Recycle Or Else

Living in Fitchburg has forced me to recycle. If you put out more than one container of trash you have to pay for it, but you can put out all the recycling you want for free. This used to annoy me, particularly when there were four adults and three children in diapers living in our house. Now that it's just usually the three of us, I've found it's not hard at all to keep the trash level down and the recycling level up. Sometimes we even put out two weeks of trash in our one container. (Since the trash man has been coming earlier and earlier and Justin still insists on setting out the trash Monday morning instead of Sunday night). Recently, I got a free subscription to Organic Style. Now, I've always had interest in wasting less, reusing more, and doing everything possible the natural way, but since I've been reading OS, I've been thinking about it more and more. Did you know that if you take your used print cartridges in to Office Depot to be recycled they'll give you a free ream of recycled paper? I've been taking in cartridges from work as well as from home, and I have enough free printer paper to last me for years. Some companies recycle used cell phones, and Nike recycles used tennis shoes. I've been buying all my clothes from Goodwill lately, mostly because I can't afford new clothes, but I also feel good about reusing what I can. Lydia and I have actually decided to start a business selling handmade stuff made from recycled materials. That way we can keep our prices down and still make a profit, and conserve resources and cut down on waste at the same time. We'll see if we actually make any money :). I have one thing to say to all of you - recycle or else! Here's a list of many places to recycle many things.