Airing out the Family Trash, huh? I wondered if that would spark anyone's interest. What is KJ up to now? Is she about to disclose some family secrets for the world to read? Sorry to disappoint, or should I say "You are so welcome." No, this time I literally mean...Here is The Jenkins' Family Trash!!
Honestly, I never really thought about recycling. Don't roll your eyes - I'm being honest here. In Spring Hill, there wasn't a system of recycling that I was aware and so I never thought too much about it. I didn't know what I could or couldn't recycle or what to do with it. So, nothing ever got done. I didn't even know where or how to start.
When we moved into Nashville, there was a green trashcan and a tan trashcan. What in the world did we need 2 trashcans for? Common sense...green is the color for the environment. Hmm...recycling?
It didn't take long for me to get curious about recycling. For one, the county dropped off another set when we moved into the house, so we have 2 tan ones and 2 green ones. Here we have 4 trashcans and only one was being used. Ryan and I got on the internet and researched "Curby." That's Nashville's recycling! We read about what could and couldn't be thrown away in the recycling trashcan, what day Curby comes to pick up our recycled trash - which is once a month, where do you take your glass and plastic bags, and where exactly the recycling goes. It's a pretty interesting website.
We started one week setting aside everything that could be recycled at the end of the counter. It was overflowing with aluminum cans, junk mail, empty frozen veggie bags, cardboard boxes like Cheerios and Oatmeal, and glass jars and bottles after a couple of days. When the garbage came that week, we didn't even have a bag that needed to be taken. Whoah! It hit me all the trash we were dumping in landfills that would never go away. And there is a solution. It can be reused.
Now that we've been doing it for over a year, it's real simple. And it's efficient and good for the Earth we live on. Every couple of days, we walk to the back of the house and dump our recycling in the can. Once a month we have to take one or maybe two of our green trashcans up to the road. And on our normal trash day, we often times don't have a bag to dump or if we do, it's usually one measly plastic bag. It really does blow our minds every time the trash comes.
My new interest now is composting. Because when I take a look in the trash, all I see is food that could be composted and used as fertilizer. We'll let you know as that adventure progresses.
Oh! And about the glass and plastic grocery bags. I had my first experience this week. We kept our glass bottles in our basement and the plastic bags that people manage to collect for nearly a year. I admit Ryan and I are procrastinators on certain things. But there are stations throughout town that you drop off those items. The closest one to us is a couple of miles away. I went to Kroger and gave them back their bags in the bins placed outside the store. Took a total of 2 minutes tops. And then I went across the street to dump the jars and bottles. They even had a system there!!! I dumped brown colored glass in one bin, green/blue in another one, and clear in yet a different one. Let me tell you - I had so much fun. If you have any pent up tension that needs a way out, offer to recycle someone's glass. As you threw the glass in, you could hear it shatter when it hit the bottom. It was a great stress reliever!
Anyway, check out your local recycling. I mean you are already on the Internet. See what's available in your area and look into what you can do. Write your local officials if you need to.
Thanks for taking a look into The Jenkins' Family Trash today!
Honestly, I never really thought about recycling. Don't roll your eyes - I'm being honest here. In Spring Hill, there wasn't a system of recycling that I was aware and so I never thought too much about it. I didn't know what I could or couldn't recycle or what to do with it. So, nothing ever got done. I didn't even know where or how to start.When we moved into Nashville, there was a green trashcan and a tan trashcan. What in the world did we need 2 trashcans for? Common sense...green is the color for the environment. Hmm...recycling?
It didn't take long for me to get curious about recycling. For one, the county dropped off another set when we moved into the house, so we have 2 tan ones and 2 green ones. Here we have 4 trashcans and only one was being used. Ryan and I got on the internet and researched "Curby." That's Nashville's recycling! We read about what could and couldn't be thrown away in the recycling trashcan, what day Curby comes to pick up our recycled trash - which is once a month, where do you take your glass and plastic bags, and where exactly the recycling goes. It's a pretty interesting website.
We started one week setting aside everything that could be recycled at the end of the counter. It was overflowing with aluminum cans, junk mail, empty frozen veggie bags, cardboard boxes like Cheerios and Oatmeal, and glass jars and bottles after a couple of days. When the garbage came that week, we didn't even have a bag that needed to be taken. Whoah! It hit me all the trash we were dumping in landfills that would never go away. And there is a solution. It can be reused.
Now that we've been doing it for over a year, it's real simple. And it's efficient and good for the Earth we live on. Every couple of days, we walk to the back of the house and dump our recycling in the can. Once a month we have to take one or maybe two of our green trashcans up to the road. And on our normal trash day, we often times don't have a bag to dump or if we do, it's usually one measly plastic bag. It really does blow our minds every time the trash comes.
My new interest now is composting. Because when I take a look in the trash, all I see is food that could be composted and used as fertilizer. We'll let you know as that adventure progresses.
Oh! And about the glass and plastic grocery bags. I had my first experience this week. We kept our glass bottles in our basement and the plastic bags that people manage to collect for nearly a year. I admit Ryan and I are procrastinators on certain things. But there are stations throughout town that you drop off those items. The closest one to us is a couple of miles away. I went to Kroger and gave them back their bags in the bins placed outside the store. Took a total of 2 minutes tops. And then I went across the street to dump the jars and bottles. They even had a system there!!! I dumped brown colored glass in one bin, green/blue in another one, and clear in yet a different one. Let me tell you - I had so much fun. If you have any pent up tension that needs a way out, offer to recycle someone's glass. As you threw the glass in, you could hear it shatter when it hit the bottom. It was a great stress reliever!
Anyway, check out your local recycling. I mean you are already on the Internet. See what's available in your area and look into what you can do. Write your local officials if you need to.Thanks for taking a look into The Jenkins' Family Trash today!
2 comments:
I live out the country...they don't even pick up the trash, we have to take it to the dumpsters that are strategically placed around the county. The only thing they recycle is card board. I guess Virginia needs to catch up with the rest of the world! That is one thing I miss about Roswell. You just threw the recycling in the green bin and they picked it up for ya!
Yeah, here in south GA where I live, they don't have a curbside option. If you want to do recycling you have to make a special trip to one of the centers. Otherwise, it's trash at the curb in one single bin.
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