Members of the Community Energy Green Team, Team Verde, recently visited a local recycling center.  Our office has collections for the standard glass, cans, paper as well as #1 and #2 plastic bottles.  Unfortunately, that still leaves plastic types 3-7 not being recycled, as well as odd items like Styrofoam and batteries.  We packed two cars with these miscellaneous recyclables and drove to the recycling center.  It is privately run and you pay a donation per car to deposit your materials.  The center was organized so that you sorted what you brought in and put it in the proper bin.  There were friendly, helpful staff members to help you figure out where things should go.

It was obviously more difficult to take our materials to be recycled than to put them in the trash, but there were benefits.  It was an interesting place to visit.  They have a peacock who lives there who gave us a full feather display.  You can pop bubbles made by the solar powered bubble blower.  You can buy still useful items that others have discarded, like books, jeans, and dishes.  Most importantly, finding another use for our trash was the responsible thing to do.  Hopefully our local recycling collection activities will expand, and we will not have to make special trips to do it ourselves.  In the meantime, we are trying to do what we can to be sustainable.