recycling 101.

I think there’s an assumption out there that if you aren’t a hippie, or a total green-living fanatic, that you can’t recycle *some* of your household waste. Maybe it’s a misconception on my part, but I’ve felt a little bit separated from the whole green movement because I’m not able to live 100% green. My city is kind of in the dark ages when it comes to recycling. If I want to recycle it has to be completely on my own. But honestly it isn’t that hard, it just takes a little bit of organization.

I have a garage, {which I know not everyone does, but it still doesn’t exclude you!} where I stow all the recycling stuff. I have a bin for metal cans, a bin for plastics, and a bin for paper. These are bins I’ve purchased at garage sales, or on sale at Kmart, they are not expensive, I can promise you that.

So recycling paper is what I really want to emphasize. You cannot BELIEVE how much paper comes in and out of my household, and we are only a family of four! The kids’ papers from school, junk mail, and packaging. I can’t tell you how much of our paper recycling bin is from packaging. See what I mean?

You didn’t happen to notice the pizza boxes at the top did you? Oh phew. I was hoping you wouldn’t see the evidence of take-out. I’m the perfect mother, and we never ever, ever eat food with any bad chemicals, or anything that doesn’t pass my 100% organic standards. {You bought that, right?}

Anyway, I have this bin in the garage and every single day after I sort out the junk mail, catalogs, children’s papers from school, boxes of food, etc. I put it in this bin in the garage. And this bin {a fairly good sized bin} is full by the end of the week, every week. We have to drive it to the parking lot of my daughter’s elementary school and unload it into a big container that is then emptied by the city. But really, it’s not a very high price to pay for recycling a huge amount of paper. It’s simple, I’m helping the environment, and I don’t feel as bad about *recycling* P’s art project from school because it will have a second life as stationery. Or something.

Next up? Composting.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!