Tag: soda bottles

Recycling Numbers

On By Michel McDonaldIn GreenLeave a comment

Today we went to turn in our plastic to recycle and found out that different plastic containers have different numbers and they cannot all be recycled together.  See I never knew that.  I found this website that shows you what the difference is.

What do those recycling numbers mean?

I had all these different types of plastics.  I had clear soda bottles, milk cartons, yogurt containers etc. and they had to separate the clear bottles with the rest.  The clear soda bottles had the 1 on the bottom inside that little recycle symbol.  Those get you more money than the other ones which were 2 and up.

We had basically half number 1 and the rest were 2-6.  When the guy gave us the receipt it showed us how much each plastic cost.  The plastic with the 1 was a lot more than the rest.  I think it was $7 something for all the number 1’s but all the rest we got like .45 cents and that’s it and it was half  number 1 and the other half was all the rest and that rest was less money.  So basically it’s not even worth recycling the rest.

They basically told us that it’s a waste of time to save anything but the number 1 plastic as well as even paper.  The reason I am recycling isn’t for the money although it helps in today’s economy but also because those Brita commercials where they say like 30 minutes on a treadmill, forever in a landfill.  Those make me feel guilty for buying anything that comes in plastic or anything lol.  But, you know if they are so concerned with it then they will have a machine that goes through the trash cherry picking all the certain types of plastics and paper etc.  Darrin told me that he read in the newspaper that there is like a mountain of recycled paper that they are having trouble getting rid of, that’s why paper is so cheap to recycle.  That’s probably also why the plastic that isn’t number 1 is cheap.

I’m not saying to not recycle because the CRV items like the soda bottles/water bottles and soda/beer cans give you a lot more money but I’m certainly not going to waste our patio space recycling milk cartons and yogurt containers and other plastics anymore.  I’m going to find out about steel cans too before I waste any more time with those.  I want to save the planet but at the same time if they don’t want to recycle certain things then it’s out of my hands.  I can only do so much by using the cloth grocery bags and recycling plastic and aluminum.

It’s A Green Life

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Green, HealthLeave a comment

A few weeks ago we came home from San Diego after only being gone for a few days and discovered that someone had taken our garbage can.  The city wants to charge us $60 for a new one.  It hit me below the belt because it made me think that I do take it for granted.  Trash that is.  We normally just save soda cans and soda bottles and give them to the dumpster divers but we decided to start recycling them for ourselves.

I took it a step further though and instead of just soda bottles and cans I’d look at the back of every container we buy and those cans that food come in are recyclable too and so are milk containers.  Paper can also be recycled.  I set up 2 paper bags with the cans (1 bag for each type of can) and I’m going to set up another bag for shredded paper which I am now going to start shredding the mail along with junk mail and even bad ideas that I’ve printed.  I have so much paper just sitting around in notebooks that have absolutely no purpose anymore so those will be shredded straight away.

I’ve also become green when I shower.  When you live in a trailer or if go camping and have one of those hanging bags of water for showers you have to use the least you can use so you have enough water for yourself and others so you get wet, turn off the hose, lather your hair and body then turn the hose back on to rinse off.  Well, I’ve started doing that at home.  I don’t know exactly how many gallons of water I am saving but I bet you it’s a lot.

I started riding my bike for exercise, not to get anywhere in particular but so I can lose weight and so that’s good that I’m doing that but it really serves no green purpose for me.  But it’s at least a statement.

And we do have to drive our car to the recycling center just to recycle all this stuff.  I can’t carry bags of cans, bottles and tied up newspaper and bags of shredded paper on a bike so we have no other choice.  I feel I’m at least helping.

Below are pictures of my cans bags and a trash bag of bottles which is a new bag so it only has a couple of bottles but you get the idea.