This one goes out to Gael

From our recent trips to the Boulders Farmer's market I've been inspired by their zero-waste zone to start recycling, or more precisely recycling more. I mean I was going to recycle our various bottles and cans but after perusing the eco-cycle website (they sponsor the zero-waste thing) I got a better feeling for how much you can actually recycle. So basically anything plastic, glass, metal or paper based we can recycle. That means all the paper/cardboard items too (paper towel rolls, shaving razor packaging, shredded paper, etc). Now I'm trying to make my best effort to save anything recyclable from our trash can which is pretty enlightening -- before throwing anything plastic out I check if it's 1, 2, or 5...anything paper I toss into a seperate bag (even egg cartons). We don't have recycling pickup at our place, so we have to drive out to the Boulder recycling center, but like everything else out here it's only about 10 minutes away. There were a good amount of people at the center too which was a pretty good feeling.

The moral of the story? Try recycling too -- or more precisely try to recycle everything! I think the next step is to try composting, but I'll probably have to run that one by the landlord first. Anyhow I thought Gael would appreciate this and hopefully someone else will be inspired by me -- a lazy bum who can still make a difference.

So that's all fine and good...you know "one man can make a difference!" but maybe not so realistic. It got me thinking about what we could do to encourage not just self-motivated individuals to recycle (and in general be good to the environment), but businesses and the general public as well. It seems that perhaps more than just a good feeling should be at stake, maybe we can start offering tax breaks or incentives for "green points." Every environmentally friendly decision a company makes would be rewarded (or lack of green points could be penalized). It just seems so crazy that any time you stop in a fast food joint you have no option but to send your "waste" to a dump. There are so many better options...recycle the paper, plastic, and foil...send to food waste off for composting, use biodegradable plastics. With a bit of financial incentive we could finally speak in terms that corporations understand. I bet this has been thought of before, but it would be pretty cool to see it in action. Any Green Party candidates out there?