I am fortunate to live in Calfornia, we have a decent recycling program here in Silicon Valley. We have two cans for garbage collection--one for the garbage and one for recycling.
For most of us, we have thrown away (in the garbage) all kinds of things that could have been recycled. Soup cans, mayo jars, cardboard, paper, all kinds of glass, aluminum foil, plastic of so many kinds. Where do these go you ask? Landfill...ugg, landfill. That means that things I put in the garbage 30 years ago are still there. I cannot change the past, but I can make the choice to improve the future.
I am at the point that when I am out, say having a burrito from my favorite mexican food place, I take the foil they wrap it in home and put it in the recycle bin. When I eat in the resturant they serve it on reuseable plates...which is fabulous, but they give you a plastic cup and plastic utensils. Yikes! I usually ask the person I am ordering with, why they do it that way. The response most of the time is "I don't know, it's just what they tell me to do." I then speak with great respect to them and tell them about the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean, which contains largely plastic utensils and plastic bottle caps. They look at me with big eyes and say, "Whoa, that's awful." I then ask them to please tell management--if they are not available at the time--that I, a repeat customer, would like them to make a different choice, a choice for their future as well as mine for a better planet.
I admit, it feels very overwhelming at times, but then I remember that every choice I make, every piece of plastic, or a cat food can that I personally put into recycling, reduces what is going into landfill and reuses that material in a recycled product.
If you and I then choose products made of recycled materials, we are making a difference.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
What ReGeneration is to me today
ReGeneration has a couple different defintions to me--a 53-year-old mother of two intelligent, wonderful, artistic children (not biased--just ask anyone who knows them.) In writing to this blog, I will draw from my raising of them, what I see in them as my second generation and my desire to have many generations in our family yet to come. This will NOT happen if we all--old and young--peoples of every economic and social class don't act NOW. Hence, today's meaning of ReGeneration. This time in 2009--and every moment of every day forward--we must make changes, in order to hope for an earth that will be here and habitable for our loved ones to come.
I began recycling in the 1980s. We had an aluminum can crusher --as to store more in the recycling bin we would place on the street on garbage days. We also had a bin for glass. That being said--as I see the world today--I could have done things very differently. If I had done things differently, my portion of the problems existing today would be less--not just my individual contribution but the contribution of the family that I was raising--which could be huge.
I look back to raising my children and realize I was participating in creating the problem. Here's how. When they were beginning school and I made their lunches, I would scoop yogurt out of a large container and put it in a reuseable container. Other items such as cookies and granola bars were taken from a large container and placed into a smaller one that fit in the reusable lunch box.
Do you remember thermoses--those things you put milk, juice, soup, Spaghettio's, and all the other liquids in instead of drink boxes coated in wax or foil pouches that just went into the argh--I hate to say it--garbage/landfill?
Manufacturers began making convenience items. Individually wrapped granola bars were just the beginning. To save time--just as the manufacturers wanted me to--I started placing these in my kids lunches. Over the 15 years of their being in K-12, I became part of the problem but I had no idea.
It makes me very sad today. Ignorance is NOT bliss, I am part of the reason the earth is in a critical conditon. I have become educated and continue to learn about the situation and am actively working to reuse, recycle, reduce, rethink, renew, respect and encourage those who can re-engineer to do so.
I began recycling in the 1980s. We had an aluminum can crusher --as to store more in the recycling bin we would place on the street on garbage days. We also had a bin for glass. That being said--as I see the world today--I could have done things very differently. If I had done things differently, my portion of the problems existing today would be less--not just my individual contribution but the contribution of the family that I was raising--which could be huge.
I look back to raising my children and realize I was participating in creating the problem. Here's how. When they were beginning school and I made their lunches, I would scoop yogurt out of a large container and put it in a reuseable container. Other items such as cookies and granola bars were taken from a large container and placed into a smaller one that fit in the reusable lunch box.
Do you remember thermoses--those things you put milk, juice, soup, Spaghettio's, and all the other liquids in instead of drink boxes coated in wax or foil pouches that just went into the argh--I hate to say it--garbage/landfill?
Manufacturers began making convenience items. Individually wrapped granola bars were just the beginning. To save time--just as the manufacturers wanted me to--I started placing these in my kids lunches. Over the 15 years of their being in K-12, I became part of the problem but I had no idea.
It makes me very sad today. Ignorance is NOT bliss, I am part of the reason the earth is in a critical conditon. I have become educated and continue to learn about the situation and am actively working to reuse, recycle, reduce, rethink, renew, respect and encourage those who can re-engineer to do so.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
When I joined the ReGeneration...
I joined the ReGeneration in the late 1980's thanks to Ranger Rick magazine.
In one of Ranger Rick's adventures, Ranger Rick traveled to a planet where all the animals lived in tunnels through garbage. There was no place else for them to live--the entire planet was covered with garbage.
At the end of the story, we learn that Ranger Rick wasn't on some mysterious planet in a distant solar system--he was on planet Earth. Earth in a future where humans had created so much trash they had covered the entire surface of the planet, and the animals had no other place to live other than tunnels through our garbage. The magazine went on to explain about the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle.
I started recycling that day and eventually got my entire family involved. Twenty years later I have learned there is a lot more to it than those first 3 R's.
I learn something new everyday about conservation, climate change and stewardship. Some of it is very encouraging and some of it is very hard to hear. But I am learning to listen. I am learning to live differently so there will be a future in which we can all live and prosper.
The ReGeneration is defined by our action and outlook. I am taking action and I want others to take action with me.
We each have incredible power and together we can change our neighborhoods, our society, corporate America and the world.
In one of Ranger Rick's adventures, Ranger Rick traveled to a planet where all the animals lived in tunnels through garbage. There was no place else for them to live--the entire planet was covered with garbage.
At the end of the story, we learn that Ranger Rick wasn't on some mysterious planet in a distant solar system--he was on planet Earth. Earth in a future where humans had created so much trash they had covered the entire surface of the planet, and the animals had no other place to live other than tunnels through our garbage. The magazine went on to explain about the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle.
I started recycling that day and eventually got my entire family involved. Twenty years later I have learned there is a lot more to it than those first 3 R's.
I learn something new everyday about conservation, climate change and stewardship. Some of it is very encouraging and some of it is very hard to hear. But I am learning to listen. I am learning to live differently so there will be a future in which we can all live and prosper.
The ReGeneration is defined by our action and outlook. I am taking action and I want others to take action with me.
We each have incredible power and together we can change our neighborhoods, our society, corporate America and the world.
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