Recycle 2 Save

No one enjoys taking responsibility when things go wrong. We are all eager to determine why a failure doesn't lie solely on our shoulders or why it's not our fault at all. Blame shifting is a common practice and phrase thrown around in our home.  "Well, if she didn't ...then I wouldn't have ... "  "If he wasn't didn't say ... then I wouldn't have said ..."  Although the blame-shifting technique is prohibited in our family, it still finds its way into many unfortunate situations.  Why does it matter? Taking pers onal responsibility helps to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again (and again and again). Situations usually have multiple actors that could all play essential parts in prevention, but what's important is that each player knows their role and how they can personally correct it. You are only able to control yourself, and sometimes, that proves difficult.  This is such a basic and juvenile conversation that it would see...

Hi! And thanks for being the recycler for our residential trash service. I was looking at your blog and found it useful. I wonder if you could address a topic in the blog, and/or send me a personal reply. It is said that about 10% of what we put in our home recycle bin gets recycled. The rest goes overseas, into landfills, etc. Can you comment on this? I realize some of the reason for this is that people contaminate their recycling, rendering the whole load unusable, but what other reasons are there that cause such a small percentage of our recycling to not get recycled? Thanks in advance. Thanks for reading, asking, and for your concern in general. When the 10% number is thrown around it sure is concerning. This number, from what I've read when we researched a bit more in-depth, is based upon 10% of ALL materials produced in the US being recycled. That is still terrible, but not reflective of only 10% of the material placed in your recycling bin. Unfortun...

 I am by no means the shining light of positivity. I would LOVE to be known for that characteristic but that isn't my reality. In fact, I've needed to defend by comments many times by explaining that "I'm not pessimistic, I'm really just realistic". That being said, I have recently found myself feeling so frustrated by comments that I have heard or overheard people make recently.  When there is positive, happy news about responsible environmental choices made by companies or citizens (that created a real impact in our environment) instead of people rejoicing and providing their well wishes they do the opposite, they criticise. Whether pointing out the areas that could benefit from additional changes, why the results aren't as great as written, how they would do things different, or why the company as a whole is awful; none of it is productive. We need to understand that things will not always be perfect and that additional steps might need to be m...

  Ever thought that you were on the right road only to discover that you should have take the exit a few miles back? Unfortunately using it as a metaphor the road that a business owner, parent, heck human being should choose isn't always clear or marked, and is almost never absolute. Sometimes the joys in life are discovered by taking the "wrong" road or the "long cut" (as we've so loving described my fathers sometimes disastrous shortcuts). As a business owner you often don't have time or the available funds for an exploratory journey; you really just need a quick, short path.   Waste reduction and recycling is unfortunately a path that is unique to each business. There is no exact plan written that will work for every location or material they generate. It is also so important that someone with first hand knowledge can direct and guide decision makers about things they aren't supposed to know in depth. The knowledge required to run each...

CRI is so very proud to be recognized as a 2012 Waste Watcher Award Recipient.

Another post started with a song.. here's to hoping that it will stick in your mind all day long. You can thank me later. Friday morning I finally had the pleasure of having lasik completed on both my eyes. I had been wanting to do it for years but with my two children coming fairly close together and the requirements involved I had to wait. I was excited and couldn't wait for the day I would be free of glasses and contacts but I was oh so nervous. I doubted my ability to stay still and the pain I imagined was immense. I had family and friends go before and all raved about the results but I still had worries of my own. I had witnessed the results and heard the testimony but I still worried what if things didn't go right? Obviously the idea of losing sight is significantly scarier than the idea I'll be tying this into (recycling/composting/being kind to our planet). "New" environmental programs do not have quite the repercussions ...

A bit of a pun on words. I'm really speaking about Waste to Energy solutions. Aren't I clever? I clearly understand that waste to energy is by no means true recycling. Well, I mean it is.. sort of, but not the real deal. In an ideal world everything that we consume, use or have left over should be reused or recycled. The continued green demand and education will spur that "dream" along but right now that is just not the reality of things. In addition, some products have a reuse lifespan. Plastics can only be recycled and reused so many times before the material begins to breakdown and are adequate as only a filler in small quantities or not usable at all. What do we do with items when the recycling option just doesn't seem to be there? I think this is the ideal situation for waste to energy. CRI has a program in place that we sort out every  recyclable plastic type that we can. We are than left with the plastics that would otherwise find their way t...