I am not what one would call an environmentalist but this past year, I have a new passion for recycling. When I was a missionary in Switzerland in 1993, I was amazed that every home had multiple recycling bins. Though I joked about needing a PhD in Recycling to live there, I admired how they had adapted it as their way of life.
I had lived with the guilt of not recycling for years but last summer I decided I would make more of an effort. I called my HOA to find out the recycling retrieval rates and found out I’d already been paying for it as a part of our fee.
Whoops.
A year later, I am proud to say my recycling bin has more items than my garbage can and it has required very little extra effort. My reluctant husband, on the other hand, can’t be bothered. He remained indifferent when 6-year-old Hadley and I recently staged an intervention after she read Where Does The Garbage Go?
Though I can’t teach that old dog new tricks, I have been educating my kids. When Haddie and I were departing from a restaurant last week, I pointed out the tall garbage can full of pop cans whose home would inevitably be a landfill.
“I know, Mommy,” Haddie exclaimed. “After school next week, let’s go to lots of different restaurants with garbage cans and see CLICK TO READ ON AT MILEHIGHMAMAS.COM.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 