Going Green

     I must admit, every time I hear the term "going green", I think about that scene in the movie, "Twister", when the series of tornadoes is about to hit. I can relate, living in Nebraska, to that scene so well. There's no other way to describe how everything really does go green. It's bizarre, and they actually were able to re-enact that pretty well in the movie. It's one of my favorite movies, without a doubt!

     But I'm not wanting to write about tornadoes today. My excitement about "going green" refers to the fact that we have just recently increased our recycling capacity. Before, we only recycled newspapers, aluminum cans, and the occasional cardboard box. Jim and I were pretty much in agreement: it's not that hard to take those items to the recycle bins behind our local grocery store every few months. (Especially since it was usually Jim doing it!) Still, there was always a part of me that felt like we could be doing more. I think we both wanted to do more... we were just holding out for the best deal, I guess. (Yes, that's right, I'm painting a clear picture for you: we wanted the cheapest, laziest way possible to do the recycling. Ugh, that sounds horrible... luckily, I know we're not the only ones who are in that boat!)

     So we got the call last week from the people who publish our local newspaper, saying they were having a special--they'd bring us a "tote" (cute word for big ugly plastic garbage can like the other ones we already have, only this one is, appropriately, green), and we can dump all of the stuff we want to recycle into it without having to separate it first, and for the first six months, it's available at an incredibly low cost. What? You mean you're going to give us a cheap option to be even more lazy AND we're going to feel GOOD about it? That's right, for a limited time, you too can help the environment without stepping further than your own driveway. Coool!!!!  

     Okay, I know I'm sounding pessimistic... I'm just amazed at how little I was willing to do before we got that green tote. Saving cans and newspapers? The absolute minimum. Seriously. Today was the first full day we've had that tote, and I recycled a milk jug, a large juice bottle, about 10 old magazines, an old prescription bottle (with all the information marked out with a Sharpie), two used water bottles, and a yogurt cup, along with today's paper and two pop cans. Let me tell you, I feel GOOD about this! Beer bottles and wine bottles, old chocolate syrup containers, ice cream buckets, soup and tuna cans, etc. It seems like the possibilities are limitless. I'm so pumped! 

     I started recycling as a kid. We didn't drink as much pop, growing up, as Jim and I do now. It was mostly on special occasions that we'd get 10 or 12 cans of Shasta in the house (mmm, Black Cherry and Dr. Diablo were my favorites!), but we had enough beer cans to keep me busy. Every few days, I'd take the cans out to the garage, squash them with my feet, and toss them into an old garbage can (the original steel kind, like you see Oscar the Grouch living in) lined with a black plastic bag. When that bag got full (after a few months), I'd tie off the top, put a new bag in, and keep going. About once a year, maybe twice if I was lucky, I'd point out to my Dad that we had several bags of cans to turn in. Since I was the one who took the cans out and crushed them, I was the one who got the money for them. We'd make a trip into the closest town with a recycling center (my hometown didn't have one), and the guys would weigh out my bags. It usually got me about seven bucks, though I do remember earning $11 one time! I was pumped! This was typically enough bread to get me a new record (vinyl) or maybe even a new Barbie (since they only released new models of Barbies about once or twice a year). 

     Nowadays, I have to PAY to recycle, but I'm done playing with Barbies and I don't have a turntable anymore, anyway. So it's all good.....