I’ve written about these two topics before but it’s been
awhile and it’s worth repeating. And I’m a recycler, including topics.
Plastic
bags and polystyrene, the stuff of plates, fast food cups and packing peanuts,
makes me cringe.
At a recent
dinner, I ranted a little about how much we consume and how I get tired
sometimes about stressing over each of my actions. I wonder if it even matters
that I spend time and energy putting my words and hopes out here for a
healthier, conscious world.
Someone
wisely said, ‘it may not always be easy, but it should be simple.’ We should be
proactive about reducing consumption, like those insidious plastic bags at
stores that are pushed at every turn. Bring your own bags. Make it a habit. It’s
simple.
‘But dangit,’ I said, ‘stores also need
to train their employees to use less
plastic.’ Last week, in a store that kind of rhymes with ‘Margret’, I saw a
cashier place one (foam) carton of eggs in a plastic bag and hand it to the
customer ahead of me. Why did those eggs need their own bag?
In a store
that rhymes with ‘plier,’ I was buying two half gallons of ice cream for a
birthday last year and I handed the cashier my cloth bag, who then put each
carton in its own plastic bag and
into my cloth bag before I could speak up. More unnecessary plastic in my
hands.
Last week,
not wanting to cook, I ordered takeout for the family from a favorite
independent restaurant downtown. The food was phenomenal, but opening up the EIGHT
foam containers wasn’t. I felt so guilty.
My life
would be easier if stuff was streamlined and compact, not bundled loosely in
bags and foam that are terrible for the earth and that I have to deal with.
Because you know that I’m going to store all this…stuff…in my basement and
garage until I can take it to the only place in Indy where it will actually be
recycled. Most recycling services, including the one servicing Noblesville,
can’t take polystyrene.
Most
recently my friend Stacy said I’d be proud of her. Her recycling bin was
stuffed and when she peered into her garbage bin and saw it had one small bag
of garbage, she thought of me. Aww!
Recycle on!
