The Idiots Guide to Recycling - Learning How to Recycle One New Item Each Day!

I am taking the web pledge to the web community that from now on, I am going to learn how to recycle all those things that I throw in the garbage everyday or put in my recycle pile, although I never know if the waste haulers that my building uses are really going to recycle them or not.

The phrase that is beginning to take hold, particularly in corporate America, which is a good thing, is Reduce, Recycle, ReUse. I am focusing on the Recycling part but I may on occasion throw in a Reduce tip or a ReUse idea.

I go to the Green City Market in Lincoln Park every Saturday, I work there actually, yet I am not clear on what is to be composted, recycled or thrown away. There are so many things in the world and what am I suppose to do with each and every item that is "somewhat" disposable.

So from now on, I am going to track down, one stupid item a day and if I don't have the answer today, I will make a point to find out the answer. Paper is a category to recycle but there are a lot of different paper items out there in the world. When I start looking at any one category it gets complicated.

Today's item is any magazine with a shiny cover, like a Time, like my Dartmouth alumni magazine, like TCW(Todays Chicago Woman). What the heck I am suppose to do with it and where will it go? I will post the  response to this later today or tommorrow once I track down what the answer is.

Some of the resources I will be using"

         Chicago Recycling Coalition Website

         Earth 911

          The guy at the Green City Market compost center

If by any miracle anyone actuallly reads this post and has some thoughts, insights, information please leave a comment below. Actually, it WILL BE A MIRACLE if I even get one comment over the course of this project. You will make my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Ciao,
  JB

Plastic Bags, Plastic Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My new challenge is to go through a day without accumulating another plastic bag. There is a great documentary called Bagit, that focuses on the issue that plastic doesn't compost, it just stays.

I wrote a poem about plastic a few years ago:

Plastic

We throw so much out

Where does it go?

It doesn’t vanish like smoke

It won’t burst like a balloon

Humans decay

Plants rot

Rivers dry up

Ice melts

Wood burns

Plastic cups, plates

Ready- made food containers

Dry cleaning covers

Packaging

We throw it away, throw it away

Millions, billions, trillions of tons

Throwing away bags

Will everyone have plastic lawns?

Walk down streets

Lined with plastic trees

Astro-turf

 Smothered in plastic

All for progress, efficiency

Superiority

Money

Big Business

Capitalism

Deep pockets of plastic

Vested interests

Campaign coffers

Plastic PACs

We’re Americans

We are entrepreneurs

We are sharks

Competitive, Aggressive

Hungry, Ruthless

We are children of Cheney

We know how to do things right!

We know how to destroy the world………

My challenge is to figure out how to recycle plastic bags......If you have any ideas leave it in the comments below!!!