Thursday, January 3, 2008

Recycle, Recycle

I was looking at my city's website and I've learned that my city is going to expand their blue bin recycling program. This is fabulous! Soon we will be able to recycle things like milk cartons, tetra paks and those aluminum pie tins. We currently recycle glass, metal, mixed paper, newspaper and plastics labelled 1,2, 4 or 5. They also accept most plastic shopping bags. We will also no longer have to sort items, which will make it easier to use the blue bins.

While I know that the ultimate goal is to reduce and reuse before you recycle, this change will be welcome as I do sometimes have those things and hated throwing them away. I always return the drink boxes/bottles for the refund as I save all that money and put it in an account for my son's education - a very good reason to recycle! My grocery store also has a recycling program. By bringing in the containers on their list, you earn points. I've cashed in those points that we earn through shopping there and recycling there, and so far it's netted over $100 in his education fund over the last year. It really is such a simple thing to do, and with an incentive that makes it even more worthwhile.

As I'm cleaning I'm adding to the recycling pile. I'm trying hard not to throw things away this week and am identifying items that are an issue for me. For example, my son's organic individual fruit cups come in a plastic container with a foil lid. While I like the organic aspect, they are packed in plastic labelled with a 6 - something I cannot recycle. I will now be on the hunt for a new source of this for him. Other than applesauce, I haven't seen large sizes of these that I could distribute into smaller portions, so this will be a challenge. I have no idea where to buy fruit 'sauce' type treats that aren't packed in these containers. I did buy yogurt in the large container for him this week - thus saving me from recycling a case of little containers.

Tomorrow we go on our first family 'experience'. I'm trying to do things, rather than acquire things so we are going to a hockey game. This is one of the ways I can reduce my use of 'stuff'.

2 comments:

Maisie said...

Jackie,
Have you tried making your own fruit purée, or even your own yogurt.

I use a yougurt mix made a company called EasiYo (www.easiyo.com) which sells sachets of dried powder which you mix with water then 'yog' in a flask type thing makes 1 litre at a time. although the sachets are not recyclable they do burn on the open fire easily.

Maisie

Unknown said...

I haven't, actually. The problem with the fruit purees is that most fruit is not in season now, so it's not readily available. For variety I usually get the blueberry or mango ones as applesauce gets a little boring for him. I was making applesauce, but for the cost and time of making it, it was cheaper and easier to buy a big container of the organic sauce for him.

I haven't attempted yogurt - I should look into that as that sounds pretty easy.