Let's get real....(and why recycling just isn't practical).

Yeah...so you know those things that people do that make you want to do those same things? But you really don't want to...you just like the idea.  And then you need to come up with reasons why you don't, so you can defend yourself against those little thoughts that creep in, trying to persuade you to do such things?

 Recycling is one of those "things" for me.  It sounds so good.  Saving those cans and papers and bottles and cardboard and sending them off to be re-used, to save future generations!

 First you clear out some semblance of a space in your back shed, with big bins to help sort the goods...out of reach of your dogs, which have the tendency to shred everything they come in contact with.  This is probably going to result in a trip to the hardware store to buy plywood and hinges and screws and hooks that sort of thing. ka-ching!


Second, you then call all over town looking for where you are supposed to take your recyclables.  After you figure that out and learn that you need to take glass here, cardboard and paper there, and metal cans somewhere else, you sigh and set about teaching your kids how to sort the recyclables.  You think all is well until you discover that your toddler thinks banana peels belong in with the cardboard, and your 5 year old has been secretly putting tomatoes from last night's supper in with the tin cans.  You haul everything out of the bins to rinse things off and dispose of half rotted vegetables and fruits (shudder), dodging the fruit flies, barely escaping with your life.  Time and bad smells=money.  ka-ching!


After surviving a week in which you did nothing else but recycle, you muster up the energy to load your recycled goods and with your head held high, (I'm saving the earth, I'm not contributing to mass land fills, I'm doing the right thing!), you drive off to 3 different locations to deposit your recyclables...all the while burning precious gas.  ka-ching!


You realise that you haven't made dinner yet, because recycling took up your whole afternoon and so you pick up a packaged dinner on your way home. ka-ching!

 After supper, you have to look through the recycling instructions your local waste management lady gave you to figure out which part of said packaged supper should be recycled where, all the while grumbling about how if you didn't serve said packaged supper to your family in the first place you wouldn't have to be doing this!  And then in frustration you just throw it all in the regular garbage.

 Let me make a suggestion.  Use those bins for outside toy storage.  Spend your time helping your kids learn how to keep their rooms clean, make a down home from scratch meal your family will love you for, pat yourself on the back for breastfeeding and cloth diapering your baby. Eat pie.  Give up recycling. It's just. not. practical. ;o)

-Abigail