Recycling

A good 12 years ago I informed my not-so-environmentally-aware parents that if they ever wanted grandchildren they had better first learn to recycle!

Well, they started immediately and a few years later we graced them with their first grandson.  However, I’m starting to wonder if this was a good idea.  (The recycling, I mean, not the grandson!)

Yesterday I realized that we were out of “blue bags” which our recycling goes in week after week so me and the hubby took a little trip to Home Depot.  While I was hunting for what was required I spotted this great blue tub with the recycling symbol on the side.  Score!!  I could simply put our recycling in this and the recycle man can take it away and leave my fancy shmancy container and all it costs is a one time purchase of ten bucks.  I love it!  And certainly those recycling peeps (whoever they are) will love it too cause I’m not using a plastic bag every week.

So all excited like I packed my recycling into the new tub.  Cardboard all flattened and stacked at one end with the plastic containers piled next to it.

When I came back from my run this morning and saw my blue tub sitting there still full of all its recycled treasure so I thought surely the truck hadn’t come for it yet.  I looked up the street.  Not one blue bag in sight.    And then it hit me.  They didn’t take my stuff!  The reason?  It wasn’t in a blue bag.

So, apparently recycling MUST be in a plastic blue bag in order for it to be taken away by the recycling powers that be.  We can not REuse a container to leave our recycling by the street.  We can not REduce the number of plastic bags (like all the grocery stores seem to be telling us are so awful!) each week by using a bin that can be used more that once. No!  We MUST purchase a specific plastic bag to house our goods.

Now I’m not a conspiracy theorist but it’s things like this that will push me to that edge….