Dismal doings May 2018 in Portland

Sigh. I will NOT be discouraged. I will NOT be discouraged!

Okay, that's because, the last time I made it to the SE Portland Far West Fibers depot to recycle moving boxes this week, I found they take almost nothing now. waah.

Seriously. No plastic at all - not even stretchy film Just mixed paper, and metals. (Ferrous and non-ferrous).

This is a far cry from all the items they took at the height of operations a couple of years ago. (When I was disabled. I still am, but I did try working this last year briefly for a short run until my body protested too much again.)

So I'm stuck sneaking only small amounts of plastic bags into my local Fred Meyer's variety store bin (they take small amounts only). And throwing away all the rest except for curbside quality plastics in the curbside recycling.

What constitutes curbside quality in Portland, Oregon currently, you ask?

Well, now it's not even by the numbers, but by size and shape. I.e, all food grade 4 oz or bigger clean plastic containers (tubs, plant pots) or empty bottles with necks (NO LIDS!). Nothing else. Nothing smaller, or odd shaped. Or bigger than a gallon container.

So basically just yogurt and salsa tubs, and shampoo and laundry soap bottles e.g.

That leaves a LOT of plastic going into our waste stream. Which eventually goes... who knows where? Apparently somehow a LOT of it is going into the ocean, and killing loads of animals all up and down the food chain. And turning into sand on our shores. And infiltrating our sea salt. No kidding.

Way to foul our own nest. And we're supposed to be the smart ones...

Sorry for such a downer post you guys, but I find so much being made of and from plastic that it's really disheartening. I dearly hope the next generation finds a lot of alternatives. I know they're out there. Like mushroom packaging for one, and corn starch based bags and peanuts for another.

And biodegradable baby diapers. Please. If you're not going to re-use cloth, please don't use plastic!

But that's another post for another day. When I'm less grumpy and not in so much pain.

TTFN- Jandroid, the recycling android