Recycling on the road
In honor of America Recycles Day today, I’m going to re-publish a post I wrote on my Travelin’ Green blog last spring when my husband and I attempted to travel green between Seattle and Asheville NC and back. I hope it will inspire you to think recycling even when on the road.
May 17, 2011 Kennebec South Dakota to Cedar Rapids Iowa
Someone commented on Facebook today after I’d posted the picture above, “Only you would photograph recycling bins!”
She may be right, but that’s only because there probably aren’t a lot of people who carry their trash from state to state seeking a place to properly dispose of it.
I’m trying to make this multi-thousand mile road trip with as little impact on the planet as possible, knowing full well of course that “a green road trip” is an oxymoron.
Nonetheless, I’m doing my best and that means, among other things, not tossing paper and glass bottles into plastic-lined hotel trash cans.
I refuse tourist brochures and maps, preferring to make use of my iPhone. I’ve brought a couple of People Towels so I don’t use paper in rest rooms and am also carrying cloth napkins. Stainless steel straws take the place of throwaways and a couple of sets of bamboo flatware substitute for plastic.
Still, paper, glass bottles, bits of plastic and coffee cups accumulate. (I’d meant to buy a couple of travel mugs before we left, but didn’t get to it. I figured I could pick them up at any Starbucks. Where we live, you can’t walk a block without spotting a couple dozen of the world’s most popular coffee shops. Along the freeway across Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota? Not one.)
Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to empty the bag in which I’d been carrying trash. It felt disrespectful to incorporate the picture below into the post I wrote about our stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, but I was pretty darn excited to spot this as we drove up:
Here’s what really sent me to my happy place. Not only were there recycling bins, but the center one actually is a solar compactor!
Between these bins and the ones that greeted us at the Minnesota welcome center/rest stop, I began to feel hopeful.
My excitement was tempered a bit just now when Steve walked through the door carrying a plastic bag with two Styrofoam boxes containing our dinner.
Oh well. I forgive him. He does 90% of the driving and besides, just like the rest of us, when it comes to green, he’s a work in progress.
For more of my tips on traveling green gained from this experience, see this post I wrote for Green XC.
Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.
