Recycling Heads Up!

A friend left a large gift box with a top and bottom and I reinforced it inside with cardboard cut to fit the sides, on both boxes.I stapled the cardboard at top and bottom to strengthen. Now I use it to fold and store bedding. That's the beginning of the story.

Next came an article that China is refusing the world's recycling [they handled about 90%]. I live in Oregon, a recyling state, and found out the county of our state's capital is no longer accepting recycling, I assume because of this fact. Our local neighborhood recycling center has vanished in just a few weeks after the announcement. Possibly as a result; looks that way. Even if your state doesn't recycle from the home onward, chances are they recyle at the dump.

Alarm bells went off. We are going to be buried in our own garbage. Karma is coming back to bite our shopping habits.

I started repurposing all the boxes I could, from tea boxes to cereal, first tucking anything inside that was already cut.Using the top or side to make
"paper slats" to fit along inside of box and stapling into place. They can be decorated with other paper or not. I'm organizing every area I can with these boxes, starting very small, only have made about 8.If it's in an area that doesn't conflict with decor, what does it matter? But I look at every piece of cardboard with new eyes. I work for a small mail order company and a piece of cardboard can be used to stiffen soft goods packages inside plastic mailer bags.

I'm getting rid as I come to it, any plastic container and replacing with glass or metal, which conceivably can last the rest of my life. So I have jars soaking and have to deal with the gunk under the labels. Oh, well.

One of the reasons we buy sets of storage containers is we like the consistency of design. We can satisfy that need by putting like jars in neat little rows, by like jars. And then shutting the cupboard doors.

If you like knick-knack type stuff, ask yourself if you want it all your life; if not, don't get it. All that tiny cute stuff comes in cardboard boxes that are in the back room of the store to be hauled away. It won't be long before the question will be, "to where"? And is it really right to shove our problems on somebody else?

Plain cardboard can be used to cover your veggie garden in winter to keep out weeds, and in spring or summer to make walking paths to work the garden.

There are a million things and ideas out there, many right here on this site. I think we should share as fast as we can think of more before our landfills top out. This site is such a great source of ideas for recycling and reusing. Maybe we could have a section just devoted to that. I'd like to see us humans getting ahead of the curve on things we have to face eventually, with a "let's do this" attitude.