Recycling...do you do it?

Even though I was raised a military brat and have lived in many parts of the world, I spent the majority of my growing up years in California. As you know we recycle out there. I remember when the ecology groups came on the scene in the 1970's and started teaching us about the earth and how we would run out of space if we didn't start to do something about the garbage situation. So for me, it was easy to get into the habit of recycling. I recycle just about everything that I can; be it glass, jars & bottles, plastic bottles, packaging from my bacon and what not and most of all those bags we get from the stores (those plastic bags are a #2 plastic and are recyclable), news paper, cardboard aluminum and steel cans too! As a family of 4 we put out 1 bag of garbage a week, scary huh? Now we put out between 3 or 4 bags of recycling material every week. My neighbors across the street are a family of 4, and each week they fill up 2 large sized garbage cans , I've seen them have as many as 3 filled to overflowing cans out on the curb. That right there is a crying a shame! But some people have got the wrong idea about it, there are those that think that recycling is messy and dirty not to mention it's too time consuming for them to be bothered to do it. All I have to say is, rinse your cans out and it won't be. The worse one yet is when they get an attitude about recycling, one like "you can't make me do it". I have one girlfriend who is not about to recycle for anything on this planet and she too is one that puts out 2 big garbage cans stuffed to capacity out on the curb each week.

Some areas of the country don't have the same attitudes about recycling. Take Abilene Texas for example. When we lived there I had to hunt for those recycling kiosks because there was not any curb side recycling program established there (and we lived there for 7 years). Those recycling kiosks were getting further and further away from my home too, but yet I managed to hunt them down! Once a week I would drag all of my recyclables out to the other side of town with my babies in tow no less. Now my children are 11 and 14 year old and recycling is second nature to them.

Won't you think about recycling?