Recycling

Z is having an extra long morning nap, which has afforded me some extra alone time that I normally do not have. In my mind, this can only signal one thing, there is some serious development going on in that little body and brain. The hubby and I have been noticing just how much more of a little person Z is becoming, and his grunts and shrieks have increasingly expressed his frustration at not being able to reach a toy or go somewhere he wants to go. I wouldn't be surprised if the little guy starts crawling soon. As I said to my husband the other day, we'll soon be making more use of the higher shelving that we have in the living room!

As I was tidying up around the kitchen, pears baking in the oven for some future baby food, my mind was mulling over a post idea - recycling. When hubby and I took our prenatal class, one of our sessions focused on family life and we participated in brainstorming ways to help stay sane during the first few weeks home with new baby. One of our ideas was "throw recycling out". It sounds horrendous, but when you're just trying to survive during those sleep-deprived, hormone and emotion-ruled first few weeks, the last thing you want to do is sort garbage. Of course, we've been out of that time for a while now, and it's nice to take another look at how we run our home and how we deal with our waste.

I've gotten in the habit of keeping a plastic bag hanging off of one of the cupboard handles. In this bag I toss any bit of thin plastic I would normally dispose of in the garbage. I got this idea after the upteenth time of tossing a used bread bag into the garbage and thinking to myself, "now, how long is THAT going to take to decompose?". So, now I strip used kleenex boxes of their plastic liners, I collect (after dumping out any crumbs) the bread bags, any produce bags or additional plastic that always seems to accompany anything you buy (think toilet paper and paper towels) - everything! I place it in this hanging plastic bag and when it's full, which is usually by the end of a week or two (just imagine all that in the landfill!), I tie the bag, take it to my local supermarket, and shove it in the bag recycling bin. VOILA!

I should say that I also got the idea from the numerous schools I've worked at where recycling towers are present for students and staff to place everything from foil and yogurt cups to granola bar wrappers and sandwich bags. Teachers and students volunteer their time to collect all of the recycling and send it off to the appropriate place. Just one thing that BC schools are doing to help reduce waste.

Anyone out there have any other handy recycling tricks? I found this pretty easy, and to me, that is what makes it easy to continue!