God's GREEN Earth

This post was inspired by two things: Earth Day, which makes a lot more sense to me than so many other holidays on our calendar, and my friend Rachael's SPT (self portrait Thursday) post.
I hope you'll bear with me through my recycleable soap-boxing, cause this is a passionate subject for me.
Recycling is one of those things that just makes sense to do. You know? NO, it is not always convenient. I should know. We do not have curb-side recycling in my neighborhood. Instead we have this:

AH, my lovely home-made recycling center. She ain't beautiful, but she get's the job done. See, I am even recycling old laundry baskets by using them to recycle! I keep my cans in the big one, plastics in the middle, then the green one is for glass. I also have newspapers, magazine and cardboard boxes inside the house. I take it all down to the recycling center in our little town about 2 miles down the road.
On to my next favorite thing to recycle: those evil plastic shopping bags! Please, please, please do not throw these away! If I find out that you do, our friendship might be at stake. I am only half-kidding. I have started to purchase one or two of the reusable bags every time I go to the store. Then, when I am done un-loading the groceries, I just stick them in the back of the car for next time. Like any good habit, it just takes practice! Here, I'll break it down for you:

Bad Bag vs. Good Bag


How are we doing so far? Anyone still reading this? OK, for the two of you I will keep going.
My next big mission is to get rid of bottled water! Well, not get rid of it, but really reduce in this area. What a bunch of waste for WATER! There are so many reusable containers out there and they come in every shape and size. I no longer buy bottled water unless it is for a camping trip or something similar. If you don't like the way your water tastes, please look into a filtration system. It'll be cheaper in the long run anyway! Here are some examples of what we use:

Now, I don't write all of this to boast and tell you what a difference I make. I do it to encourage. Kinda like a GREEN cheer-leader. (Sniff, I was never a cheer-leader in school...well, you know that from this) Some people think recycling is a waste of time, that the Earth wasn't meant to last forever. To that I say that I am not meant to live forever, but I am still going to take care of my body. What a gift our world is to us. Let us all take good care of it while we are here. So this little guy's kids can have the same thing we had!