Recycling: It's Everyone's Responsibility

Have you ever seen that commercial where the dog takes a piece of foil to the sink to wash before placing it in the recycling? Tell the truth. Do you recycle your foil? Do you recycle at all? Do you think it’s too much trouble to recycle? Maybe you think it doesn’t really make a difference…

Well, I am really good about recycling. The town I live in has an awesome recycling program. They take glass, metal, mixed paper, phone books, cardboard, plastic, tires, used motor oil, and more! We have to drag it there, but at least we know it won’t end up in a landfill somewhere!

According to the Garbage Exhibit at the Annenberg Foundation, the average American disposes of approximately 1460 pounds of garbage per year! That’s 4 pounds a day on average! Per person! Of this, less than 25% is ever recycled! Surely we can do better than that! In my family of six, we rarely have more than one can of garbage per week. Even that could be reduced by being more disciplined (composting, for example).

But as good as I am about recycling, it occurred to me one day that there are still other ways I can conserve resources. Let’s take the foil, for instance. When I prepare something for dinner…let’s say a tray of breaded chicken but I am not cooking it right away, I still need to cover it. But if I cover it with plastic wrap, once it’s been used, it must be thrown in the garbage due to contamination.

Plastic, as we know is made from fossil fuels. We also know that plastic is not exactly bio-degradable. In fact, scientists estimate that it takes approximately 500 years for plastic to break down. America’s dependence on foreign oil is a big concern, and the fact that I am depleting the earth’s resources to cover a tray of chicken for a few hours before throwing it out really bothers me.

So here’s my solution: I place a piece of waxed paper (biodegradable) over the food and cover that with foil, which I save and reuse (over and over and over…). Foil is one of those endlessly useable items. So the next time you tear off a sheet of foil with the intention of throwing it in the garbage a short time later, stop and think how you can help to do your part in saving our resources. It’s just a tiny little change, but if everyone did it, just think of what an impact it would have! Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Do it for our kids’ sakes. Want to know more? Visit the EPA website and take a look at this eye-opening information:
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm