Recycling

Recycling

Tiny Town, Rural Area, America - - the place I have called home for 22 years now. Those first years of residency, we took our garbage to the dump! This was a very new concept for a Bay Area Girl gone “Country”!

Years later, our waste management company informed us of a change to mandatory garbage pickup. This was a good idea because the population in our town was rapidly growing as we transitioned from farming community to “bedroom” community of nearby major cities. For 20 years, the townspeople had bagged up their recyclables and hauled them into the next major town, or simply threw them away.

A recycling center appeared, right down the street and then just as suddenly shut down, it’s brief occurrence like a fleeting dream. Schools and organizations would welcome the recycling projects for fundraising opportunity, but soon fizzled with the daunting task of collecting and then hauling messy bags, driving 30-mile round trips to do so.

Then it finally happened… the garbage truck came out on a non-garbage day distributing (no! lets get real here, dropping!) bins to the residents to use for recyclables. The bins were literally thrown from the truck, into the street, no lids and the added paperwork explaining their use flying around in the breezes. Did I mention their size? Big enough for 2 weeks of newspapers or a large garbage bag of random items, but not even close to large enough to contain the list of items to be recycled. Oh! In addition, pick up for the blue bins is *every other week*!

I assumed that this new project must be a royal pain for the waste company until I got the new and revised bill. The customers are obviously being passed the extra costs for this service!

Happy to finally have a new way to get my plastics , glass and aluminum to the recycling centers, I now bag the extras and heap the garbage bags on top of this very tiny bin, hoping someone will get the hint that our “bin” for recycling should be at least as big as our garbage cans! My question is how much energy do I waste rinsing these items to avoid the ants that find my saved recyclables before the 2-week pickup is due? I am holding out hope for a real tall can with a lid to be provided in the near future, or maybe the 3-can system like in the big city…

illusion glass

Now here is some beautiful glassware!

Time For Lettuce

Out the door, I quickly glance at the clock calculating just how close I am to being late. Hurry, hurry off to work… each day challenging me to wrap up the morning’s activities at home in order to be on time for my first appointment.

This morning as I made my lunch, I did that usual pause to decide weather adding lettuce to my sandwich was worth the trouble. Often I leave it off, not because of indifference, but it adds a shortcut so as not to be late. After all, the lettuce does not offer any remarkable nutrition value and it does take time for this final addition to my lunch.

Re-prioritizing has recently become a current strategy during my day’s activities. I have been learning that taking the time to cut a few fresh flowers before leaving the house is worth rocking my punctuality comfort zone. It clicks – that I should give thought to apply this recent knowledge…

Biting into my sandwich and tasting the cool sweet crunch of crisp lettuce reaffirms that these little luxuries in life count way more than once realized while rushing around for the purpose of better efficiency. Channeling this new thought process redirects each activity along the way to a better mode of living out the day…

From now on, I am taking time for lettuce!

The Times....

Mid 80s This Weekend!

Outdoors Calling....

It’s in the 80s for the first time this year! Loving the gift of warmth and sunshine, I prepare for the transition from indoors the patio and garden living. It’s a whole new way to be… new routines and fresh air. It’s only April so the warm weekend will give way to some cooler air once again. There is relief in that fact; I am not ready for the onslaught of the brutal valley heat that eventually takes place here.


It’s time to drop whatever projects the indoor wintertime had me so involved in. Got to just re prioritize how I spend my moments. I don’t want to miss the opportunities for that first taste of summertime and all that it holds. Fragrant flowers, bee’s buzzing, water slashing on my feet as I give the potted plants a drink from the hose.

The local orchards have almost completed their cycle of splendor. First were the Almond blossoms, then Peach and Apple blooms and the intense and concentrated Cherry bloom, the beginning creation of the prized and precious fruit our community revolves around.

My gardens are calling me to take notice and take care of what is taking place. The rains have dried up and plants grow willy nilly over sidewalks and lawns. The vines start to intermingle and will be a tangled mess if I don’t keep them in proper order.


Flowers pop up all over my garden bringing surprise and delight to the landscape. The camellias were most abundant this season, almost gone now, while I impatiently await the opening of large buds covering the Clematis vines.





Coming home from work and checking email brings the happiness of more pictures sent to me from the “Lamb Cam” from my sister’s ranch up North. Where the flowers aren’t quite blooming yet but spring has a whole different vibe of producing her precious baby lambs. It’s a good thing her flowers come later because she just would not have time to “stop and smell the roses” with all of the busyness that takes place. *Sigh* It’s got to be happy season there in spite of the intense activity.

Yes, its spring and I’ve got to go…. The outdoors life is calling my name!

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

The continent-sized vortex of plastic waste blighting the Pacific.

read more | digg story

Rethinking Plastic

While holiday shopping in the house wares department the flashes of bright colors caught my eye. Along with new Panini makers and heavy cookware were the new silicon bake ware pans in all shapes and sizes. Flexibility, like soft rubber is the selling feature. One can literally turn the pan inside out so as not to disturb the delicate baked goods. The finish creates a non-stick surface. The idea caught my interest, but something just didn’t seem right…

My parents raised us not to litter the same way they raised us camping in the mountains. Being the “city girl” in the family, I never considered myself totally consumed with the whole *go green* movement though it does make sense to me. What goes on with our health and our earth seems a worthwhile endeavor. I try to consider what goes into my body and what I choose to put into the landfill, but lately my awareness has peaked. Bits of news and hype surrounding the whole bottled water thing have been slowly entering my mind and bearing more impact than I realized.

Taking my lunch to work everyday seems a healthy practice. Most of the food prepared in our home is cooked from scratch to avoid excess sodium. Not being a fan of the microwave, the convenience issue keeps it a part of daily life if only to warm food. Lunch time at work means out comes the “tupper” container, previously refrigerated. Pop that baby into the micro and {oops} sometimes the inside wall of the container bubbles up and takes on the color of the food! This really seems wrong even though sporadic. Seriously, it’s enough for me to do a “head’s up” on the subject.

My research has brought up a lot of stuff on food contact substances. Basically, all plastics migrate into the food (or drink) they contact. The controversy exists in the level of chemical contaminates including carcinogens. Phthalates found in plastic bottled water have increased scrutiny. Leaching Bisphenol A (BPA) is a known danger and can block and mimic hormones, affecting the body’s normal functions. This endocrine disrupter can cause neurological problems and affect immune systems.

At age 51, messing with my hormones is not something I should be doing, let alone sacrificing optimum brain function and immune deficiencies.

Another point, that plastic “smell” and “taste” should tell us something. It’s just plain common sense that the odor of plastic while eating and drinking isn’t natural!

There are responsible decisions we can make about the types of plastics we choose to use. Evidently the different plastics are identified by a number on each plastic receptacle and certain numbers identify certain plastics that are found to be the most in question for chemical leaching. From the reports I have read stay away from 3, 6, 7 and 8.

Beginning my quest to find better alternatives became more of a challenge than I thought. Glass is the best answer, though not always practical. I now store and freeze and heat our food in Pyrex. My metal thermos replaces my plastic thermal iced tea jug but has some plastic parts on the spout mechanism. My new cookware cannot be used with mettle utensils without damage to the finish, so wood works here, no more plastic stirring my gravy! All of my juice comes in plastic. The milk cartons, once coated with wax are now sprayed with… you guessed it… plastic! Even organic produce at the supermarket is sprayed with plastic!

Realizing that we seem to live in a plastic world makes me wonder how we can rid the risks to our health and our habitat. Awareness is key, then conscience and a choice to better living…