Tomorrow is our recycling pickup day. I looked for paper bags for our stack of old newspapers and our boxes of junk mail, envelopes, and office paper. We had none!
We have been taking cloth bags to the grocery store to "save a tree". We use store bags when we forget the cloth bags or we have more than two bags of groceries. The more we remember to take the cloth bags, the smaller our stash of paper bags gets. Today we had no full-size paper bags.
Fortunately, we had a couple of smaller bags and we didn't have that big of a pile of newspapers or that much other paper. But what happens next week if don't get more paper bags?
I've been musing about the balance of recycling. What is the balance between resources used to produce new paper and containers and those used to recycle these items?
For example, how much water is consumed rinsing out plastic bottles, especially detergent bottles.
How much water do I use to rinse all the tomato juice residue out of a bottle.
What is the energy cost to have three different haulers come through the neighborhood to pick up recyclables and the traditional trash. Few haulers have combination trucks and must come through twice.
What is the energy cost to drive to specialty waste spots with compact fluorescent bulbs, yard waste, and old electronics? Especially if the collection sites are not on your usual travel routes?
I doubt few people know the balance. Probably the true value of recycling is that it makes people more conscious of their waste.
