Recycling Old Books

Continuing on with my evolutionary path to becoming an ultimate recycler, I started recycling in other ways, when the opportunity presented itself. I work seasonally at a textbook rental store, and anyone who’s gone to college knows that every so often, the editions of textbooks are changed. Whether it’s because the laws or the understanding of a subject has changed, or because it needs to be kept relevant and as updated as possible.

But what people might not consider is the fact that as soon as that new edition comes out, the old edition almost always becomes obsolete. “Worthless”. It has no monetary value. So what happens a lot of the time? Those books go in the trash. And many of them still have relevant and accurate information. Someone out there, even if they weren’t taking the designated class for that book, could benefit from the knowledge of that book, even if they read it for fun.

When I found out they were throwing books away, I was beside myself. I grew up respecting and loving books. With an understanding of their importance, their value, I offered to take them and donate them. Since they were just going to be trashed anyway, my manager at the bookstore allowed me this. So whenever a new edition came out, they would give me stacks and stacks of books that were now worth nothing as far as resale value.

I would then take these stacks of books, and I would bring them to the local homeless youth shelter. I did in hopes that they might help these less privileged kids in some way. Whether it be killing time reading, or maybe help them with homework somehow. But my most ideal outcome of donating those books would be that some kid would find a book, maybe on teaching, or business, or science, and have their interest truly sparked. I hope that they’ll take up a book and come away with the desire to better their lives, maybe go to school to be something that they read about.

And at first, I worried if I was bringing an unnecessary resource to this shelter. They probably needed more clothes and hygiene products than they needed books. But once I showed up after not having gotten books for a while and was greeted happily by the girl at the front desk who exclaimed, “Yay you’re back with more books!”

I was so happily struck by this. It encouraged me to want to do it more.

Now I didn’t donate every single book I got to the shelter. Every once in a while, I’d come across something that either I’d like to read at some point in the future, or perhaps have available for my future children to read one day, and some, I took to my work.

There was a girl I worked with who I never saw eye to eye with. She did not like me, and I did not like her. But I’ve always had a hard time not being nice to people, even when they’re cruel to me. So I asked her if she likes to read, and what she was interested in reading. I told her I had textbooks to read for fun if she was interested. She told me she had thought about nursing, or hospitality, but wasn’t sure what to commit to.

So I brought her those books. And with that, she decided to go back to school to become a nurse. She even thanked me at one point. I had managed to make a difference in my adversary’s life. In a way, I had turned an enemy into an ally. She was nicer to me after that. We still had occasional difference and miscommunications, but we were at a different level in a sense.

And if I accomplished anything through those books, I’m glad I at least encouraged someone to better their own life in some way.

UPDATE – I no longer work at the book store so I am unfortunately no longer rescuing books. 🙁

Recycling Plastic Bags

There came a time when my local recycling center stopped accepting plastic. It had become too expensive to export it to other countries to recycle, as we apparently send some of ours elsewhere. But by that time, I had moved into a house where the local trash utility provided separate trash cans just for recycling.

So most of my recycling went into there, except for the cans and newspapers. However, to my dismay, I found out that they did not recycle plastic bags and wraps! I was shocked. That kind of plastic is one of the most concerning kinds, in that it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, especially since it’s so flimsy.

I didn’t know what to do. For a while I just collected it. Until I had a couple of bags worth of it. The idea of throwing all that plastic in the trash made me sick. And finally, I thought to actually see what I could do with it.

Of course. I should have thought of this sooner. But when your brain is as scattered as mine, and you keep yourself as busy as I do, it’s hard to commit to the thought of doing a simple Google search. I would look at the plastic and tell myself I need to look into that, and then would walk up the stairs and forget about it until the next time I looked at it.

Finally, I took my phone out and searched for it. Instantly, I found a website that directed me to locations that recycled plastic bags and wrapping! There were Albertson’s and Targets in the area that had bins set up, among other stores!

So I took all the bags and put them in my car to take them to Target. I rationalized that I needed to go in first and find out where the bin was; I didn’t want to just walk in there with bags of trash. So I went into Target, and as you can expect if you’ve ever set foot in there, I spent $80 that I didn’t intend to spend. I went in to look at the wacky animal socks that I always get when I go, and then Target let me know that I apparently needed some new towels. I also grabbed some school supplies for my back-to-school fundraiser, and I made my way up to the checkout.

I had a lovely conversation with the young man ringing me up and almost forgot to ask where the bin for bags was. He happily directed me to it, and I now felt more comfortable about walking in with all the plastic. So switching the contents of my cart from purchased goods to plastic waste, I walked back into the store and shoved the bags into the bin.

Because I had saved so many, I’m sure I once again looked like a crazy lady. But again, I hoped someone would see me happily stuffing plastic bags into a recycling bin and consider making the effort to collect their own bags if they weren’t going to make the switch to reusable ones and recycle them too.

Since I found a location I could take the plastic bags to, I started keeping an eye for any plastic bags or wrapping. I’ve already saved a bunch of bags from being thrown out just from the returns department. When people return things, they often give the associate the bag they brought it in with, which ends up in the trash at the end of the day.

So I started going over there every couple of hours and grabbing the bags before they could be thrown out. In a single da,y I could fill one of those bags with a bunch of other ones. Looking at how much plastic is being thrown out made me sick to my stomach and wish that I had considered this sooner.

I am starting to be of the mindset that perhaps it’s best if we do ban plastic bags. At some point, we have to stop being selfish about our waste. I think we can all manage to collect enough reusable bags, and actually, remember to bring them with us and use them. It’s a matter of developing the habit.

But in the meantime, any bag saved is better than no bag saved!

Bugging People About Recycling

I recently came to terms about how annoying I am when it comes to recycling. Even though I’ve done this for a long time now, there are still people who throw their cans and bottles into the trash, even if there’s a box right next to it that says, ‘please recycle’. And because I know people don’t think about it, I will go the extra step to at least make sure their bottles aren’t put in the trash.

If I was walking by a co-worker who had a bottle that was almost empty but not quite, I’d ask if they were done with it, so I could recycle it. If they weren’t I’d kindly ask if they’d be willing to chug it so I could take it. It soon became habitual. If someone I worked with was walking by, and they saw me and realized they had an almost finished bottle, they’d gulp it down and hand it to me in passing.

And one day I was reflecting on myself and considered the fact that I might be annoying people about recycling. Having grown up and losing people that said they were my friends and then decided that I was “too annoying” to be friends with anymore, I felt conflicted on how to feel about what people thought of me. And for a moment I felt guilty. And then I realized… I don’t care what others think of me. The people that matter to me understand what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. They’re the ones that support me to the end.

If there is any mark I leave on the world, then it might as well be my annoyingly obsessive recycling. I am that short, loveable, recycling-obsessed girl that you work with. I own this.

And I feel that most people can’t help but be compelled by me now. They may look at me like I’m crazy initially, but through my determination, I’m sure that most people I work with at least admire what I’m doing.

I know this because I have people in other departments tell me that if I set up a box in their area for recycling, they will recycle. If I make the effort to come back and grab it, they will put it aside for me.

And that’s the best I can ask for. I can’t make people save their own recycling and take it home on their own accord. But I can get people inspired to help me on my quest to do it.

Maybe one day I won’t have to recycle because everyone will do it themselves. But until that day I will be an advocate for making our home a nicer place. For being the change I want to see in the world.