Valet service at the dump in San Diego, CA – Go green for fun
One of my New Year resolutions was to be committed to total recycling, which took me a little more effort than the average person, as I use a walker to be mobile. The plastic bins for recyclables at the curb do not work for me, as I can't get them back and forth to the curb.
So my papers and recycling are put in grocery paper bags with handles. Once a month I don't use my go green cloth grocery bags for my grocery shopping, I get the paper bags for my recycling. Otherwise, I always use my go green cloth grocery bags and any plastic bags I acquire from other shopping I take to the store to place in their plastic bag recycle bin.
During tax season I was busy shredding old not need papers when my shredder wouldn't shred any more. Off to the store I go to get a new one and now here I am faced with my first true test to my recycling commitment
Darlene - I love your story! I am familiar with Miramar landfill as well. I had lived in San Diego for several years. In fact, I got my first 'real' job in San Diego. However, it was a real shock to me on my first day of work to find so much waste in the office. Piles and piles of paper, no recycle bins in the lunch room, cords being thrown in the garbage. Suddenly I was face with the awful truth that not everyone even gives a second thought to recycling.
Our office finally out grew the building we were in and moving day came around when everyone had to dig through their desks to finally clean up all the books and paper that they have been treasuring for so long. Again, there were no recycle bins in site. I asked about this and they said they had to pay extra for a bin, so we ended up having to through all our papers in the garbage. I cringed every trip I made to the garbage that day to throw away those papers.
The one thing that stopped me in my tracks though was when a coworker was about to throw our old microwave and a couple computer monitors in that same garbage bin! I explained to them that there were hazardous materials in those and that they should be properly recycled. My coworker gave me a funny look and said, "well, we have to pay for that too, so its just easier to throw them in the garbage." Thats when I took a stand and decided to take it upon myself to recycle our e-waste.
Thats when I found Miramar landfill as well. I didn't know what to expect either, but when I drove up it certainly looked like they knew what they were doing. Even though it cost me a bit out of my own pocket to discard those materials, I would have to agree with you that it felt really good to stand up for what I believe in and at least I prevented a couple electronics from hitting the dumps.
posted by katiek on 4/ 9/2008 10:46 am