Home Truth

You may wonder why I have not mentioned paper yet, the most obvious and possibly important kind of recycling. Precisely for that reason. I have so much to say, it’s needs a blank sheet of paper of its’ own!

So much unwanted paper enters our home everyday. Junkmail on the doormat, artistic masterpieces that get discarded on the floor as soon as the kids get through the front door, half read magazines and newspapers piling up in the smallest room in the house! With four children at the same school, I get four copies of every newsletter, notice and educational advertisement to come home. (In fact, writing that has prompted me to see how ridiculously wasteful it is and I am going in to point it out this afternoon.)

And then there’s cardboard packaging. We get through six boxes of cereal a week for a start and there’s a limit to how much junk modelling an imperfect mother like me can put up with! I have one of those jute recycling bags that are the perfect size for folded down cereal boxes as well as newspapers. Strong enough and large enough for a week of paper inundation in this house and that’s saying something.

I am fortunate enough to have a friend with an overwhelming passion for recycling and a great relationship with the local paper recycling plant, so each week, it all passes into her capable hands to be sorted and taken for recycling. The council do take paper in the recycling, but not card. You all need a friend like mine to take it on board to find a good home for card, junk mail etc. Maybe you could be that friend!

So that’s how we have reduced our rubbish output by as much as half. It’s not been too arduous, but it’s great to be able to physically see the difference in output and to take pride in doing our little bit. It’s not a load of rubbish after all.

Filed under: Uncategorized on March 12th, 2007