Recycling
I'm not going to pretend that I'm a 100% enthusiastic "green" person. I do understand the why of recycling and try to do my bit.
Years ago dealing with your trash in the office was a no brainer. Under your desk was a trashcan - round or rectangular - gray or black. In to it you chucked your trash all day long. Candy wrappers, kleenex, apple cores, banana peels, coke bottles and occasionally even some real office trash like paper.
A couple of years ago that came to a screeching halt at work. The old familiar cans were taken away and replaced with a blue "three parter" can. One of the little side buckets is for your personal trash such as candy wrappers (clearly I have a thing about candy wrappers). The main part is for the recycling of office paper and though offices try to be green I can assure you we're not. We still print out what could easily be read on the screen only to chuck it out later in the day. I have no idea what the third little bucket is for. I'm sure it was explained to us on day one but somehow my memory has gone blank on it's use. All I really know is me and my coworkers tend to have little regard for compartmentalizing our trash. More days than not everything goes into the main part and the cleaning people have to sort it out for us.
Out in the halls there are 6 bins all carefully labeled. Compost, plastic, colored paper, confidential paper, trash or cardboard. There are even little pictures on each bin showing you examples of what is supposed to go where. Some of the bins I get - confidential stuff - got it. It's the other bins that tend to slow me down. I know you would think that I would be able to tell where things go but the picture examples never match what's in my hand.
Solution? Bring the trash home. After lunch each day instead of trying to figure out the 6 bin configuration, I simply take my lunch remnants home with me and chuck it all in the kitchen trash can. End of problem. I know that you would think an adult (me for example) would be able to figure out trash but some items just seem to fit in more than one category.
At home we have the jumbo rolling container for paper and cardboard that thanks to all of the online shopping that goes on in my house is full to the brim each and every week. We have the standard brown lawn bags for yard trimmings and the smaller tub for glass and plastic. I'm actually pretty good about dividing up my recyclables and getting them in the right place. But, to be perfectly honest, every now and again I become a rebel and knowingly toss a recyclable product in my kitchen trash can. Horrors.
Another thing I'm never going to do is create a compost heap. I'm not going to slog out to my backyard in all kinds of weather to dump food waste which will eventually turn into a mulch-like product that you can spread around your flower beds. Nope not happening. In truth if I was to put any kind of food out in our back yard one or both of our dogs would devour it almost before it hit the ground.
As a child and before garbage disposers were invented, Mom had a little plastic strainer that sat in the corner of the sink and some food went there to drain. The drained food plus eggshells and the like went into a waxy milk container (remember those?). The garbage disposer was and is a great invention and is I believe a kitchen necessity.
It's Friday folks. We made it through another week.
P
Compost?, yeah - me either. We do recyle the cardboard from those lovely UPS and Fed Ex people and that's about it, oh...and cans, lots of cans. Daughter usually gets the recycle money. I still use plastic at the grocery store. At the doctor today, they have a whole bin full of those recycle bags for your groceries and they were free...passed
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