Recently, I was invited to a party. The hosts were lovely, the home was large and beautiful in a well-to-do area. Everything about the day was fantastic, except for one thing...they didn't recycle.

I noticed glass bottles in the trash, I thought maybe some partygoer made a mistake. Then I noticed another and another, no mistake.

Does their township not offer recycling? I can't imagine these intelligent, well read people would have a blatant disregard for the environment. I didn't ask. That would be poor etiquette.  I should have though, I could have at least taken those bottles with me and recycled them at my house.

It leaves me wondering, why don't they recycle? Cans, bottles and paper are the most widely recycled products in the nation. Why not there? I am sure there are many areas of our country that are still in the dark about recycling. We are the self-proclaimed leaders of the world, yet many other countries have far surpassed us environmentally.  There are some countries, such as Sweden where composting your food scraps is mandatory.  They have been able to reduce the amount of green waste going into the landfill drastically.   Food scraps will not effectively breakdown inside a plastic bag in a landfill, in fact it contributes to the production of methane gas, one of the leading destroyers of the ozone.

It is our responsibility, to hold our government and ourselves accountable. The USA is more than capable of implementing recycling in every state, county and municipality... we should insist on it.

It is more cost effective over the long term to have these programs in place.  Recycling products, makes new products with  a smaller footprint than products using virgin materials.  Recycling saves thousands of acres of landfill space every year.  Recycling also reduces the amount of methane gas being produced in landfills and chemicals from leaching into our soils and making its way into our ground water supply.  Once the damage is done, it is difficult and costly to undo.

As my Mother always said, "Do it right the first time and you won't have to go back and do it again."  We only have one country, one Earth, we should honor it, revere it and take care of it.  Over the last 100 years of the world's growth we have taken for granted that the Earth would just sustain.  It would always be here for us to manipulate it and abuse it as we chose.

What can one do if recycling is not offered in your area?  Take Action, write a letter to your local newspaper, the township officials and your county freeholders.  Make everyone aware of the damage that is being done.  You voice will be heard.  Get children involved in your quest for a better world.  Children are innovative thinkers and can make a real difference.

For example:  Recently a local Boy Scout Troup in our area provided a hard plastics pick up to their community. Hard plastics are items like: Plastic lawn furniture, kids molded plastic play sets, 5gal water bottles, etc. Any large hard plastic items. They sent out fliers, collected these items on a particular date and took them to the township Public Works Facility, where from there it was taken by the township to the County Recycling Facility. They collected over 500 pounds of hard plastic that would have ended up in the dump!

It does take some effort on our part to recycle hard plastics, however a quick trip to the Township Public Works Dept. will keep these items out of our landfills. They can then be recycled and turned into other useful products, like Polywood Furniture. By asking our local municipalities, maybe they will offer one or two pickups per year. By recycling these hard plastics we can save valuable space in our landfills.

These young boys made a difference in our community and our environment. We should all follow their example. If everyone nationwide would make this small extra effort to recycle, the effects would be staggering. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!





Vera Pappas is author of several articles on organic gardening and environmental issues and is owner of Green Nation Gardens, an online retailer of Green Living Products for the home and garden.  Visit greennationgardens.com today!