This image caught my eye as I came home today:
 |
| A black comforter has been rolled up into a bag and trashed in the dumpster. |
The root of this post is the idea of taking ultimate responsibility - for yourself, your actions, and the resources and materials you consume. Lately I've been inspired and motivated to think about the whole lifecycle of stuff that I consume. The envelope from junk mail doesn't go away when I throw it in the trash. Neither does the burned out lightbulb, the dead battery, the banana peel, or the empty printer ink cartridge. Once it's in the garbage, it's easy to fall into the out of sight, out of mind thinking. Sometimes, we act like we don't even care where, who, or what is going to deal with our trash. There is no magic genie that will make trash go poof. All of your stuff - everything you own and consume - has to go somewhere.
Odds are, you have a lot of stuff. Look around you and take in all the binders, books, electronics you have. Then, stop. You're probably starting to get overwhelmed. Thankfully, there are already systems in place that will help people interested in gradually assuming more responsibility for the stuff they use.
One of the things I've come to love about Austin is the awesome vibe of environmental awareness and entrepreneurial spirit for spearheading organizations and efforts. The more I look into the city's infrastructure and dedication to environmental protection, the more I'm impressed. Austin has a 30 year plan to be a zero waste city. Awesome!!
The final straw for me today was using a ziplock plastic baggie and not knowing what to do with it after eating my snack. Normally, I'd save it and throw it in my recycling bag at home. But, when I googled 'recycling ziplock baggies', I was surprised to learn from the Ziplock website that most recycling programs don't support plastic bags. My apartment complex has access to a single stream recycling program (sponsored by the City of Austin), which makes it super easy to recycle. Single stream means you put all recyclable material in one bin and they sort it for you. After looking up the allowable items of this program, I realize they don't support plastic baggie recycling, either. Since I've been putting plastic baggies in the blue bins ever since I moved in, I wondered what the consequence of this was - what happens to the sorting equipment when it comes across a plastic baggie? After calling the Austin Resource Recovery center, I learn that plastic usually gets caught in the sorter and shredded. This means the plastic is not being sorted or allotted to a reuse stream.
I love HEB even more when I call and find out they support plastic baggie recycling (go here to find out why I love HEB in the first place). The one in Hancock Center near Hyde Park has several collection bins at each entrance (as do most locations). You can put plastic grocery bags and ziplock baggies in there. HEB as a company is fully supporting recycling efforts.
So, this is one step you can take in gradually assuming more responsibility for what you consume. When you remember that everything in the trashcan has to go somewhere, maybe you'll be encouraged to think about alternative forms of disposal other than the trash can... like reusing or recycling :)
 |
| Blue Single Stream Recycling bins collected by the City of Austin |
 |
| Single Stream Recycling Guidelines |
Wow you actually called them? That's impressive. I think Walmart and Kroger does plastic bags too. It's awesome that HEB does ziplocks though.
ReplyDeleteYep. Whichever grocery store you frequent, it'd be worth looking into their resources. If they don't have a recycling program in place already, you could recommend they implement one, or look into other stores in your area that do (exercise consumer purchasing power! :D)
Delete