Our Green House: RECYCLE

I cannot believe I have not posted in two weeks. Life got crazy with Easter, Spring Break, and our household getting sinus infections.

Welcome to part three of my series on Our Green House: RECYCLE.

If you missed part one and two of this series, REDUCE and REUSE, go back and check it out as some of the things we do could also be counted towards the RECYCLE category.

1. When I think of recycling the first thing that comes to mind is the city sponsored recycling cans that are provided for trash day. This constitutes a lot of our recycling. I try to throw as much of the paper, cardboard, glass and plastic waste as I can into the city-recycling bin. I admit that it is much easier to toss all those empty cereal boxes and yogurt containers into the kitchen trashcan, but we are making an effort. I need to get a cute something to put on the back porch to collect clean dry recyclables to make it easier on myself, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Any suggestions?

2. When the kids and I pick up the mail in the late after noon we make a pit stop at the recycling bin and throw in everything we don’t need in the house. This includes opening up the bills and tossing the return envelope inserts. I would like to toss the bills too, but I have a feeling that wouldn’t work.

3. I wish I could say I have eliminated the use of aluminum cans at our house, but my favorite drink, Diet Coke with Splenda (DC w/S as I affectionately call it), is only sold in cans. Since it is necessary for my children’s health and well being, I try to minimize the impact of all those cans by recycling them. The boys love helping with this, which is good, because I go through a lot of DC w/ S. We bought two Oscar the Grouch style garbage pails at Home Depot just for recycling aluminum. When they fill up we take the cans to the recycling center to get the CRV. This is the only thing we recycle for money. It is easy to do, and I want to teach the kids that there is value in stuff that is easily thrown away. We take the money and put it in our recycling jar. I won’t tell you how much money is in that jar. It is embarrassing how much Diet Coke with Splenda I drink.

4. Diaper boxes are put in the garage and used for castoffs, either to friends or to be donated. They are sturdy, hold quite a bit, are easy to transport, and stack nicely in the garage. We always have an empty diaper box on hand. Now that I only have one child in diapers I have a feeling this will change soon.

5. I could re-list a lot of the things I mentioned in the reduce and reuse installments of Our Green House, but that would be double dipping. Go back and read those posts if you missed them.

Since this is the last post in the series there were a few things that I thought deserved mentioning:

1. Composting- Composting is great for the environment and your garden. I have thought about trying it so many times but have yet to take the plunge.

2. Rain Water Collection- We don’t get a lot of rain in SoCal, but if I lived somewhere with rain I would love to do this. It is a great way to water your garden. I really miss a good summer thunderstorm!

3. Cloth Diapers- I am NOT PREGNANT (you can breathe now, Mom)- but if I were I would give some serious thought to cloth diapering. I wanted to try it with Coco, but we had Cecilia coming 2-3 times a week when I worked and I didn’t think it would be fair to her. Plus Patrick laughed at me when I suggested it. I think Franklin would have really benefited from it as he often had a diaper rash. They make a lot of great products nowadays to make cloth diapering easier, and there is a financial benefit, especially if you cloth diaper more than one child.

That’s it. This series is done. Don’t cry. I may post a recipe that involves booze next time! Thanks for reading and remember to comment if you are so inclined.