Recycling matters
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Somehow my parents got convinced at some point that it makes sense to drive to their local recycling place to drop off a garbage bag full of plastic milk jugs and water bottles and such. Then there's also a totally different local recycling facility that takes newspapers and magazines. Which of course they also subscribe to. So my 80 year old widowed mom now has this habit of driving to these two different places to drop off a small stack of newspapers at one, and a garbage bag full of plastic bottles at the other. Probably 40 minutes round trip, plus gas, plus an 80 year old woman on roads which are neither good nor low traffic.
The kicker? Her municipality doesn't require recycling. Somewhere along the line, both she and my dad became convinced it was good, and they just do it. Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist. She really can just throw that stuff in the normal trash, which is picked up every week.
Didn't Mythbusters or Penn and Teller do something many years ago about how recycling plastic and paper was ultimately useless? To say nothing of the small scale sort of recycling an elderly person might be convinced is good, for which they drive a half hour?
Education is extremely important.
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Somehow my parents got convinced at some point that it makes sense to drive to their local recycling place to drop off a garbage bag full of plastic milk jugs and water bottles and such. Then there's also a totally different local recycling facility that takes newspapers and magazines. Which of course they also subscribe to. So my 80 year old widowed mom now has this habit of driving to these two different places to drop off a small stack of newspapers at one, and a garbage bag full of plastic bottles at the other. Probably 40 minutes round trip, plus gas, plus an 80 year old woman on roads which are neither good nor low traffic.
The kicker? Her municipality doesn't require recycling. Somewhere along the line, both she and my dad became convinced it was good, and they just do it. Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist. She really can just throw that stuff in the normal trash, which is picked up every week.
Didn't Mythbusters or Penn and Teller do something many years ago about how recycling plastic and paper was ultimately useless? To say nothing of the small scale sort of recycling an elderly person might be convinced is good, for which they drive a half hour?
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Somehow my parents got convinced at some point that it makes sense to drive to their local recycling place to drop off a garbage bag full of plastic milk jugs and water bottles and such. Then there's also a totally different local recycling facility that takes newspapers and magazines. Which of course they also subscribe to. So my 80 year old widowed mom now has this habit of driving to these two different places to drop off a small stack of newspapers at one, and a garbage bag full of plastic bottles at the other. Probably 40 minutes round trip, plus gas, plus an 80 year old woman on roads which are neither good nor low traffic.
The kicker? Her municipality doesn't require recycling. Somewhere along the line, both she and my dad became convinced it was good, and they just do it. Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist. She really can just throw that stuff in the normal trash, which is picked up every week.
Didn't Mythbusters or Penn and Teller do something many years ago about how recycling plastic and paper was ultimately useless? To say nothing of the small scale sort of recycling an elderly person might be convinced is good, for which they drive a half hour?
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@horace said in Recycling matters:
Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist.
Why? She thinks she's doing something worthwhile, why not let her?
@jon-nyc said in Recycling matters:
@horace said in Recycling matters:
Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist.
Why? She thinks she's doing something worthwhile, why not let her?
The 80 year old on the roads, I thought that was clear. She needn't be driving more than necessary.
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@jon-nyc said in Recycling matters:
@horace said in Recycling matters:
Now I have to convince her otherwise and become the bad guy anti-environmentalist.
Why? She thinks she's doing something worthwhile, why not let her?
The 80 year old on the roads, I thought that was clear. She needn't be driving more than necessary.
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@brenda said in Recycling matters:
@horace
Could it be that she just likes an excuse to get out of the house?She has her garden, and her gardening friends. To get to whether she likes to get out of the house, yes, it has something to do with it, but she has plenty of reasons for that without driving.
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@brenda said in Recycling matters:
@horace
Could it be that she just likes an excuse to get out of the house?She has her garden, and her gardening friends. To get to whether she likes to get out of the house, yes, it has something to do with it, but she has plenty of reasons for that without driving.
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@horace
Have you asked her why she still does it? Have you told her that it worries you to have her still do this? Would she bristle at either of these questions?(Brenda can be a pain the ... with questions. LOL )
@brenda said in Recycling matters:
@horace
Have you asked her why she still does it? Have you told her that it worries you to have her still do this? Would she bristle at either of these questions?(Brenda can be a pain the ... with questions. LOL )
Yes of course, I was in the car today while we were working together with her capability to drive to places. The recycling places were among them. I know she likes work. I just don't want her to drive so much.
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@horace
Have you asked her why she still does it? Have you told her that it worries you to have her still do this? Would she bristle at either of these questions?(Brenda can be a pain the ... with questions. LOL )
