Red cap, green cap, white and blue caps

There it sits on my kitchen counter. The lid to a plastic milk container. Bright red. Sometimes it's a lid to one of our innumerable (or so it seems) pill containers from the pharmacy. A hard plastic--different from the bottle it closes. Much harder to recycle. After 2 years of saving them for a youth project at Lakeside to create durable outside benches, I still feel the pull. Recycling and reuse will not save the planet, but then, neither does wearing masks and closing playgrounds. God has plans for his creation, and we sometimes kid ourselves about "helping." That said, it's a good idea, and the benches looked really good. It's a useful way to teach us all that we can do a little bit, we can be more careful, and we can take a closer look at how we use our resources. Does your youth group need a project? https://www.greentreeplastics.com/ (I don't know what organization Lakeside used, but there are a number like this.) If I can ever figure out who on our very large staff at UALC is in charge of projects, I'll suggest this. Meanwhile, I'll give it to you.

Which Charities Collect Plastic Bottle Tops? (reference.com)

We’ve had to buy an extra recycle bin for our trash

What's with covering plastic bottles with plastic envelop labels with instructions to remove the label before recycling? I've only noticed it recently because before I don't buy a lot of small, specialty items like sports drinks and nutritional supplements like Ensure or high calorie treats from Tim Horton’s. But I guess that marketing waste has moved to some things I do buy. I've most recently experienced it with Half n Half and pints if milk (Kroger brand). With all the carry out food and back-to-plastic bags for shopping, we will have undone a decade's worth of nagging and hypervigilant recycling habits in just a month of stay home/stay shuttered/stay stupid that will not change the death statistics.

Remember the Sears catalog in the outhouse?

It's back!

NIMFY--Not in my front yard

It seems I’m destined to be the lone voice shouting into the wind that highly visible trash cans and recycling containers intended to improve the environment cause ugly visual pollution. I got absolutely nowhere complaining that our large suburban church put its Abitibi Consolidated Paper Bins (bright green and yellow) virtually in the front yard of the Mill Run Church, and is almost as obvious at the Lytham Road campus.

This year Lakeside has started a recyclable program with each cottage owner being charged $60 a year to have an extremely large, bright blue rolling container --where? Our properties in some areas are small--about 30’ wide, with driveways, set backs, landscaping, and garden sheds or garages which hold boats, bicycles, and junk. So guess where the trash and recyclable containers are? Either at the street for several days between pick-ups, or sitting in the front or side yard. At one place I stopped today I counted at least 10 trash cans from where I stood and Thursday isn‘t a pick up day. Sometimes it’s a renter problem. The renter checks out on Saturday, puts the trash at the street (we don’t have curbs), and it is not picked up until Tuesday morning. If the cottage isn’t occupied the next week, the trash cans may sit there for days, or until a neighbor drags it to the side of the house, where it’s only slightly less obvious. If I were to replace every trash can I see on my morning walks, I'd be gone 4 hours instead of 30 minutes. Some containers have a permanent home in the front yard. Since writing about garages, I’ve seen plenty of garages and sheds that could be used to hold the containers, but no one thinks of it. It would also keep the raccoons and skunks under control. Our shed is tiny, and so is our lot, but I've seen cottages with 3 sheds, a garage, and the trash cans in front. Our "big blue" is just as obvious as everyone elses, but it's not at the street.

One of the oldest streets, lots of room in the rear

One of the newest streets, beautiful paving and landscaping; no plan for trash

President Hayes once stayed here; the trash can never moves

Not a good first impression for a potential buyer

This is a park, so even the Association is careless

Redeemed!

Serious, committed Christians have noticed that as our society falls away from organized religion, interest in some form of environmentalism increases. Sort of, if you believe in nothing, you'll fall for anything (pantheistic global warmism, for instance). For those who were youngsters in the 1970s, it's a way to relive their youth. Others are recent converts. At the WSJ Friday, Stephen Moore commented on similarities and how serious recyclers have become.

Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute notes with rich irony that "we now live in a society where Sunday church attendance is down, but people wouldn't dream of missing their weekly trek to the altar of the recycling center." These facilities, by the way, are increasingly called "redemption centers." Which is fine except that now the greens want to make redemption mandatory. Oh, for a return to the days when someone stood up for the separation of church and state.

I don't go to redemption centers, but I do attend church (early, traditional--we have 10 services at UALC) There is a recycling bin somewhere here at Lakeside, although we usually take our cans and bottles home to Columbus--currently have a few (plastic) bags full rattling around in the van. Chalk up one more use for the ubiquitous plastic bag. So far this week I've: cut one up and braided it to make a little rope to attach the basket to my bike; scooped and disposed of lots and lots of kitty poo from our cat Lotsa; used two to wash things I didn't want to touch; covered my bicycle seat; used one over the clothes line to protect an item of clothing from dirt. Does anyone remember the days we were constantly reminded to use plastic bags in order to save trees? In addition, the bicycle is 40 years old, the basket I was attaching is at least 10 years old as is the seat, and the tires were purchased in 1979. I challenge the greenies to match my small biking footprint. Also, my van has been parked most of the summer because at Lakeside you can walk everywhere you want to go.



The worst form of recycling is putting the huge ugly bin in plain sight where it visually pollutes. Our church does that--and I've written about it. Even Meijer's supermarket finds a way to discreetly place them so they don't change the appearance of their store. I guess they think visuals are part of marketing. What a concept!