My Green Obsession

I don't often write about anything I care a great deal about.

But today, I am going to.

If you are here, reading this, then thank you.
It actually means A LOT!!!!

I've always longed to have a voice. To have people listen to me. It probably comes with being the middle child.
Pretty classic.


So I want you to listen to what I have to say.
REALLY listen.

I want you to read it and then think about what it means to you.

This earth we live on, it isn't in the best shape.

We all know this.

We hear about it in the news.

People often tell you how we have to take better care of the earth and stop driving cars etc etc etc.

And you might act like you care.




But then you don't really care that much.






You don't care enough to change anything.







I know how easy it is to live your life and not think about the consequences that our actions are having.






Growing up my mother taught me the importance of recycling. She didn't have to tell me to picture the amount of waste that is piling up in our towns and cities' landfills. I did that on my own.
Purely based on the black rubbish bags we would take to the recycling station in my hometown of Kaitaia, I could gauge how many black bags from my town alone was being dumped in the ground every week.
The thought made me sick.
Then I pictured how many of these black bags were being put in landfills across the country, AND THE WORLD!!!!!
It actually upset me so much that I couldn't even think about it.



In my mind, the only thing that could make a difference was recycling.
Instead of throwing paper, plastic bottles and containers, cardboard boxes, tin cans, newspapers and magazines into those black rubbish bags, you could choose to recycle them.

And recycling them meant that less of those awful black bags would be put into the earth.


So I made it my mission from that day on. I can't even remember how old I was when I became like this.
5? 6? Maybe 8? I don't know. I was young.

And I became obsessed with recycling.



Today I am 23 and I am still obsessed with recycling.
And I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE DON'T RECYCLE!

It makes me so angry and sad and heartbroken.

Every flat I've ever been in I have gotten bent out of shape about my flatmates not recycling.
It just doesn't make sense to me.

I have become accustomed to picking recyclable items out of people's rubbish bins and recycling them.
To this day I do it.
I do it at the cafe where I work.

It's totally normal for me now.

If I feel comfortable enough with you I will give you a speech about the importance of recycling and ask you why you don't do it.

But even that doesn't always work. Or ever work.



I guess my question is:
Why Don't You Care????



Does not recycling make you better than me?

Surely not.


So my next order of business is to implore to you:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CONSIDER RECYCLING.


It's not actually that difficult.

The following things are household products that you would normally throw in your rubbish bin.

• Cardboard food/drink boxes (for cereals, muesli bars, crackers, juices etc. Also toothpaste boxes)
• Paper. This one is self explanatory. Any kind of paper can be recycled. It breaks my heart when people throw years of University notes in the rubbish bin. RECYCLE THEM! PLEEEEEASE!!!!
• Plastic bottles. Including shampoo/conditioner, water and drink bottles
• Tins
• Glass jars

You would normally throw this stuff in the bin. I am asking you, as a fellow human being, not to.
Put it in your recycling bin instead.

Some of these items need to be rinsed before they are recycled. I know it might seem like a lot of effort but it really is worth it. Think about how much good you are doing for the earth.


I stole this from a town in Arizona's recycle plan, but it still counts for us.

If your city/town does not have recycling bins then that is totally unacceptable and you should start a petition to your local council to get them. This is the 21st century and we should all have access to recycling facilities. If you are too lazy to start a petition then let me know and I will try to start one for you.
But you shouldn't be too lazy. YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS.

Here in New Zealand recycling is pretty prevalent so local authorities should take note of this.

My mother told me a little while ago that my hometown of Kaitaia is one of the top recycling towns in all New Zealand. This makes me proud to be from Kaitaia. I don't usually have many good things to say about Kaitaia, but they do care about recycling, and that makes me sooooo happy.



Businesses today are also become more savvy when it comes to recycling...
So Why Aren't You????

Anyway, that's everything I wanted to say.

I will leave you with one more story.

Last year when I moved into my flat on Agnew Street, there was no recycling bin.

Most people would have seen this and shrugged. "Meh, oh well!" and proceeded to throw all their milk bottles, cardboard boxes and plastic containers in their bins.

BUT NOT ME!

I contacted the Dunedin City Council about getting a new recycle bin.

They told me it was up to the Landlord.

So I phoned the Landlord and begged for a recycle bin.

In the meantime, recyclable items were piling up. I kept them in a large cardboard box and would scatter them in the neighbours recycling bins in the dead of night.

I called myself an Eco-Ninja.

Because the Landlord wasn't getting us a new recycling bin right away (we all know what they're like), recyclables kept piling up.

My flatmate told me she'd had enough and she was going to throw it all away.

She put all the recyclables in two black rubbish bags.

I couldn't let this happen! I HAD TO ACT NOW!

So I took these black bags and hid them from her so she couldn't throw them out.

I then asked friends on Facebook whether I could put my recycling in their recycle bin. Luckily my friend Christian from SouthLife responded and I drove those two big black bags of recycling about ten minutes to his mothers house, in order to put it all in her recycle bin.

Yes, I am that intense about recycling.

I have done similarly crazy and over-the-top things to stop recycling from being thrown into landfill.

I am that passionate about it.

So if you are still reading this, which I hope you are, I hope you will take what I have said into consideration.

I hope you will think twice when you go to throw that cardboard carton that your hair-dye came in into the bin.

I hope you will remember this blog and put it in the recycling instead.

Keep this world green. Reduce our landfills. Recycle.

Please share this with your friends and help raise awareness for the importance of recycling <3