THE RECYCLING DEBACLE

The new flooring was laid on the sun porch Thursday morning (July 25), and we're pleased with it. Mike and I then moved the cupboard back into the corner and finished replacing the stuff we keep there. While I was at it, I sorted out the variety of product jars I’ve been hoard . . . – er, keeping, and I took a crateful to recycling. “You’re really throwing all these away,” queried Mike, a tone of incredulity in his voice. Jars have various uses, but after all, a few is all we need. (This doesn’t count my official jelly jars or my collection of old jars and bottles.) It felt wonderful to have room for other homely items in that cabinet.

I guess you’ve heard that recycling has turned into an international debacle, with China and other countries returning our "garbage" to us. The basic problem is that our recycling must be clean. Well, we know some folks do toss garbage into recycling, which ruins even that which is appropriately recycled. And let’s face it, cleaning what we would ordinarily throw away is extra effort.

Who’s in charge of this anyway? Do we have a Department of Homeland Recycling? Obviously no one has been inspecting the stuff before it leaves our shores. It seems rather loosely organized and dependent on a lot of consumer cooperation, which just isn’t going to happen. I don't necessarily mean that as criticism. I'm fairly conscientious about this, and I admit that I've made mistakes.

Kathy's keepers -- packaging of yesteryear

So, what’s happening with our recycling programs? I suspect recycling is going from the bins directly to the landfill, but I can’t convince my husband. Just this morning he cut himself removing the plastic ring from a bottle. Meanwhile, since my community’s recycling program is voluntary, my family's plastics, cans, and paper goods mount up in our garage. I happily save a lot of stuff, but one thing I can part with is the garbage. I wish someone would give me permission.

I believe there’s not much the consumer can do about this problem. Our corporations have to step up to this. That said, I’m going to investigate bringing less plastic into the house. I’ll continue to use my recyclable shopping bags, even my produce bags. I’ll quit buying apple juice in plastic bottles. I’ll look again at milk options. Perhaps I’ll buy Velcro by the yard instead of in the plastic shell. It won’t be a perfect effort, but I’ll try. 

Let me just add that in a recent presentation, the point was made that oranges come in their own package, so why do we need to buy them in a plastic shell? With guilt, I admit that I have some of those packaged oranges on my shelf because I use them in salads. Hmmm. I’ll think about that. KW