A Tradition of Recycling

I will confess that over the past year, I have become a recycle Nazi. So bad in fact that just this past week, someone put a glass beer bottle into the garbage and I said, "Hey, that's recyclable! Take that out and put it on the counter!" Where this comes from, I'm not quite sure.

I suppose one day I got a wild hair (probably while watching Oprah about landfills) and decided to start recycling. Once we started it was amazing to see how much just two people can waste and how much can be recycled. It felt like a crime to not set aside that plastic soda bottle. We had garbage bags piled on our balcony, full of recyclables we saved up because our apartment complex does not have any recycling whatsoever. I used to go across town to a bin in front of a grocery store, before I discovered the mecca of all recycling, the actual recycling yard. Now I just go and dump all my recyclables into the appropriately marked bins and go on my way.Every other week, Sophie and I pack up the car and go to recycling. This has become somewhat of a tradition/ritual/adventure, for both of us. When I say "recycling" to Sophie, she gets as excited as if I she knows she gets to go for a car ride and sit there and watch me sort our garbage.Now, we have a system, which works pretty well. We have two old garbage bins out on our patio that we take all the recyclables to. We quickly discovered how important it was to take it out to the patio, otherwise our kitchen was littered in garbage. Within a week or two the cans get full and Sophie and I put them in the car (she mainly just runs around the parking lot). We then swing by the Starbucks for a little treat, and then to the recycling haven. I sort through everything, dropping it in its appropriately labeled bin and off we go! For some weird reason, I look forward to taking the recycling on my days off. It's a nice errand that doesn't end up costing money and makes you feel as if perhaps you're doing something useful. Green is the new black after all!