Why so Much Waste?

Everyday I receive this handful of junk mail in my mailbox. Flyers, Grocery Store Ads, and various fast food restaurant coupons. I have never used any of these and I rarely even look through them. They go straight into my recycling bin. So it got me thinking….I lived here 6 1/2 months thats 220 days x a handful of paper everyday. Thats a lot of paper.There are 10 houses on my little street/cul-de-sac. Only 2 of us recycle. So 440 handfuls of paper were recycled and 1,760 handfuls went to the dump. What a waste! As a society we waste so many things that could have been recycled. Why? Do people not care or are they just lazy, or what? You can get a recycling tub with your trash service. Schools, Churches, Walmarts, and other stores now have a recycling dumpster you can drop off at.

You put items like metal, tin, aluminum cans/soda can, veggie & soup cans in a separate container and then cash them in at your local recycle center…for cash. They pay you! I get about $20 every month for recycling 🙂 Thats all my soda, juice, veggie, soup cans and any other metal products I open that month. Doesn’t take to much extra time. The soda cans I dump out and the can goods, I use, rinse and add to my bag. I really don’t have a lot of trash because I’m very aware of my actions. Instead of just throwing something away I check to see if it is plastic, metal or paper that can be recycled. Most items cereal, crackers, hamburger helper, rice etc. If it has box packaging it can be recycled. If you turn plastic containers over and it has a recycle symbol on the bottom it can be recycled. All glass can be recycled. I’m still throwing it away just in a different container.

So why is it so hard for people to recycle. It benefits every human, animal, and plant on the planet. It conserves and reuses resources we have already used. And will hopefully ensure resources for our children and their children. At some point people need to wake up and look at how they are living and make some changes. As a society we meed to be recycling every possible thing, respecting and taking care of the environment we have damaged, conserving and saving water and electric. Have you ever stopped and looked at all of the power you use in just your household. Everything puts off waste for every item you have plugged up regardless whether it is actually “powered on” is generating electricity. Everything I don’t use on a daily basis is unplugged! If you have a stereo or tv for example you never use – unplug it. May not save you thousands, but will have a small impact on your bill over time. Just by having items unplugged. We can all make a difference by the choices we make. Recycling and conserving energy are two easy steps everyone can do. Give it a try! Even just for a week and see how much you are using. Seems like a lot of work, but once you get in the habit of throwing “trash” in the recycle bin and unplugging or turning off excess items. You see it really wasn’t that much work after all. What great rewards we receive from these small steps. Personally saving money in our pocket books and globally saving our planet. What reasons could someone have not to?