Talking About Green

Almost every American municipality that doesn’t have curbside recycling collection at least offers a place for citizens to drop off their recyclables somewhere within the city limits. Both options are fantastic, but the benefits can be a little misleading when you consider the amount of carbon emissions are put into the air due to the need to transport recyclables from one place to another. They’re unrelated parts of the “going green” rainbow but they’re connected in that one canceling out the other doesn’t do much good for anybody.

If you live in a city where there’s a recycling drop-off, then some sort of volunteer effort should be developed to help curb the effects of too many cars hauling recyclables around. It’s easier than you think if you’re already part of an existing neighborhood association or online social network.

The first step would be to organize the locations of every household in the area willing to participate. Once a map can be made and divvied out to everybody, each house takes turns picking up everyone else’s recyclables.

Right away there are seemingly big problems, but they have easy solutions. The amount of recycling getting collected can be immense. There could be too much for one family-sized sedan to hold, which makes it hard if one or two participating households in your neighborhood has no other means to haul the load. That’s where self storage comes in. Coordinating properly can allow folks to rotate by a nearby storage center and drop off the already collected recyclables before carrying on.

This storage unit allows such an association to continue to collect recyclables for a long period of time without making the drive to the local recycling center. When the day comes, a single flatbed truck can haul the recycling of dozens of houses for weeks. Compared to dozens of cars driving to and from the recycling center multiple times a month this significantly reduces the carbon emissions involved in your recycling effort.

Taking part in the least amount of travel possible is the best way to go about recycling optimally. It prevents your good effort from becoming a futile one, and allows you and others in your area to join together and take part in something that actually makes a difference.