Recycling = Love

by Ashleigh Dreyer
Michigan School for the Deaf
Flint, MI

To me, recycling equals love. Recycling involves sacrificing your time to care for the world that is covered with an absurd amount of garbage. Now, if you love the world, you should show kindness. If you have love for natural beauty and for our future generations, you should start saving the environment because it is our one and only world. Before you start, can you think about what really can convince every single person to recycle forever? There are countless ideas that make recycling easier, and an infinity of reasons to want a cleaner environment.

The very first idea is to make recycling a law. I would have to admit that I am not a very responsible person with recycling milk cartons, cereal boxes, and pop cans. I may forget or be lazy, but I still do want to recycle anyway. That is the point, because more than half of our recyclable trash is in landfills. These landfills are becoming hills that are high enough to ski down. So how can we stop with our lazy behavior of not recycling reusable items? In 1990, former governor Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin signed into law a mandatory recycling act which bans all recyclable materials, such as cardboard, aluminum, office paper, glass, etc., from all landfills in the state. If you throw these recyclable materials in your trash can, it will be tagged with a notice, it will not be picked up, and the owners of the house will be fined. Imagine having that law in all 50 states, and perhaps on every continent. It would definitely be an effective method of saving the environment, and provide fewer landfills to ski down.

The second idea is to buy organic products. One week I went to a friend's house whose parents are very eco-friendly. Their pantry was unbelievingly full of organic foods. I ate a bit of an organic snack bar; I actually felt good to have more fiber in my diet, and the wrapper itself felt different because it was made from recyclable paper. Anyhow, have you ever noticed that when you buy a bag of Doritos and you open it, it's only half full? That is a complete waste of material. Boyce Ayliffe, a researcher for the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), did his research on packaging material. IFOAM has its own principles to guide organic production and processing. The processors are required to avoid unnecessary packaging material and to use recyclable and biodegradable packaging whenever possible. Think about it; if you buy organic products with less packaging material, you will have less garbage in your wastebasket. Not only that, it also helps the environment and the organic food contains natural ingredients (which is healthier for your body). Nevertheless, if we want to live green, I think we all should buy organic products for this purpose.

The third idea is to shop at thrift stores. Growing up I never liked shopping at resale stores, but my mom always forced me. Then one day I bought an adorable strapless cotton-print shirt for only two bucks from a resale shop called Top Drawer. Everybody asked me, "Where did you get that shirt?" Since that experience, I have been stopping at thrift stores first before I go to retail stores. So instead of spending your money on an expensive item, how about saving some cash and helping out the environment by shopping at a thrift store? Thrift store shopping is just another way of recycling. If you buy used items, you will make a difference by keeping clothes out of landfills. When you are looking for an item, think green. Maybe you could find a plain T-shirt and add some cool fabric to it. It takes only a minute to be creative to save hundreds of years of decaying textiles in our landfills. Thrift store shopping can be simply a fun, green experience for everyone.

Not only are these three things what I am doing to help the environment, but if people will do these small things, then we can all jump on the wheel and make it a habit to recycle and reuse. Just like the Earth spins around unstoppable, so should our love for the environment. Recycling is a labor of love, and the amount of garbage that is created every day will never decrease if we don't have feelings for the environment. We only need to have a love for natural beauty and for our future generations.