Sometimes You Just Have to Recycle It

We have become huge re-users in our home. Most things get at least one chance at rebirth in our house, if not more. Most food scraps go to the compost bin to become fresh nutrients for our garden. Cereal boxes become paper holders and book dividers. Drink pouch boxes become toy or craft holders, play “houses,” or musical instruments. Milk jugs have limitless lives, from bird feeders to science experiments to scoops to games. Our crayons are currently housed in an old facial tissue box, while our paper Dominos set is in a Carnation Instant Breakfast box. Though we spend a bit of time, energy, and resources decorating many of these items (though not all of them), they are saved from becoming a part of a landfill—or worse, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

All of this said, we still have to recycle sometimes. Once things get too degraded to use, we simply have to put them in the bin and send them off with the truck that comes by each week. (Which, by the way, we are so fortunate to have in the first place.)

I do feel a bit bad when I have to toss things out, but there are only so many things you can do with a toilet paper roll. (Actually, there are thousands—but when you have them stockpiled up in huge mounds, it’s time to let a few go.) My aunt buys a ton of those little single-use drink packages and while we use them for holding tiny toys, beads, and sequins, or turning into cars, we can’t always find a use for the dozens of boxes she purchases. So some of them go into the recycling bin, too.

Then there’s the packaging! Oh, how we hate packaging. Much of it just doesn’t work well with new crafts, projects, or ideas; once you take it off a product, it’s got one home—the recycling bin. Sometimes I’ll try to keep a scrap to make into a bookmark (bookmark making is a hobby of mine, largely because there are never enough of the tings around when I need them!), and if my daughter requests to use something for a project, I usually say yes—but sometimes there’s just nothing else you can do with a carton or box.

I don’t think that means we should feel guilty about it; on the contrary, we should feel A. good that we can recycle in the first place and B. glad that it’s an exception to the rule. I’ve visited so many homes in which people do not recycle and everything gets sent to the landfill; I imagine the number of homes in which this happens and it really saddens me. I am grateful that I’m so privileged to have access to recycling—and that my family is creative enough to find new uses for old things.

I think we should also feel that this should not be the norm. We should think of this as a call for us as consumers to purchase less packaging overall, as well as to demand our suppliers to stop over-packaging so many things. Instead of fighting the corporations, of course, we should work with them in developing these strategies, explaining our suggestions, and ensuring that we will purchase goods that we need if they are made with sustainable practices and less packaging.