Recycling isn’t just something we do to comply with local laws; it’s something that we do because we know it can make a positive impact moving forward.
A positive impact that, if done correctly, could allow future generations to live in a safer and cleaner environment.
When I was younger, my dad and I did something that at the time seemed normal. I didn’t really think anything of it until I got older.
Every Saturday, we would get in my dad’s truck and drive down to the local dump. We didn’t live in a large city, so luckily this wasn’t a major landfill, but a smaller trash collection area on the outside of town.
We would show up around 6:30AM, along with around 25 other volunteers.
We would wade through the town’s garbage from that week, looking for something very specific. Something very valuable.
And we weren’t looking to keep the items we found, we were looking to give them away.
The “valuable” items we were looking for?
Plastic toys.
The thing is, the majority of the plastic-based toys that were thrown away into the city dump were almost always reusable. On the other hand, it was also a pollution hazard for some of the plastic toys that were thrown away to be left in the city dump for too long, allowing them to possibly blow away with the wind and end up in our nearby bay.
It made sense for us to comb through the garbage, find plastic toys and other items that were likely to end up in our bay, and then gently refurbish them for the local orphanages and after-school programs in our city.
To the children we gave the like-new toys to, the toys were like treasure. Very valuable, indeed.
Now that I’m an adult with my own son, I’ve tried to find ways to carry on the tradition of caring deeply for our environment. I now run a roofing company in South Texas. You can see our website here: http://www.
Moving into the new year, we’ve decided to take any spare lumber and roofing materials to local charities that need help building furniture for the organizations, or need materials to build beds for our local homeless shelters.
It’s good to know that a tradition that was started nearly 30 years ago can still be carried out today through one simple act – recycling.