How Green Was My Monday

Earlier this year, I started noticing all the cardboard boxes and plastic bottles I was throwing out, perfectly good containers with the nice recycle symbol on the bottom that I was instead sending to our local dump. My parents had recently gotten a recycle trashcan from the county and my mom told me how surprised she was at the amount of their "trash" that could actually be recycled. She described her experience with recycling as "empowering."

I was caught off guard by that sentiment, by how strongly my mom had reacted to which trashcan she used for what stuff. But I had to admit I was starting to feel a pinch -- the thought of the local landfill, getting higher and higher with junk -- that image made me feel tired.

I decided to call the county, and the next day I had my own recycle can. I very quickly realized that over half of our trash could actually be recycled -- and I felt a similar reaction to my mom. It felt so good to be making a little difference on the world around us.

Since then, I'm working on other ways to "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" (as the song from Curious George tells us). I've bought reusable bags for the grocery store, I wait until dishwasher is totally full until I run it, and each week one boy has the chore of "turning off the lights" throughout the house to make sure we aren't needlessly burning electricity. I've also started keeping track of our resources more fastidiously -- and I've been amazed at how this is helping me want to buy less. I don't want to be a "consumer," in a haphazard, pave-the-earth kind of way. Watching where my money goes helps me want to use every last bit of what I have before I go get more.

As John Paul II said, we have "a grave responsibility to preserve [the earth's] order for the well-being of future generations."

What about you? What are a few things you are doing to take care of Mother Earth?

 UPDATED TO ADD: If you want a recycle bin and live in Richmond County, call Augusta Solid Waste. They will deliver it to your curb.