It's so frustrating to be at a friend's or relative's house and watch them carelessly throw away plastic water bottles. As convenient as a garbage can is, why can't there be another bin placed right next to it? You can easily toss anything recyclable in there instead of with trash.
Everything in the world today is becoming less and less available, and what disappears quickly always ends up costing more. The need for recycling is important to keep our forests alive and our air fresh. Not to mention the amazing role model society we would be setting for our children.
If nothing about the future, and the kind of world we'll be forcing our children to live in matters to you, then think of how lazy you're choosing to be. YES CHOOSING! You're not forgetting, claiming to be ignorant or coming up with excuses. It's not expensive, it's not hard, and can't possibly make you feel bad. Households are usually already provided with recycling bins, or you request one and you get it, FOR FREE. AND trucks come to pick it up from your house!
To help jump start your new recycling attitude, here's a simple list of what can be recycled:
- Plastic
- Paper
- Cardboard
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Aluminum (cans, bottles)
- Glass
- Beverage Cans
Not only am I convinced to see your viewpoint...I now feel bad about myself for not enforcing this more in my own household! Nicely done on the "guilt!" Not too subtle, but not too harsh either, which makes it all the more effective. I do agree with you, recycling is a choice and should be taken seriously! Go Green! :)
ReplyDeleteI understand so very much! I'm still trying to get my hometown to allow apartments to recycle; the houses can, why can't we? The OU dorms have recycling too, but my roommate throws out her bottles, even though it's a LONGER walk to the trast can than the recycling bin! *twitch*
ReplyDeleteYou're strategy of stirring up one's guiltiness worked completely on me.
Not much convincing needed for me, I have always been a recycling activist and I agree with everything you have said! I liked how you gave examples of what can be recycled for all the people claiming ignorance and also made it a point to tell people how it was free and easy. In my personal experience it is so much easier to convince people of something where it is free, not even taking into account it can help save our planet.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with your position! There really is often no reason to not recycle - it's just as easy as tossing something in a bin, and costs absolutely nothing extra (at least, not around here - where my mother lives, near Lansing, residents must pay if they want to have their recycling picked up). Your argument also reminds me of the Brita commercials I would see when I still watched television...10 minutes in your cupholder, 1,000 years in a landfill (or something like that). I've even noticed, with much disdain, the absolute absence of any recycling bins or anything in the halls here at school - the trash bins are full of plastic and paper! Long story short, the cause is one that your post helped reinforce in my mind.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should take this up as a cause Michelle. If you really want people to recycle, make it easy. I have more recycling than I do trash on trash days now - just takes effort...and a place to store it.
ReplyDelete