Reader Friday: Global Recycling Day

Today is Global Recycling Day, created in 2018 to recognize the importance of recycling in preserving our natural resources. “Think resource not waste.” Are you using any creative ways to use “waste” as a “resource” in your house, your writing space, or writing process? Or, are you recycling materials that would otherwise be discarded?

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About Steve Hooley

Steve Hooley is the author of seven short stories published in four anthologies, a Vella serial fiction, and is currently working on the Mad River Magic series – a fantasy adventure series for advanced middle-grade to adults. More details available at: https://stevehooleywriter.com/mad-river-magic/

28 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Global Recycling Day

  1. Are you talking physically… or “writerly”?

    I have always grabbed the scrap of paper with white space on it and “recycled” it into a note (or barely legible scribble), and filed it away (somewhere) – much to the chagrin and occasional ridicule of my bride… the same goes with partially filled notebooks at the end of the school year once the boys finished their finals and were freed for the summer…

    On the other hand, I recycle ideas all the time… though I hope not to the point of being seen as caught in a rut… or as being a copyist of what’s current or popular…

    In either case, waste not, want not…

    • Great answers, George. And the answer to your question is both physical and “writerly.” Anything goes. We write fiction.

      I identify with your reuse of scrap paper. I have a two-to-three-foot stack of scrap paper piled high in my office. One side is clean, and I use it for my daily “to do” lists, brainstorming, and story ideas before I head for the computer.

      Yes, waste not, want not.

      Thanks for sharing your “conservation measures.”

  2. Good morning, Steve. My municipality makes it easy to recycle. Each resident is supplied with a recycling bin. Paper and plastic go right in. Easy peasy.

    Coffee grounds — and I generate a lot of coffee grounds — go into the garden.

    I don’t dispose of post-it notes, etc. until they are full, on both sides. I consider it an accomplishment if I keep to a system where one stores phone numbers, another grocery items, and another ideas, etc.

    Hope you have a great weekend, Steve!

    • I like your system, Joe. Organized recycling. I had to look up recycling coffee grounds (or composting) into your garden. I had heard of it before, but never understood. We compost all vegetable waste, but have to have a pile far from the house because of all the critters it attracts. If my wife doesn’t contribute to the pile in the morning, the crows sit in the trees outside my office and let me hear about it.

      You have a great weekend, too, Joe!

  3. Nothing particularly creative here, we just try to do our best to create as little waste as we can.
    In our Florida homes, we composted. Up here, because of bears and other wildlife, we can’t. Other recyclables go into the bin that’s picked up every other week by our waste management company. We have 2 printers. Mine is for ‘new’ paper; the Hubster’s is for recycling. Batteries are taken to a battery recycling place.
    Local residents use our community Facebook Page to let others know what they have that they don’t need anymore.

    • Good morning, Terry. Your system sounds like a good one. What is different about your husband’s printer for recycling? I like that idea. Is it ink jet vs. laser? prints just on one side? That sounds like a great way to conserve and reuse.

      Have a great weekend!

  4. Recycling physically: I have *always* been rabid about not wasting paper. Perhaps less so in the last few years since we’ve gone more online, but for years there has been a lot of paper waste by printing every little thing off on the printer. Both at work and at home I cut this paper into four squares per page and use those small sheets as my daily task and notes lists. No tree gives its life unnecessarily if I can help it.

    Recycling writerly: I love to research and no research time is wasted. I find that the very act of research generates story ideas. I write those ideas down in a book and may or may not use them. So while I’m busy learning more history and other topics, it is also dual purpose to fuel the writing fires.

    • Great system, BK. I like the idea of cutting that “waste” paper into quarters. Unfortunately, I need a whole sheet for my “to do” list. But, I never get them all done, so maybe I should use 1/4 sheet.

      Researching history: “Those who fail to learn from history…” Great recycling, with the added benefit of knowing whether those ideas worked.

      All this talk about recycling paper made we wonder. Has anyone ever published a book printed on one side of scrap paper (not recycled paper)? With the curiosity we all have, the “back side” of the paper would be inspected more carefully than the book side. A writer could “create” some scrap paper with some really juicy gossip on the scrap side. If anyone does it, we discussed it here first. Google couldn’t tell me about any such book.

      Have a great weekend!

      • This reminds me of the time I printed something for our accountant and didn’t realize it was using our recycled paper. On the back of the tax information I’d sent, he got a page of a romantic interlude from one of my novels. He said he never wanted to lose me as a client.

        • You’ve got me laughing. Great story. Tell your accountant to buy your books.

          Now, how could we use this as an intentional marketing scheme? Hmm. Some of the best scenes from out books on the back of letters?

  5. Happy Global Recycling Day, Steve. Recycling here, is like Joe said, easy peasy. Paper, cardboard, cans and plastic all go into a single bin, glass is put out in a separate tub, and yard debris has its own bin.

    I also use scrap paper with writing at time. At my work station, I use three books to raise the level of my keyboard, mouse and usb hub for the MacBook that’s plugged into the ten year old flat screen monitor I’m still using. Truthfully though, I’d be hanging on to the books if they weren’t being used like this.

    As for recycling in my writing, everything’s compostable as I work ideas and storylines.

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    • We *used* to have good recycling up until 2-3 years ago. I live in a large metropolitan area and we used to recycle everything from plastic containers to cardboard including cereal boxes. Then about 2-3 years ago they quit recycling most under the excuse that they couldn’t sell it to China.

      Now recycling is very minimal–corrugated cardboard, glass drink containers only (not other glass) and plastic drink containers or gallon jugs. Very irksome.

    • Happy Global Recycling Day to you, Dale. Sounds like you have a plan that works. I like that phrase, “everything’s compostable as I work ideas and storylines.” Great way to look at writing and editing. Nothing wasted. Can be used later in a different form.

      Have a great weekend!

  6. My parents grew up in the Great Depression, and my dad was green and an environmentalist long before anyone knew what the word was, so, yeah, I’m not only cheap as heck I recycle. Saving the environment was one of the practical reasons I became a pioneer and evangelist of ebooks. Also, I really, really like trees. Read pixels, save trees.

    • Love it, Marilynn. “Read pixels, save trees.” I’m with you on the trees. My first job as a 6th grader was working for a local farmer who planted thousands of evergreens. I was assigned the job of weeding around the early plantings so they wouldn’t be crowded out by the grass. My parents moved to the country, and my dad planted even more evergreens. I have to admit I wasn’t too excited about taking care of all those trees. But now, I’m living in the old home place and enjoying those mature trees.

      Go pixels. Long live the trees!

      Have a great weekend!

  7. My husband and I both drive hybrid vehicles. Does that qualify as “precycling?”

    Unfortunately, the company that used to pick up the recyclables in our community dropped us because some of the homeowners were putting regular trash in the recycle containers. I need to request that we get it started again.

    Interesting story: Years ago I worked for a firm that put emphasis on recycling so every office had a waste basket as well as a recycling bin. Employees were careful to recycle. One night when I was working very late, the cleaning folks came around emptying the bins. They had large waste bins, one for regular trash and the other for recyclables. They emptied the two canisters in my office into the appropriate bins and went on.

    Later, I walked down the hall to the break room to get a cup of coffee and I saw the cleaning crew emptying both the trash bins and the recycle bins into one large garbage container. Ouch. I think I might use this in a story some day.

    • Great story, Kay. I’m sure you can work that story into a mystery. And the “precycling” with a hybrid vehicle, sounds like “reducing” to me. (Reduce, reuse, and recycle). I reduce use of propane in the wintertime by burning firewood cut from dead trees. Every little bit helps.

      Have a great weekend!

    • We had the same setup at my job in Ventura. Dual waste baskets, etc. I began to suspect that all waste ended up in the same dumpster. My suspicions were confirmed. And when the company closed up, the boss threw all the computers in the dumpster, instead of offering them for reuse to people in need.

      Ironically, this company had once constructed an entire waste facility. When operational, the waste facility had a belt on which all items were dumped. The workers had something like two seconds in which determine whether an item should be knocked off the belt into one of several actual recycle bins. What they didn’t catch went to landfill. Ninety percent of all this, the blue and gray waste baskets and trash cans, the boxes in our work stations, the belt, was virtue signalling.

      Reusing beats recycling 20:1. You must have noticed that recycled paper costs more than new paper. Using the back side of paper is by far the best policy, if your printer will handle it.

      • Good points, J. Recycling for reasons other than true concern for the environment is sad. Reusing paper rather than recycling. Great point.

        Have a great weekend!

  8. Paper’s an interesting product and I’ve just finished a book on the subject by Nicholas Basbanes, “On Paper”. Well worth a read.

    I worked in a paper mill for a year or so as a laborer and the process was fascinating. It was owned by McGraw-Hill at the time and nearly everything they made was at least 50 per cent recycled. Paper made with recycled content is softer and feels nicer to the touch although under the magnifying glass you can see some of the dirt that cannot be removed. Also it generally does not perform as well under what they called the “wax pick” test. These things are important to printing shops if a sheet fails in the press.

    At some point the fibers get too short to use in print paper and they’d get sent over the hill to the waste ponds. We recycle here and every so often the contents of my shredder and my discards bag go into the recycle bin.

    Although it is not strictly about paper, one of the things that irks me in my other hustle is the unrecyclability of e-waste, in particular things like televisions and guitar amplifiers that use surface mount technology-there is very little board level repair . They’re not built to be repaired any more and parts availability is pretty nearly nonexistend. This seems to be a gross abuse of the planet and a waste of resources.

    Buy fresh, buy local. Support Right To Repair legislation in your state.

    • Wow, Robert, thanks for all that information. I will check out Basbanes’ book, “On Paper.” Sounds interesting.

      Your description of what happens in the paper mill was fascinating. And I agree with you on how we have become a “throw away” society. Nothing can be repaired. Designed to last until one day after the warranty runs out. I hadn’t heard of Right to Repair legislation. Sounds like a good idea.

      Thanks for all the information today. Have a great weekend!

    • The labor cost to repair a PC board exceeds the cost of the board. An easy decision. But I have seen a broken video i/f card epoxied back together and jumpered across the break. It’s unfathomable, but I was impressed, nonetheless.

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