Here's how:
In the laundry room, which is just a step from the refrigerator, we keep a paper sack to collect paper. Most of the mail ends up here, as does cardboard food boxes - like butter and a frozen pizza box. To ensure that it all fits by the end of the week, I take 2.5 seconds to smash the box or rip it apart. Cathartic, I tell you.
It is in this bag that I stuff *at the very bottom* priceless artwork made by one precious five-year-old. Then I pray he doesn't pilfer through it.
Also by our desk, we have another basket to collect paper. The other colorful can is for non-paper items, thus the plastic liner.
If I haven't wasted too much time eating bon-bons during the week, I might shred some of the recyclable paper for our compost bin. But usually I eat way too many bon-bons and all the paper goes curbside.
Also by our desk, we have another basket to collect paper. The other colorful can is for non-paper items, thus the plastic liner.
If I haven't wasted too much time eating bon-bons during the week, I might shred some of the recyclable paper for our compost bin. But usually I eat way too many bon-bons and all the paper goes curbside.Conservatively, we recycle about five pounds of paper a week. That's 260 pounds a year.
It works for us. Now go see what works for others.
4 comments:
Ha ha ha. 2 things 1. I am glad I am not the only one who secretly recycles precious artwork. 2. I feel strangely comforted to know that even you buy frozen pizza crusts. That makes me feel better about the fruit pops in my freezer.
Whew, love that I'm not the only one chucking the art. Sometimes it doesn't even stay in my hands for twenty seconds... yikes!
We're so fortunate that our city has a non-optional recycling program. All of the trash goes into one big bin and the city sorts it for us. The nice thing is that more gets recycled. The problem is that my four year-old doesn't even realize we recycle because it's so easy to forget :(
Truly understand and feel good that I am not the only one who "thins" the art work. My problem is that my boys like to have fires, so when Z-man rummages to find paper to burn, that is when he finds it and makes me feel guilty!
Recycling is so easy, yet useful!
I also give some kinds of paper a second use before recycling. A full sheet that is blank on one side goes into our stack of "scrap paper" for notes and drawing. Smaller pieces that are blank on one or both sides are great for shopping lists (we keep a stack on a small clipboard) and phone messages (stack under a paperweight or in a little basket next to the phone).
I also have a 5-year-old, so I sympathize about the excess art! When I open the junkmail, I give him the pictures of animals, bright colored paper, etc., and encourage him to use those in his art instead of new paper.
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