Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Three R's

At work yesterday, a customer bought one skein of yarn. As I handed her her credit card back, I also handed her the skein of yarn.  A look crossed her face, and I then realized I had forgotten to offer her a bag... I did so, and she replied, "Yes, please. I do want to take it home." Well, yes, I assumed you weren't going to leave your yarn you just bought here... but you DO have a bag in your hand, and I figured you would just put it in there.  When I said, "Oh, I thought you would just toss it in that bag" she told me that "there is other yarn in there and the colors might rub off" Hmm... ok. Wondering what kind of crazy, bleeding yarn is in THAT bag, but fine. Here is your bag for your one skein of yarn.

I am constantly offering bags in the hope that people will turn them down. I realize they can be recycled, but that isn't the best option either. The best thing is to not have them to begin with. I always think of the recycling triangle, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. Recycling is the last step... assuming that you can't get rid of the packaging to being with, and you can't reuse it, THEN you recycle. This past weekend I was digging under my sink for bags to take with me to the craft fair.  I think I found 6. The other bags that were under there were bread bags and other food type bags. I was really happy about that. And, I know that most of them actually came from one of our parents' houses, filled with things for us to take home. I have been trying my best to reduce the amount of STUFF that comes into my house, and that is most easily started with plastic bags. If I can carry it to the register, I can carry it out.

So, when you are going about your day, think about the things you throw away. Think if it is something you could have done without or said no to. OR, find out if there is a recycling facility in your area. I really would like my grandkids to have places to visit that aren't landfills....

No comments: