Yet another recycling saga

You may recall that last year during my 'No Impact Week Challenge' I found out that soft plastics were a 'no-go' in terms of recycling... pretty much anywhere in this fine Province.  So you can just imagine my delight when I arrived at my recyling depot last week and found a sign stating that they are now accepting plastic bags.  Those of you who follow me on facebook might have seen my post about this miraculous day.  If you missed it, it read:

Best. Day. Ever. ... Okay, maybe not ever, but a great day nonetheless. My recycling depot is now accepting plastic bags!!! I have been saving any/all of those things for just the occasion. About 6 years. Yes, literally. It's the small things really...

You might be thinking to yourself, wow, is this chick ever DRAMATIC!  And, you would be right... remember, this is the same lady who uses CAPSlock for EVERYTHING and ellipses and exclamation points and... well, you get the point.  Anyway, needless to say, I was pretty stoked about the recycling development in my community.

For some reason, call it a whim, or call it intuition that somethings really ARE too good to be true, I decided to call the town prior to dropping of my latest recycling bags.  I think you know where I am going with this...  THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!!!  And actually, they were pretty indignant that I would suggest such a thing.  Soooooo, I proceeded to take all of the newly added bags out of my recycling pile (*sigh), and headed down to the recycling station with my iPhone handy... you know, just in case I was ACTUALLY RIGHT.  Which, ahem, I was:

Soooo, of course, I phoned the town again (they were a little less indignant this time), and believe it or not, I kept my cool.  Here was the forwarded e-mail reply from their service provider...

Yes, this bin is just being used as a switch while the regular bin's door
is repaired... this bin is from another area that accepts these materials
(even though no markets exist for most non-stamped film plastic (most
plastic bags fall under this category) and therefore much of this material
ends up being land-filled anyways -- which is why we don't accept it in our
program).

The proper bin will be placed back into service by the week after next at
latest.
Soooo, I guess this means I am back to storing 6 years worth of plastic bags (about a garbage bag full)... anyone have any brilliant ideas what I could/should do with them?

Marebare

A really neat quiz...

I will admit that I am a bit brain-dead today, so I thought that instead of rambling on about the goings-on of my life and experiences, I would do some 'stumbling' around on the internet looking for some unique 'Marebare Necessities' related content. 

Success!  The website:  Cool Tools for Greener Living has a list of neat environmental quizzes that you can do...  I did most of them, and my favorite by far was the 'Environmental Footprint' one.  It is a very thorough questionnaire that really makes you question your day-to-day habits and practices.  I am not going to disclose my results here, but suffice it to say that although I am doing slightly better than our 'national average' in most categories, I could still be doing A LOT better!  It really made me think about what other changes I could be making on a daily basis to help reduce my environmental footprint. 

As an aside, I just want to say that there was a time when looking at sites such as these ones would have honestly given me an anxiety attack, or worse, nightmares.  I think it is because I felt so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things - much like the conversation I shared with you between Cheryle and I in previous posts.  Lately though, I have come to realize that it is a matter of perspective.  It is not realistic to expect yourself (or anyone else around you for that matter) to be perfect.  Alternatively, I would suggest that you could aspire to be a slightly better version of yourself.  In other words, small changes can have a great impact in the long run.  Making smaller changes (rather than gigantic ones), also makes these new behaviors more likely to last over the long term.  I guess what I am trying to say is, try not to get overwhelmed by the negative facts that you will likely see on these sites.  Instead, try to focus in on what you are doing right and build on that...  That is how I choose to look at it anyway.  So, if you have some time, try some of the quizzes, they really are pretty cool!

The earth is what we all have in common. - Wendell Berry Author, farmer, cultural critic


Sweet Dreams,

Marebare :)