Hive account@elamental has put out a call to action asking steemians to share weekly stories about their Earth deeds.

This is an important initiative to educate and inspire others to step up and care for mother earth in real ways.You can read more about the challenge and incentives here!

This week I've decided to talk about recycling and how we recycle on the the Walkerland homestead.

A friend of our was visiting our homestead and lamented that we did not have a curbside recycling program.

My eye started to twitch as I prepared myself for what promised to be a frustrating debate.

She lectured that she could live anywhere that didn't have a recycling program and looked at me haughtily implying that we didn't care about the planet by not having blue bins in our garage. I reminded her that most homes out in the countryside don't have luxury town services. You are left to your own devices just like in the old days. This is like ... homesteading for real.

I'll paint the picture of why this infuriated me so much.

In our comfortable log cabin we had just shared a home grown meal that required no plastic packages or trips to and from the store. She was enjoying a vacation in a place where daily life is one of mindfulness, the food is made from scratch, and our time is spent with nature. Organic, simple living is the focus of the day and yet she felt so strongly that I was doing wrong because we don't subscribe to the blue bin reduce, reuse, recycle propaganda?

Deep breaths.

I reminded her of a saying that I've come to love. It is so simple and just speaks volumes to the truth of the matter.

"There is no away."

Where does that recycling that you've carefully washed and sorted go exactly? How much fossil fuels and energy goes into creating that waste, transporting it and then recycling it? Do you know where your recycling ends up? do you even know or care? Why don't you make less waste to begin with??

We are still friends but certainly don't see eye to eye on this topic. Change can be very hard especially when it is inconvenient.

I personally think that recycling programs are a sham. It serves to conceal and support the continuance of the real problem. In this case the problem is a gargantuan, mindless production and consumption wheel created by the masses. A recycling program makes it easy for people to feel good while ignoring the fact that they should be minimizing how much waste they create in the first place.

Ahh, I've written about this subject before as it really does get me all fired up. Here is a snipped from a former post that I wrote on this subject called "Let's Stop Drowning Ourselves In Garbage & Recycling Is A Sham. I think this is truly enlightening.

China Refusing Our Garbage

In January 2018 China stopped being the “world’s garbage dump,” and have put a ban on various garbage imports. Before the beginning of this year China was dealing with about half of the globe’s plastics and paper products. So now what? Plastics are piling up EVERYWHERE! Here are a few of the stats on how it's impacted us so far.

Calgary, Alberta, used to send 50 percent of its plastics and 100 percent of its mixed papers to China. Since the ban in January 5,000 tons has been collected and stockpiled with nowhere to ship it. This is just one city in Canada. Add Toronto, Calgary, Saskatoon ... plus the rest of the country.
Britain was sending China enough recyclables to fill up 10,000 Olympic-size swimming pools every year according to Greenpeace U.K. An overpopulated island with that much garbage laying around. What are they going to do now?
The United States was exporting more than 13.2 million tons of paper & 1.42 million tons of plastics to China each year. Hey, maybe send it to Canada - Trudeau won't mind.

So, now that I've provided some information on why I think recycling programs are a sham what do we do? I much prefer to provide suggestions and solutions so here are three of our favourite ways to "recycle".

Growing and preserving our own food

The ultimate in low carbon footprint and recycling is growing and preserving your own food. The jars are used over and over until they finally break in the canner and the food is delivered on foot from the garden to kitchen. No plastic, no fuel, no chemicals. It's perfect. This is not realistic for everyone but even the act of buying local, having a supplier that you can return jars to, and just more mindful approaches such as buying in bulk using your own containers makes a difference. Having a real food pantry is a truly empowering and good thing to do not only for the planet but for your health.

jams & jellies(9).jpg Low carbon footprint, reused jars. Home preserving lends itself well to true recycling.

Reusing bottles and containers

By adhering to the mindset of "there is no away" we hang onto all those bottles, jars and containers that the stuff we buy comes in. This makes us mindful of the waste we are generating and motivates us to find ways to enjoy those items more sustainably which usually involves making it ourselves. We'll try to use those containers for storing other items, art projects and other creative endeavours. Just the sheer annoyance of having boxes and stacks of this clutter makes us less inclined to create more garbage.

Easy to make Rhubarb ginger soda in an old Captain Morgan rum bottle.

Buying good quality & used!

Whenever possible we purchase items we need for the house second hand. They don't come with packaging so we haven't got anything to throw away. Our furniture is nice, so it's not as though anyone is even aware that the chair they are sitting on came from a flea market.

We also research carefully and purchase the best quality goods so that it will last a long time. We don't feel good about buying crap that ends up in the land fill. A lot of things are replaced and upgraded needlessly and our ancestors didn't do this. Disposable is a modern mindset that needs to go.

Do you ever wonder what happens to all the stuff you throw out? What will things look like in 50 years? Whatever you do, take an honest look and consider the impact that your choices have on the world.