Recycling in the Peninsula: Not Just a Chore But an Honor

I love recycling.

It feels good to know that although the plastic and glass we utilize on a daily basis might seem a bit excessive, at least there are available and consistent avenues to dispose of our recyclables and reuse them.

This sudden expression of recycle-love I’m conveying right now is stemming from a recent trip to Chicago that I took and how surprised I was on how utterly inconsistent its recycling program is. The residence I was staying in had one garbage can for everything – recyclable items included – and I felt awkward tossing my plastic bottles in that can.

Now, I’m not saving whales every day or cleaning up oil spills (both viable actions!) but I do what I can, when I can, and I definitely try to put as many of my recyclable items in their designated outlets. Our once-a-week pickups, recycling centers and green (compost) and blue bins--they are readily here for most of us who live in the Peninsula.

I feel like saying that these options are more of a right than a privilege, and that our obligation to be as "green" as we can be should be a duty and not an option. But maybe it’s all circumstance. Maybe it all depends on where you’re from and what your local society dictates on such a specific subject.

I’m so used to my blue bin that I got to thinking what’d I do without it. I’d have to take my recyclables to drop-off centers, which I’ve done before and which wouldn’t be that hard, but I see why Chicagoans might not have that same sentiment. About two-third's of Chicagoans do not participate in the blue-bin program, so I can see why the city as a whole might be nonchalant about the whole program.

San Francisco was recently ranked North America's #1 Greenest City, and it’s very easy to imagine the contemporary, politcally-open and free-movement culture San Francisco expresses affects its surrounding towns, counties, and, well, even the whole state.

Burlingame is one of those towns. Weekly pickups make recycling endeavors easy and less convoluted and probably to the point where we don’t think twice about it. It was thought provoking to entrench myself in a different part of the country and experience a different way of doing things, and I realize how lucky it is to live in the Bay Area where recycling or "being green" is looked upon as a normal, everyday, wholesome gesture, one that is both beneficial to the planet, the towns and the individuals who take it upon themselves to commit to these venerable endeavors. 

With Burlingame invested in being sustainable (click on the link -  loving the fact that Burlingame recycles the pavement the city tears up during public projects), it’s a joy to know that the water bottle or milk jug you’re chugging can be thrown into the recycling bin with a very high chance of those materials being reused again. I’m currently writing this article while taking sips of coconut water in a plastic bottle and now I can’t wait to finish it off so I can throw the bottle in the recycling!

I think the Peninsula should pat itself on the back for its recycling programs. Recycling is such a normal objective here that it's become just another thing we do, when in reality, it's something very special. Although I know that not everything gets recycled or reused, by traveling and experiencing another outlook on the recycling-movement, I’m grateful for the culture the Bay Area, San Francisco, the Peninsula and Burlingame (to get more specific!) has provided for those wishing to sustain the Earth, one plastic bottle at a time.  

Do you recycle? Do you even think about the actions and consequences while you're recycling? Comment and share, so that our community becomes aware!