Essay: The Recyling Cop

Last year, when Little Missy (her Mom and Dad call her Greenpeace) was in second grade,  she had an earthy teacher who taught everybody all about recycling.  Little Missy's family set-up a recycling station in their home, and take it to the garbage company's drop-off area on a regular basis.

Around the time they began to recycle, Little Missy asked me if I recycled.  I told her, well, sure I do.  It was kind of a lie.  I sorted out the big cardboard because it wouldn't fit into my garbage can and I saved glass, but that was it. To tell you the truth, I was an avid recycler when I lived in Eugene.  Believe me, it is against Eugene's religion if you don't recycle.  Then I moved to La Pine, and they had never even heard of recycling ten years ago, apparently.  No little blue boxes came along with your garbage can, nor did you receive a discount for recycling here in Mayberry.
 

So, I kind of rebelled.  We had a wood stove and I did burn what I could in it.  But, how do I explain this?  If you grew up in Eugene, you would never think of littering.  Seriously.  It is a much worse sin than not recycling.  If you "accidentally" dropped a gum wrapper on the ground, it was a form of rebellion ... just as not recycling is.

Woodsy trained us well in the 70's.

Well, anyway, back to this fascinating story.  Last night Little Missy and her Mom came over to show me an awesome CD that they had made.  Not only that, but I received a spot check on my recycling program!   Little Missy is tough (not even bears scare her), but she isn't mean.  "Do you recycle cardboard too?"  Well, sure, right there with the plastics.  Good thing that she didn't ask me about tin cans.  Now that I know she's checking up on me, I guess I'd better do that too.

The Recycling Cop

My glass jars have a saved sign on them, because I want to use them for something else.  For food storage or terrariums or candles.  They are just too good to get rid of.  (This is where my BFH comes in suggesting that I may be a hoarder if...)


There is actually recycling all around our kitchen island.  The pop and beer cans are in their own garbage can, because here in Oregon they are worth money. The empty wine bottles have their own little box for handy storage, next to the real garbage can.


We take all of our garbage to the dump.  The odd thing is that I go to all this trouble sorting at home, and then get to the drop-off station and they mix most of the stuff all together.  I looked up online to find a good list of what you can and not recycle, and our local garbage service has a nice one:

So anyway, I try to do my best.  I will do even better now that I have learned I no longer have to take the bottoms off of the green bean cans ... I just need to rinse and save them until the next time we go to the dump.  It doesn't get much easier than that!