A Better Community

My daughter brought a note home. I looked at the note and smiled. “So we will have a recycling center,” I said. 

She started to explain why it is important to recycle. “I know,” I said, but I don’t have time.She thought of a way to recycle. She set up a bag in the kitchen. She said it would be for plastic. We would put plastic in there. Then once a month we would take the plastic to the Recycle Center. She said that plastic takes us lots of energy to make. And she said that it is hard for the environment when people throw it out. 

It seemed like a good idea. But then the bag got full. In one week we had filled it with empty plastic bottles. 

My daughter said we should look at what we use. We are using too much plastic. So we looked for ways to use less plastic.

I told my neighbor about this. She liked the idea. She started keeping her plastic in a bag. We all went together to the Recycle Center on the first Saturday. We brought our plastic. 

When we got there, we saw many bags. People had brought lots of trash. They brought paper and metal, too. “Now that we have this center, it is easier to recycle,” said my neighbor. 

When we were walking back from the Recycle Center, I saw a change. The street was cleaner. Most days I see trash in the street. People litter. But there was no litter today. My daughter said that another class had “adopted” the street. They were picking up litter there and taking it to the Recycle Center.

I said this is really big. It is about more than plastic. It is about lots of changes.