By Staff
Trash or treasure.
Drive through our communities on garbage pickup days and you will see many cans overflowing, along with additional items parked next to them.
With all the talk nowadays about greenhouse gases and replacing the energy used, I wonder how many of us are really trying to reduce our waste.
Packaging is so extreme in some products. Things are sealed in plastic, then sealed again in another way, whether a box or additional plastic.
I had gotten to the point I was drinking a few bottles of water a day. Then reading about how they are mounting in our landfills, I decided to use tap water with a filter on the faucet instead.
Sure drinking more water is beneficial, but there must be a way to do so without endangering our environment.
Those plastic bags at the grocery store are also unable to disintegrate until long after we are all gone.
I often ask for paper. Having worked at a grocery store for many years, I prefer not using plastic. The paper stand up better and I don't lose items when I carry them into the house, like I do with plastic.
I try to reuse all the bags in some way or another.
Still I don't think I am even making a dent.
I recently read about these celebrities who are trying to be environmentally conscious and are buying cloth bags – designer bags. These bags cost thousands of dollars.
What a joke.
A reader from Niles called the other day and told me about a web site where you can give away things to those who would like them.
She had an alto saxophone just sitting around for six years.
Her daughter had tried the instrument for six months and had never gotten into playing it.
She went to freecycle.com and found a family in Plymouth, Ind. who were looking for an alto sax for their son who was just starting out.
All the Niles woman asked for was that the family would pass on the sax to someone else, should their son not like playing the instrument.
They are also connecting with another family who is looking for a lawn mower body.
This Niles family is recycling and helping keep these things out of the landfill.
I know eBay also helps recycle, but that is also for people to make a profit.
I am not sure about any website, as I am always a little leery about signing up on the Internet and get enough spam now.
Still it is worth a try if you are game.
It is similar to the old message boards in the grocery stores. Got something you want to trade or are looking for, you just post a note.
The point is we all should be looking to help our environment for the future of our children and our grandchildren.
My son Clay is so like his grandfather. They always find things others have thrown out. The guest bedroom has a beautiful pine sleigh bed which someone else didn't want any more and outside he has a large fountain, also a cast off. All he had to do was lug them home.
When the weather cools down a little I hope I get inspired to tackle some boxes which haven't been opened for more than seven years.
Lightening my load will be a freeing sensation and hopefully I can find things which someone else can use, instead of just storing them away.
I know my face and column often ends up at the bottom of a bird or rodent cage. That doesn't bother me too much, as long as it was read first.