Earth Friendly

My parents did not know that they "recycled." They were frugal out of need and found a second use for nearly everything. I could tell you stories - but I won't today.

People who survived the depression lived by the motto, "Use it up, wear it out; Make it do, or do without."

When our children were growing, we did not adhere to the philosophy. With two full time working parents, our household took the convenient route more often. The girls had school and extra curricular activities and so did we. We didn't include recycling.

Now that the hubby and I are older and wiser, (I'm mostly older) we are more aware of the things we use.

Earlier this year, Swamptwitch and Robin began a recycling challenge for 2007 (S.P.E.A.R. Challenge 2007) that I am revisiting; Swampy introduced it on her post Talkin' Trash.
Robins entry can be found at Me -Talk- Dirty- One- Day.

This month, D (Kelly's home schooled daughter at Pass The Torch) is writing guest posts about Save The Earth Saturday. Last week she wrote about recycling.
She studied diligently and lists "need to know" facts about trash. I invite you to click over there and chime in.

I rejoiced this winter when our street was offered curbside recycling and many of our neighbors signed up.
I love it. No more messy boxes sitting in the garage waiting for someone to throw them into the back of the pick-up and haul away.

I now look on the bottom of food containers before purchase to see if our service will accept them in the green curb box.

We also compost. It begins in a small compost crock by my kitchen sink.
Kitchen Compost Crock at Giaim

Last year our thimble-size vegetable garden was fertilized from our home brew. The one butternut squash plant grew like a mutant from a B horror movie. It climbed the viburnum bush and opened its yellow blooms at the top and peaked into the neighbor's yard.

It was strange to see the squash hanging from the branches.


We hope to create a cane or bamboo disguise
for our black compost bins. They were well
hidden until we had to tear up our yard in 2006 to replace the $eptic drain field. (That wa$n't
a typo.)

Over the past ten years, we switched to
wildlife friendly products on our lawn to help it stay green. We are pleasantly surprised that the
aphids are controlled by the local sparrow population. Robins, Flickers, and other birds
find in our yard an insecticide free food source for their chicks.

We leave the majority of our flower beds
in tact through the winter to provide seeds, fruit, and
shelter for the wildlife that remains through the winter.

There are so many little things we can all do to make our little corner of the world a better place.

The Creator said the earth was "Good" and appointed us stewards of His beautiful work. Let us all do our part to treat it well.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Well - you know I've been doing my part for a while now. If I could only get Dave to set me up with a rain barrel then I'd be truly set.
Dear pamela. Most councils in Australia organise garbage collections - and everyone has the same stuff. A general waste bin, a green waste bing (garden clippings), and recycling (the bin has a divider - papery stuff on one side, and glass and plastic on the other). I was in shock when I got here and found out they've only actually collected rubbish for the past three years or so. Before that there was trash everywhere. And there's certainly NO recycling. Unfortunately, without the infrastructure, it's hard to recycle rubbish. Though I do try to reuse where I can (plastic bags, ice cream containers etc).
Whippersnapper said…
I must confess I am a bit of a recycling Nazi. What disturbs me about the whole thing is HOW MUCH recycling we actually produce: We seem to fill up a box a day. It makes me shudder to think of the sixties and seventies when everything was just being thrown into landfills (and the ocean.) Just THINK about how much stuff it must have been!
Kelly Curtis said…
My mom said that expression all the time because her great-great aunt did. I love that mantra, though I fail every day in following it;)

Thanks for the shoutout to D's research project!
Anonymous said…
This is all good news. Although I must admit I was a little suprised that you just got recycling service - that shows my California-ness shining through. I should post a picture of our recycling toter - it is bigger than the trash can and smurf blue.

ps - I am very very jealous of your yard and its alien compost bins. ;) What a lovely yard!
BarnGoddess_01 said…
Pamela! you are so classy, I mean this in a good way. Everything you do is tasteful.

You make recycling look good.

Unlike my recycling...I do very little but my bins look cluttered and the whole compost thing would probably stink to high heaven if I ever tried it.
Shelby said…
love it - I must recycle more. I simply must.
Anonymous said…
GRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr!

I just wrote one of the longest, most detailed comments EVAH and my finger slipped and I lost it! NOT a happy camper >:(.

Anyway, great post...you've-reinspired me... I went back and found my old posts about this (http://openconversation.blogspot.com/2006/12/me-talk-dirty-one-day.html) is one of them, and I'm ready to get back on the wagon. Spring is good for that :/.

Did you remember it all sprang from a "5 things you probably didn't know about me" meme? I didn't. I had listed "I don't recycle and have horrible guilt about it"
as one of my five things....

Oh, yeah, THE LITTLE THINGS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD! :)
ChrisB said…
I'm a big supporter of re-cycling and did a post on it a while back because here in the UK there are some negatives -like why I gave up composting if you're interested look here
Anonymous said…
I heart compost as well. Coffee grounds egg shells and fish bones made my peonies bloom and grow.
Susan in va said…
BRAVO! BRAVO! Something about this post made me wanna stand up and start cheering - you know, like they do to the President during his State of the Union address?
Heather Plett said…
We're trying to be more intentional about these things too. I had to laugh yesterday. I was in the store with four year old Maddie, and when the cashier put my products in a plastic bag, Maddie said "Mom, you don't really need a bag, do you?" She was right - I didn't really need to waste a plastic bag. So I carried my stuff out to the car without a plastic bag. What's that they say about "a little child shall lead them?" ;-)
theotherbear said…
I was going to say what Little Miss Moi said. (OK, except for the bit about moving over there and them only just starting to collect garbage etc - you know, just the bit about how in Australia we have more recycling and garden waste pickups than regular garbage.) I just figured everyone gets that. Hmm, I feel so appreciative all of a sudden :)
Susie said…
We compost and recycle faithfully. Have for years and years!
:)
dodo said…
i like the look of the little kitchen crock. any green stuff from the kitchen that doesn't go into the guinea pig goes in the kitcehncompost with the egg shells and whatever else, but as the summer finally kicks in, i know the lidless container on the drainer is going to get all stinky and fly irresistible. Yuk!
Anonymous said…
Great stewardship post, Pamela!! Needless to say, I've composted for years and recycled, too!
Susie Q said…
e have always recycled, even when we had to truck it out ourselves. I am always amazed by the folks who do NOT, even when the truck will pick up rught at their door. Too much truoble to seperate...uh huh. They actually say that. Go figure. *sigh*
My dad always did it and composted too. We do in our garden, as little as it is. : ) Dad just did it because it was the way it should be...and it STILL should be huh?

Love the post...

Hugs,
Sue

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