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

... and then it rolled away...

The ball I mean.  I dropped it and it is now rolling away.  I wonder if I can catch it?  Ok, enough with the metaphors.  What I am referring to is the fact that I had a brain fart.  Thankfully, one of my readers (thank you Cindy) was kind enough to awaken me from my holiday stupor, but alas, it was too late.  As such, I regret to inform you that I am sending out Christmas cards again this year.  (By too late, I mean that they have already been ordered - we send out the picture-card kind).  This is something that we have always done and I didn't even think of it as 'cheating'.  Never mind the fact that they are expensive and TERRIBLE for the environment.  I am such an avid lover of the snail-mail postal system (who doesn't like to get friendly mail, right Tess?) that I didn't even think about the effect that sending out cards in a mass mail-out would have. 

So, my bad.   This got me thinking though... what other 'traditions' was I about to just 'do' without thinking?  One of them is the Christmas Tree.  Now, I love a good Christmas tree: the lights, the smell, the sparkling decorations, I mean, they are a really powerful symbol of the season.  We have always made an effort to buy a local tree (sometimes even taking a half-dead one off our land that was crowding another healthy tree).   Let's just say that I am NOT above a Charlie Brown tree, in fact, I prefer them.

See?  This was Christmas 2006

Anyway, I am committed to making up for my card flub and as such, I have been researching the greenest option for a tree this year.  Here are the choices:

1. Buy a fake tree (no, no never.  They are bad for the environment, they're made of PVC, and they are expensive)
2. Take down another Charlie Brown tree on the farm.
3. Source out a locally grown organic tree farm (there are tons of them out by where I live, and these are apparently a pretty green option b/c they provide housing for birds and clean the air while they are alive and then get replaced by 2-3 more seedlings when they are cut down and sold).  One more thing about this option, if you go this way, it is important to consider the disposal of it... landfills = NOT GREEN, composting, mulching, or sinking it into a local pond = GREEN.  And I am not making this stuff up.  Check it out at: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/12/how_to_pick_a_g.php
4. Go treeless (GASP!)

After careful consideration (not really, it was more like, 'Trent, we're going treeless this year', followed by a 'sweet')... oops, I gave the answer away.  Yup, we picked option #4 and have decided to convert our beloved fig tree into a Christmas tree.  I'll post pics as soon as I get it 'decorated'. 

The tradition tides are turning... Do you think that this make up for the Christmas cards?

Marebare