Recycling...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Well it's been a while since I've talked about recycling. I just took about 50 hangers back to my local cleaners instead of throwing them in the garbage. I have done this for about 10 years now...one cleaners said they didn't do that way back. I just gently said I sure didn't want hangers in the landfill especially when they are basically brand new. After that, they started letting me bring shirt hangers back. My cleaners is thankful for them, I'm sure it doesn't cost them much to buy hangers, but at least they're not in the landfill.

Recently I had an idea about re-using those cups from my local Lenny's and McDonald's when I get their tea. Lenny's was always so easy with the idea of me bringing that cup back in and paying for a refill. Our local McDonald's drive thru could kinda handle it when I'd order two large, unsweet teas refilled in my two McDonald's cups. They'd usually mess it up at the second window and have one poured up but I'd show them my empty cup and they'd refill it. This went on for about two months every other week. Then last week, I ordered my two large, unsweet iced teas in my cups and a man interrupted and said, "we don't do refills in the drive thru." When I got up to that second window, I explained that I was just trying to be green. I realize now that it does take an additional 15 seconds to fill my cup with ice, tea, a lid and do it times two, that's 30 seconds. What a pain! Now it's up to me to park and take those cups inside. What a pain! I'll report back on what happens.

I have an out building where I store our glass. I should give Jackie the credit on glass, he started my obsession, just saying. We have a 20 gallon trash can we keep in the kitchen. I go to Memphis twice a year with a pickup truck packed full of glass. It's located at Harbor Town in Downtown Memphis. You can check out the City of Memphis website on recycling. I called them a year ago to see if they'd take the vet clinic's vaccine and medicine bottles and they do! www.cityofmemphis.org

We take all our cardboard and obviously, the clinic's, to our local Cross County Special Workshop. They crush the cardboard and send it on trucks to a big recycler. They also take paper. I have a container behind my desk in my office that I use for envelopes, magazines, post its, etc. Then at the clinic, we add all the paper and plastic into boxes and send it to the workshop. They charge $15 to come and pick up your recycling, we have it picked up every other month so it will fill up the trailer. Look at all those boxes! I'm proud the clinic recycles, we do the same thing at home.

The workshop also pays for your aluminum cans, we just send ours and let them keep the money. All our plastic also goes there too where they crush it and send it out to big plastic recyclers. Plastic is the rings and tabs on your milk jugs and cartons, saran wrap, shampoo bottles, drano bottles and on and on.

Batteries...yes, I recycle batteries. I have a bag of batteries that's four years old. I thought 4 years of batteries would be a bigger sack. You can take them to Batteries Plus in Memphis and they take them to a recycler. Yes, I did say that I saw that 60 Minutes show on computers in China that are in a landfill poisoning people instead of at a recycler. He assured me that they do send them to a battery recycler. You can also take your aerosol cans to the Memphis recycling bins at Harbor Town. That box is about a year old.

Ok...just sharing some ideas. Yes, my utility room is mainly recycling, washer and dryer and Chloe's hamster hut. But I don't mind, I really don't spend much time in there.