When you arrive in England you notice right away, even in the dead of winter, that everything is green. How can it be so green here when Georgia turns brown through the winter? It's the rain of course, plenty of it that keeps the hills so lush.
England is also green in another sense, the recycling, reusing department. For instance, you are only allowed a certain amount of trash. Just last year a family was fined because they had too much trash. Are you picturing hordes of rubbish piled along the road? 
How bout one overflowing wheelie bin and not the jumbo wheelie bins we have back home, think half that size. For some people these are emptied every two weeks, for us it comes weekly. I remember when we first got here Nathan would carry our week's worth of trash bags down to the road; not wanting to appear as a waster, I would always compare our trash amount with other houses. For one week we could get away with four trash bags which has to be an improvement over the curbside trash cans we practically filled twice a week back home and that was just our part - the guys had their own wheelie bin. So what's the deal - is it that we have been transformed and waste less here?
I doubt it, for one thing, we recycle lots more - all plastic, carboard, glass and aluminum. And what do we do with that? Well, we keep it in the laundry room until it becomes an unsightly mountain and then I take it down to the grocery store parking lot where they collect all the recycling. Another difference is that they don't package nearly as wastefully as we do back home. Don't get me wrong - they are into appearance too but not to the point of huge amounts of 
waste being created. I think they are more mindful overall of the environment so they make the inconvenient effort to recycle and reuse.
How bout one overflowing wheelie bin and not the jumbo wheelie bins we have back home, think half that size. For some people these are emptied every two weeks, for us it comes weekly. I remember when we first got here Nathan would carry our week's worth of trash bags down to the road; not wanting to appear as a waster, I would always compare our trash amount with other houses. For one week we could get away with four trash bags which has to be an improvement over the curbside trash cans we practically filled twice a week back home and that was just our part - the guys had their own wheelie bin. So what's the deal - is it that we have been transformed and waste less here?
I doubt it, for one thing, we recycle lots more - all plastic, carboard, glass and aluminum. And what do we do with that? Well, we keep it in the laundry room until it becomes an unsightly mountain and then I take it down to the grocery store parking lot where they collect all the recycling. Another difference is that they don't package nearly as wastefully as we do back home. Don't get me wrong - they are into appearance too but not to the point of huge amounts of 
waste being created. I think they are more mindful overall of the environment so they make the inconvenient effort to recycle and reuse. They use loads less than paper than us like sending home an announcement on a half sheet rather than waste a whole piece. Rarely would the kids have consumable workbooks -instead they copy work into a little blue book type notebook or use white erase boards to do lots of work.
Though I won't be going off the deep end over this issue, it is worth bearing in mind the need to use less and recylce whenever possible.
1 comment:
You are speaking my language! I wrote about recycling recently on my blog. I'm proud of the changes you've implemented upon moving to England.
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