locations that its difficult to not go by one during any route in the city.
Either way keep up the great blog and I look forward to reading future posts.
it is so good that there are few people in our country who take care about recycling, reducing and reusing! it is a great idea to give up clothes, toys or even cosmetics you don’t use to poor people. i am always trying to encourage my friends to do the same as me! sometimes i go from home to home and collect things friends decided to give away and then donate them to poor people.
Thin´s last blog ..Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe
Just wanted to say great job with the blog, today is my first visit here and I’ve enjoyed reading your posts.
rouademunte´s last blog ..Baile Herculane
The Reuse Alliance is launching a campaign to make Oct 20th of each year “National Reuse Day”!
Our petition will be ready soon. Check our website regularly for more information – http://www.nationalreuseday.org
You make an excellent point, and one that we don’t hear often enough. The items in our recycling bin or the ones that we turn in through various recycling programs are only items that we haven’t been able to either reuse, give away or donate. It helps, though, that we try to start our green thinking at the beginning of the buying process so we only buy what we need.
Unfortunately, not enough people think this way. Even when there are bins in plain sight, easily accessible, for donations or recycling, people will walk right by them and go to the trash can. We often offer to recycle items for the neighbors in our apartment complex when we see them throwing away perfectly good items.
And Condo Blues, we do the same thing with our daughter. We regularly go through her toy bin and give away the toys that she has outgrown or doesn’t play with. It doesn’t come with the promise of more toys — just with knowing that she’s doing something nice for kids who are less fortunate. She made me so proud yesterday when she said she wanted to give away her toy washing machine to “someone who doesn’t have one.” She’s 4 years old, and we plan to keep teaching her these kinds of lessons.
Jennae @ Green Your Decor´s last blog ..Friday Room Reveal: Vintage Glam Media Room by Laurie White
I couldn’t agree with you post more. It seems that the American way of life (not all, just a large amount) is to take the easy way out of everything. Our kids aren’t recycling properly because they are spoiled by these awesome gadgets (and never play outside anymore) and are accustomed to McDonald’s fatburger; therefore telling them it is ok to be lazy. I hope one day this will change. My kids aren’t “lovin it”, at least not under my watch. Great post!
Jeannine Guidry