Happy Earth Day!

 

Best Buy recycles!

I’m late in blogging today, because I’ve been busy celebrating the 39th annual Earth Day by recycling! Every day really is Earth Day for me, because I’ve been a dedicated recycler for years—we’re fortunate enough to have weekly curbside pickup, I shred papers and recycle them at bins that benefit our middle school, I donate gently used clothing and items to charitable causes, and I use reusable bags both for shopping and for the boys’ lunches. I always try to group my errands, so I don’t do a lot of unnecessary driving in my ahem . . . SUV (sorry, Earth, I didn’t know the Honda Pilot would be so huge!). But I don’t compost (icky stuff!), and I avoid using glass products, because I hate having to drive to the recycling place (curbside works best for a lazy mom like me!).

Who could forget Mac's OS 8?

I started Earth Day at Best Buy. I had read about Best Buy’s new recycling policy and decided to give it a test drive. I’ve had an old monitor and Mac (a PowerPC) that I’ve wanted to recycle for years; today was the perfect time to do just that! I deleted out the hard drive, and loaded the monitor, computer, and keyboard into the car. I also tossed in a couple boxes of clothing, a couple bags of shredded papers, and a horde of plastic newspaper bags for other recycling stops.

"Will"ing to help with recycling!

Recycling at Best Buy was soooo easy! I drove up to the front, went inside and told them I had heavy computer equipment to recycle, and they sent out cute Will to carry it in. I then parked the car and went inside. Best Buy charges $10 to recycle the monitor, but they give you a $10 store gift card–it’s a great deal! Will told me that they didn’t think many people would take advantage of the recycling program; however, they now take in seven pallets of stuff every week. All items that won’t be in our landfills fouling our earth with toxins. It’s a good thing!

Donations wanted

After a healthy, yummy lunch at Chipotle (always a good thing!), I finished my Earth Day errands by dropping off the clothes at the shack pictured above, tossing the bags of shredded paper in the bins outside the school, and putting all those newspaper sleeves in the local grocery store recycling bin. Then I picked up the Mister’s medication and a book that the #2 son needs for U.S. History at neighborhood stores, and it was back home. A fruitful day for me, for a change (including the load of laundry that soon will need to be folded)!

Speaking of U.S. History . . . .

I remember the first Earth Day in 1970 as if it were today. I was a junior in high school (like the #1 son), and I wrote a play that was performed at a school assembly. That seems incredulous to me, because I was so shy back in those days. Yet I believed in the concept of Earth Day and knew it was important to get the message across to my classmates.

Now it’s 39 years later. What did I think the world would be like recycling-wise at this point? I thought we’d be further along than we are. I figured we’d be using trash as fuel and that everything would be recyclable; there would be no need for landfills. But every time I get a styrofoam takeout container (styrofoam takes forever to degrade), I shake my head and wonder how long it’s going to take for the “go green” concept to really take hold. Sure, we’ve made a lot of strides . . . I love curbside recycling pickup . . . but it seems like there’s more that could be done to make our planet a cleaner environment for everyone.

Maybe it’ll be my sons who make the difference in the future, along with everyone else’s kids and grandkids. Hopefully, they’ll realize that Earth Day is every day!