Last summer, I was able to live in Boulder, Colorado to participate in the TechStars program. My family loved Boulder, and we tried to take back some of the things we liked most about that community to Alabama when we came home. Adjusting back to life in the dirty south was somewhat difficult. One of the main things we realized about Alabama was how hard it is to recycle. With our senses heightened, we saw a culture here that, in general, really didn’t care too much about the environment, the use of natural resources, or taking personal responsibility for the environment. In fact, if we mentioned recycling, it was almost as if we were trying to push some liberal, left-wing agenda.
Over the last nine months, I have witnessed an increasingly lazy attitude to recycling by both myself and my family. To be fair, it is HARD to recycle in Alabama. For most things, you literally have to drive it to a facility (consuming gas!) and it is on the other side of town. However, this is not an excuse.
For this week, my change will be to get more serious about the 3 R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. This is more of a mindset than an actual change. For starters, I won’t take plastic bags from stores. I hate it when you buy a small pack of gum and they want to put it in a bag! I will start taking a coffee mug around so I don’t have to use one from the store. Simple things. Overall, I just want to make recycling a more concious part of my life.
