Okay, I will admit first off that I am NOT a “treehugger” as some of my friends have lovingly called me, but I do feel that we need to take care of what God has given us … that includes being good stewards of our time, money, body AND the earth. I will also admit that recycling is a pain!
A couple of years ago, I made a New Year’s resolution to recycle, but I chose a very bad time of year to start. Like my other resolutions, it fell to the wayside … mostly because I was not used to recycling, and I did not want to stand in the cold and sort (wimpy, I know … I’m just not a cold weather gal! 
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Within the past year, though, my family has made a HUGE effort to start recycling, and I mean effort. It is so much easier to throw everything into the same trash bag and haul it off to the dump or let the garbage men come and get it, but I was determined not to do that anymore. I live in an area where there is no mandatory or curb side recycling pickup, so we need to lug our recyclables to the local trash dump (which I have actually come to prefer because I can choose when the unwanted items leave our house instead of waiting on someone to come and get them).
All of that aside, my main motivation was the fact that we were filling our trash can with mostly recyclable materials that did not need to fill up a landfill. It consisted of aluminum cans, water bottles and “mixed paper” (cereal boxes and such). Since then, I set up a system of small trash cans in our garage that enable me to sort the different items into cans (#1 “pete” plastic, #2 plastic, glass, mixed paper, aluminum and miscellaneous). It is amazing to me how many times those trash bins need to be taken to the recycling center, but it makes me SO thankful that we are doing something to reverse the filling of landfills.
So, today my encouragement to you is to start recycling if you do not already, and if you do … kudos to you! I have a friend who says in so many words that most things that are really worth doing take effort, and I definitely think that it applies here. Happy recycling … it really does make a difference!
I love this statement: “we need to take care of what God has given us.”
I know a lot of people who are religious and love God, but they aren’t doing their part to take care of this magnificient world and it always makes me really sad. I want my kids and their kids to see all of the beauty that I have been able to enjoy. Recycling can be a pain, but if you do it with your kids, they think it is a fun little job! My youngest (2) helps me sort the cans and plastic and my oldest takes care of the glass containers.