I am a recycling fanatic. I am simply unable to place an aluminum can in the garbage. I rip out the plastic windows in the envelopes so I can recycle the paper. I carefully separate my compostables from recyclables from the real trash. But it's taken on a more intensive twist in the past six months. I now try and avoid using the dryer. I've taken to stringing up some climbing rope on the back porch and having my laundry air dry. I've kept up my promise of taking public transport to work now averaging 3 times out of 5 in a week. I have also been making an effort to buy the energy efficient lightbulbs and replacing the bulbs in my house.
However, I've reached a new level of fervor. You see, at school, I have always kept a stack of papers that have been used on one side but were free of any marks or writing on the back. I have always been good about using the back sides of paper, but the pile just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then this past summer, I was cleaning out my files and checking to see if I could save the blank back sides of sheets (while carefully removing any staples from those sheets going to the recycling bin) and my scratch paper pile grew to over a foot. It was time to take action. So, I finally experimented with the department printer to be able to stick in paper into the tray in the correct orientation to print out onto the backs of my previously used pieces of paper.
When I hand my students something that has been printed off the stack, they are a bit confused. I'm hoping that they won't be after I continue to do this. Why do I do this you ask? It lets me sleep better at night. Therapy in my future perhaps?
No comments:
Post a Comment