Happy Earth Day, Raleigh!

It’s Earth Day here in Raleigh and everywhere else in America! I know where I was exactly 19 years ago when Earth Day was born. I was down on the mall in Washington DC. I lived in that area growing up…it’s still strange for me to call that area around the Smithsonian and Washington Monument, a “mall”. I mean there’s not much shopping that goes on there as much as education in the nearby museums. When I was younger, at school we’d go to the Natural History and American History museums for field trips.   My favorites though were the National Art Gallery’s East Wing and the Air & Space Museums where the original 3-D movie “To Fly” played…see, I remember…

Our last year of highschool, we were required to take a Government class. As an annual tradition and “rites of senior passage”, we’d go to the steps of the Capitol Building and have our entire class photo taken there. Then when I was in college, as part of a pledging event to a fraternal business organization (okay you feminists, it’s a long story…don’t hassle me) …we had to walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument taking photos everywhere to document our experience. You’d think by then, I’d have been tired of doing that sort of touristy thing, but really I don’t ever think I’d been to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before. It was neat to see Abe so close. He’s much bigger than he appears on T.V. He and Tony Robbins have something in common…those gargantuan “banana hands”.

…anyway, back to Green Day or Earth Day. In April 1990, I was watching and listening Tom Cruise live! push the new born cause along with 10,000 Maniacs (the band)…there were probably many more thousands of Tom Cruise fanatics there that day. That’s why I went anyway. C’mon I was still in highschool…I had different priorities then.  And back then Tom Cruise wasn’t the strange jumpin’ on Oprah’s couch dude he is today.

At the first national Earth Day event you could see recycling bins everywhere. I remember they were white plastic bins with a rounded top and a small round opening for glass bottles that were so popular then. Remember when you had to separate the green glass from the white glass? I do. It all started with just those bottles and then plastic bottles became popular and recyclable, along with aluminum cans. These came into the picture not too long afterwards if my memory serves me correctly. And then after that, recycling was a phenomenon that caught on like wildfire. Everything became recyclable from cartons to cardboard boxes to paper products. There was no going back to unconsciousness!

Today, in our home we recycle everything daily. It’s hard for me throw something out without considering recycling. You get in the habit and it just feels wrong to toss an empty water bottle in the trash can where it’s adding waste to our planet. Plus, they’ve made it so much easier for the consumer.  We don’t have to have a separate bin for each type of item and we don’t have to sort it out or completely clean it out.  And they come pick the stuff up on a weekly basis.  At least that’s the way it works for me.  So, in that case I really don’t think there’s much excuse…maybe laziness?  Nah, that’s lame. 

Our recycle bin in our home is sometimes more full than our regular trash bins. We used to keep our green recycling basket in the garage. I told my husband that it was not an effective thing for us to have to walk over and open and close the garage door every single time we had something to put in recycling. He didn’t believe me that we had thaaat much to recycle and thought that it would be an inefficiency in our home to have two recycling bins since we didn’t want to bring the dirty one inside our home. So we’d have to have a clean one in the home.  That would be like adding a “middleman” to the process…and would just be sooo wrong for a functional thinker like my husband (…and most men).

So our debate went on and we finally put it to the test. We put an intermediary recycling trash bin inside our home.
After a few days, the recycling bin in our home was almost full. And every week, It was about the same result. So I got to do my “it’s a great day when I’m right” song and dance to my husband.

By the way, you should point out when you’re right but never rub things in to your significant other. Not a good strategy for relationship building especially when men are wired to win 99.9% of the time. If you don’t believe me…then just check out how he acts next time he watches a sporting event with his favorite team.  Anyway, instead of smearing all your smartness in his face (like I could’ve) or collecting the $5 he owes you, you should make a joke about it as I did because they learn quick to not question you the next time around. You get your point across and he’s not mad at you. I know it sounds silly, but men are simple creatures and don’t want to compete with their partners. And if you are a man, hey, I’m just trying to help you out with your women.

So, our intermediary bin has been around for over a year. For me it’s a constant daily reminder about saving our Mother Earth for generations to come. I know there’s so much more beyond recycling that have become part of “earth day”.  It has really grown leaps and bounds for almost the past two decades, thanks to educational activists like Al Gore and many environmentalist groups… but for me, my recycle bin is what I think of during Earth Day. In fact there’s a “happy birthday” notecard with a big heart on my recycle bin. I wonder what my husband will think, when he sees it (he already knows I’m nutty .  …and I wonder what others are doing or if it’s just another day in Raleigh…

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Category: Brandy's Special "Dish"