Purely Plants?

Here at the Five Million Can Project, recycling for money for my kids' education is not the only "green" thing we do. I also compost, meaning every piece of food that is not eaten is put into our compost bin. I don't enjoy watching food rot in the mini bin I have next to the sink (pee-ew) but it's kinda cool to dump it, cover it with a shovel, and come back a week or two later to find really dark soil. I also grow basil and am trying to grow blueberries. Trying, basically, NOT to kill the blueberry bush/plant that my friend gave me.

Growing the basil saves me $$ so I don't have to spend $3 or $4 every time I want some fresh stuff, and also saves the huge plastic container it comes in.

But bottles are an easy way that I can see what I'm doing. (Espcially when I keep count.)

But maybe one day, we won't have to recycle. Maybe we'll have fully biodegradable bottles and cans. Pepsi is already making a plant-based bottle, from things like the potato scraps, orange peels and banana peels some people put in their composter.

Check it out here:
http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20110315/US.PepsiCo.Plant.Bottle

But until then, I will keep my recycling up, even if it's just grabbing bottles from my friends. (Thank you, Miriam and Jordan.)

The past couple of weeks, I've reclaimed $5.75 and $3.55 worth of recyclables. This is $9.30 and 186 more, for a GRAND TOTAL of $394.75 and 7,895 cans! Think if this had just gone down the drain, being wasted. And think of the good that can come from a little bit of effort. Will you donate your cans to someone?

Slowing down?

Well, things may be slowing down a little. I still am not using bottles or cans unless I can help it. (i.e. Soda) But I'm still collecting cans when I can. Get it? Ha, ha. This past week I had a donater (thanks Sam and Wes) fill up their recycling box provided to them by bottlesandcans.com. I came for a pick up and recycled them for another $5.65-- saving 113 cans. Okay, in this case I think it was 113 beer bottles! (Built up over time.)

And before that, there was $6.85 from saving up our own cans from birthday parties and such, and I believe a donation from another friend. So, there's another 137 cans saved.

So, that brings our total to $385.45 and 7,709 cans total.

But there's still a small bag of recycling sitting by my back door and every time I go somewhere-- a walk with the dog, a stop at the gas station, the playground, there is always a discarded bottle or can waiting for someone to pick it up, or waiting to be blown and swept into the ocean. What will happen to it? Who knows?