Tuesday, January 22, 2019

ANOTHER ARTICLE ON RECYCLING


"Milk does a body good," right?
Much of my childhood training is still with me. I still believe in the benefits of drinking milk, though my children have moved beyond it. My point here is not whether to drink milk but the fact that my household of two collects at least two one-gallon milk cartons per week. Separated for recycling, our plastics seem to mount up in a hurry. My community has already ceased to recycle plastics and cans, and I’m reading that other nearby rural communities are dropping recycling altogether – you know, what with China refusing to deal with it any longer. We now carry our plastics and cans to the recycle chute at the transfer station in a neighboring community, and my fear is that these items go into mainstream garbage anyway. I’d just as soon be done with that clutter in our garage IF this is the case.

So, I called the transfer station and asked if they still accept plastics for recycling. “Yes. Why do you ask?” queried the man, and I was surprised that he would wonder. Aren’t other citizens concerned about the future of recycling? Then he answered his own question. “Oh, you’ve been reading about China.” He went on to say that the transfer station still accepts plastics for recycling and would always accept them because it’s just a matter of finding a new market. However, the cost would increase, he added. After that, another article in our local newspaper reported that plastics recycling might indeed go away.

This morning I tried to reduce the clutter in the garage by separating our cardboard from the cans and plastics, and Mike dropped the cardboard and magazines into neighborhood recycling bins on his way to visit a care center. It’s not as easy to get rid of the plastics and cans.

Our neighboring city, Lewiston, provides lidded bins to its citizens who wish to recycle. On a recent windy day, after bins had been set curbside for pick up, the lids blew open and recyclables were strewn over neighborhoods, into the pond on the golf course, etc. Apparently it was a widespread problem. Assuming clean-up occurred, I suppose a lot of it was contaminated and went into the garbage. KW

2 comments:

Chris said...

Dan still drinks milk but I don't. I eat yogurt, some cheese, and then use almond milk on my cereal or in my smoothies. I gave it up back when I thought I had become lactose intolerant. Actually, I found that it was a need for probiotics after I had all those antibiotics after my great wisdom tooth debacle. But I've never gone back to cow's milk because somehow it just doesn't sound good to me. I do use it in cooking though.

Kathy said...

I'm glad that you found products that solved your problem. It can be a matter of experimentation sometimes. Hallie and Nick use a little almond milk. We don't care for the unflavored, so when they visit our house, they get vanilla almond milk.