Two summers ago I realized something. I do a pretty good job at keeping my own living space prim and proper, recycling what should be recycled and not littering the ground with my trash. However, as I venture out of my own comfort space I tend to forget my habits and don’t care as much when I see the rest of the world used as a dump.
As I sat besides the fire at the boat club I belong to and watched the flames dance and crackle to life I also noticed several bottles and cans tossed in along with the wood. I have always been a fan of recycling, especially cans since they seem to be the easiest to sort and so I began to wonder why after all my life of belonging to this club I haven’t decided to bring my habit of recycling to one of the places I love most. Truth is I didn’t feel obligated to keep any space that wasn’t my own clean and until that moment and I never really even noticed all the bottles tossed in with the fire. I’m sure I’ve tossed a few in myself more than once. But the more I thought about it I began to notice that there was a complete lack of recycling bins. At home I always have the recycling box close by and because it’s so close I feel motivated to do good and recycle. The reason I didn’t recycle here was so ridiculously simple: there was merely no recycling bins. I actually had a good laugh at how silly it was that I could forget my good habits simply because there was nothing to remind me but that just goes to show how forgetful the human mind can be. Ironically this was also the summer that my dad had been elected as the club’s president and both my mom and I had the same idea to start implicating recycling. He agreed and thought it was a great idea and so we placed several big blue bins around the pavilion.
The next time I sat down besides the fire I couldn’t help but smile. Not a can or bottle was to be seen because behind me the recycling bins were filled.
Now that I realized my actions reflected on what was around me and what was influencing my behavior I‘m now more conscience of my surrounding environment. But it now also makes me wonder why there aren’t more recycling bins in public places. In my opinion people are willing to help out the environment as long as it isn’t too much out of their way.
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It's good to see some direct action taking place here. If not for people who truely care about the environment, there would be no recycle bins around at all. I think this is where the imortance of public education comes in. If we teach our children the importance of these issues, they won't think of recycling as going "out of their way." Hopefully it will become a habit that will, in time, simply be a part of everyone's lifestyle.
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