Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Another Step in the Right Direction

So here's something I am very excited about lately. At the end of last week, we had a huge, green bin delivered to our apartment building. It resides out back, next to the dumpster. But it doesn't collect trash--it collects food scraps! And paper towels, paper plates, paper take-out containers, pizza boxes, ice cream containers, napkins! And the food scraps don't have to be only vegetables, but can include meat, cheese, and other food things that can't normally be composted. I . AM . SO. HAPPY !

In the week that we've had this new bin, we have yet to fill the trash can under our sink. I think it is going to make a HUGE difference in the amount of trash we contribute to landfills.

Plus, the ability to recycle to this extent makes the now few things we can't recycle really stand out like a sore thumb! Extra packaging seems more obscene than ever in comparison.

What makes me not excited? The yahoos in our apartment complex who have already put plastic bags in the green bin (which D, bless his heart, fished out). Unbelievable.

In other news, I haven't talked about it since I started, but the vegetarian life is greatly agreeing with me.

Small steps that my family and I are able to take to live more gently on this planet.


PS I've already pointed out to D that this means we absolutely must eat more ice cream--so we have an easy way to collect the food scraps. Don't you agree? :)


1 comment:

Amy Yoder McGloughlin said...

THe green bin is so cool! We've been composting for a year now, and we've cut our trash in half.

I also recently started buying canned concentrate of juice, instead of the plastic bottles. Plastic can be recycled, but only once. Cans can be recycled innumerable times.

I would love to go veggie, but I love my meat. A lot. I'm thinking about maybe trying to go veggie with the family over lent.