Earlier this week, I had new window treatments installed, replacing the ones that Arizona sun destroyed after ten years of great service. My installer asked me if he should take them and dispose of them,along with all of the packaging that the new blinds came in.
My first question was, “do you recycle any of this stuff”, or do you just toss it in the garbage?”
He replied, that he does recycle the cardboard boxes, but tosses out the plastic bags, Styrofoam packing, the bubble wrap and any excess screws and plastic parts. He also said the old blinds were worthless, because of their condition and not reusable, so he would just toss those away too.
I cringed…yikes, I thought, all of this going into a landfill made me nauseous and I could not let him do it. So I suggested we look at the parts, packaging and other stuff and see what I could recycle first and then what was left,that couldn’t be recycled, would be thrown away.
So we recycled the cardboard, the plastic bags, the steel screws, the paper instructions, and the precious bubble wrap. The only things we tossed were a few plastic parts and strapping material.
Next, I looked at the old blinds and concluded the only thing we could recycle was the top rail and bottom rail, which are made of aluminum. The paper/fiber part of the shade had to be tossed and the plastic pieces. However, there was a bunch of aluminum top and bottom rails that are now in the recycle container, instead of the landfill.
I realized that until we went through this exercise, my installer never thought about what he was throwing away and if he didn’t think of this, what about all of the millions of people around the world that do not give it a second thought?
My husband and I both recycle vivaciously. I was not born into a family of environmentalists or advocates and neither was my husband. We do however realize that if we do not take the time to make a difference on the planet by our own actions, how can we expect our clients, friends and family to do it and they are certainly not going to do it for us, so we must take charge of our earthly responsibility.
Each week we are amazed at the “filled to capacity, overflowing garbage containers” that sit in front of our neighbors driveways waiting to be picked up by the trash collection companies. We have the same size containers as our neighbors and we barely have a full garbage back in it.
The reason is we recycle almost everything possible. We recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum and steel. We do not throw anything away, until we look to see if it can go into a recycle container first.
This life style choice and habit came from our passion and concern about creating an eco-friendly, healthy and sustainable planet. As an interior designer and architect, working with green, eco-friendly and sustainable products, we know how much of an impact everyone can have on the planet by simply looking around their homes and offices and choosing to be more conscious of what they toss in the garbage and what is recycled.
It takes very little effort and once you incorporate the habit into your life, you will automatically look at each thing with different eyes and decide…to toss or not to toss…it’s your choice!
