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Recycling For Beginners

I would call myself a beginner in the land of recycling but I have quickly moved up the ladder. Sharing some of my journey with you, I hope will give you some of the tools to start your own journey or inspire you to continue.

One Change

“Sometimes the best person to learn from is the person who struggled to do it at all.”

Mariette Lynn Clardy Torres

I’m imperfect when it comes to making a difference in the environment, but I’m learning. I have seen those with rows and rows of recycling bins, stacked in color with items bulging out. I have also seen others with perfectly manicured blogs on “reduce, reuse, recycle” initiatives. Sure, I tried to use the bins at the airport in the past and read articles on those who actively participated in those challenges but I was never the “sustainability advocate.” Then I realized how much I loved nature. I love touching tree leaves that have fallen on the ground and the feeling of the tree bark between my fingers. I am entranced by the sound and the feeling of water surrounding and enveloping me. With as much as I love the outdoors I became aware of how I was contributing, or in my case, not contributing to sustaining the parts of nature that I loved.

So now I have become an “advocate in training” as it were. I have learned through trial and error. I find it helpful to share experiences of what I have learned to help increase efforts in sustainability. It doesn’t come natural to me but having awareness of what materials I am using has gone a long way. I worked one step at a time to build habits that worked for me. Some of the lessons I have learned to start small are listed below.

Find out if you home or office has recycling bins. I was personally more likely to use them when I visually saw a bin.
If you don’t have one, then find out how you can at least set one up in your home. Then if possible advocate for one at work. You can call the waste management website you use for garbage disposal and get all of the information you need.
Once you have the recycling bins, you can start small and work on just recycling one material that is on the approved list of recyclables. You can find that list on the Waste management website or if you have one at work find out what is allowed.
Now that you have your target material, become aware of when you use it and how you use it.
Make sure you dispose of this material properly. For example, make sure you clean out your plastics of any food or liquid before disposal.
Once you have developed a habit for one material, then move on to another.
Finally, I have to put this in, plastic bags are NOT RECYCLABLE. Yes, I know! But they clog up the machines that are used to sort the material. So be mindful of what is and isn’t allowed.

If you have any great recycling tips or stories please be sure to share! Stay tuned for my continued journey!

HOW I WANT TO GIVE BACK

I was recently listening to a great podcast on finding what you love and the number one question that was most important was who do I want to serve. I pondered over that question for a few months as I did not know what particular group I wanted to help. One day I realized that there is not just one group, I am a combination of perspectives and therefore I want to serve those parts of my past that made me who I am today.

I am a lover of music, well specifically anything minor, moving or sad. I was introduced to music at such a young age, it is entrenched in my DNA, from the music I sing to the movement through dance. So providing my experiences in music to a community who needs it, that is how I want to give back.

I struggle with self care. Specifically I find it challenging to focus on taking care of myself. I am learning to listen to my body more. My journey with bipolar depression has put me on a personal
journey to discover better ways to create a self care routine. I understand what happens when you don’t prioritize self care. I want to walk the journey of self care with others who may not be as far along as I am. That is how I want to give back.

I remember walking through my grandmother's garden, and in the back of the garden was a large compost pile. Every day that I visited her, I would watch her deposit food scraps into a white pail in the kitchen. We would then take the pail out to the compost. At the time the importance of giving back to the earth was natural. Now I am learning more and more about creating sustainability within my own home. Providing what I have learned to help those learn to build a better world is how I want to give back.

My path in life was made a little easier through access to education,
opportunities to see culture outside of my community and working with people who supported and guided me despite the worlds challenges. I want to help someone else to build their own path. That's how I want to give back.

Giving back to others using my talents, skills, passions and knowledge helps me to find what I love.

Sustainability: The Little Things

Garbage, garbage, garbage garbage, garbage everywhere. There’s garbage on the streets and garbage in your hair. Garbage, garbage, garbage garbage, now what shall we do? Just throw it away, throw it away, throw it away...and have a nice day!

I have faint memories of my elementary school days, but I distinctly remember being in a musical on the environment. In this musical, I was one of the townspeople singing those lyrics. I don’t remember the rest of the song or even what the musical was, but those lyrics and the melody have latched on to my memory decades after the play ended.

I remember being fascinated about how trees take bad air and make it healthy air. The memory of the images of trees swallowing up dense fog implanted in my mind.

As a child I always loved nature and learning how nature can help make the environment better, long before I understood what sustainability was. As the years went by however, the importance remained in my mind, but my day to day habits were a reflection of the townsperson I played in my elementary school musical.

I never set a true intention, creating sustainability actions within my day to day was a passing forethought. If the resources and tools were available then I would use them, if not then I did not seek them out or create them.

My love of nature and aesthetics that I had as a child has reemerged. As a child, I used to watch bees and birds, insects and animals as they went about their day. I took great care to just observe how they interacted with the environment. I would walk around my grandmother's garden and soak up knowledge that I never learned in school.

Now many years later, with the intent of being aware of how I use the products of my environment, I have started to make consistent changes that help both nature but also focus on sustainability of the environment as a whole.

Like starting a diet, it began with awareness of what I was currently doing and why I was doing it. Once I became more aware, I found little things that I could begin to do to further my goals. I continue to learn and find new methods to create change in protecting the environment.

My road to the little things...
Learning to compost
Using my recycling bin
Creating a separate space in the kitchen/home for recycling
Being conscious about the vehicle I drive
Modifying my energy use
Gardening

I challenge you to look at your surroundings and think of the little things that you do to make a change to the world. If none come to mind, I welcome you to follow me through my journey, to hopefully inspire you to create your own list of “little things.”