How to recycle dang near everything

I post occasionally about the things each of us can do to minimize our impact on this fragile planet - things such as recycling, global warming reduction, wilderness etiquette, and society’s collective carbon footprint.

There’s good reason for that: I’m a hiker.

As a hiker, I regularly find myself in direct contact with the natural world - those scattered areas of wilderness within which we can find solitude, commune with nature and restore our souls, and without which we cease to define value for our civilization. The legacy we leave to future generations will be a direct consequence of the value we today place on their lives. And I’m talking about all citizens of Earth, not just us humans.

Damn it, people, I just want to know that we’re doing something - anything - to preserve what’s worth preserving.

So what are we doing today to ensure a sustainable planet? What are you doing? What can you do?

There are actually a number of things you can do; it doesn’t have to take away from your current lifestyle. Consider recycling: while you’re saving up for that Prius tomorrow, you can find ways today to recycle more of the things you use. As the folks at Lime.com put it:

There’s more to recycling than melting down plastic soda bottles to make new plastic soda bottles. These days you can recycle everything from toothbrushes to your wedding dress, turn medicine bottles into life jackets and old running shoes into new playground surfacing-how’s that for reincarnation? Discover how and where to recycle everything you never thought you could…

From batteries, iPods, and digital cameras to thermometers, makeup, and packing peanuts, LIME’s Guide to Recycling can ensure ways in which we can all reuse such products. With half-lives of upwards of 10,000 years, recycling these types of solid waste products is certainly better than seeing them clogging our growing landfills for the next generations to deal with.

Recycling: it’s no longer a lifestyle choice, it’s a movement founded on imperative global need. If you’re not doing your part - if you’re not taking advantage of the collective foresight of many - then reconsider the ramifications: what will your children’s children contend with?

Are you a regular recycler, dear reader? Are you really on board with this? What are your thoughts?

~winehiker

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 11:41 am and is filed under grape squeezins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.