More here.

Having been trained by the Spouse, who talks to students for hours every day, to brush after every meal (even, or shall we say, especially at work, and don’t even get me started on the weird stares you get from #2-goers while you’re doing something healthy and hygenic), and be aware of your “freshness” when close-talking with your fellow man, I must sing the praises of the new Colgate 360 toothbrush, which has this sexy new gizmo on the back of the brush that actually scrapes the yucky gunk off your gums, cheeks and tongue while you’re doing your standard toothbrushing, leaving you “kissable” fresh (providing, of cours, you have a willing partner with their own Colgate 360).  All hail dental technology!

For the past few months I’ve been getting more interested in recycling. I had two plastic recycling bins I picked up at Ikea, and I picked up a  third.  One is for paper, one is for metal and plastic, and the third is for colored glass like wine bottles that our neighborhood doesn’t handle.  It takes about 5 minutes a day to throw the stuff in the bins, and the hardest part is trying to break down the various cardboard boxes used for everything from pop cans to Buzz Lightyear toys.  Then on trash day it takes another 10-15 minutes to put the paper stuff together (usually in paper bags) and toss the rest in the town-provided recycling bin.  Then every few weeks we drive past the local recycling center to toss out the colored glass, which is fun for the kids. 

What have I noticed doing this?  Well,  you’d be amazed at the amount of stuff in daily life that is just packaging.  The number of trash cans with actual “trash” (leftover chicken, twist ties, whatever) I put out has gone from three or more down to one.  Out of curiosity, we recently started a compost bin as well, containing vegetable and fruit scraps, eggs, coffee grounds, etc. , which we’ll use on the garden.

Ocassionally I hear anti-recycling rhetoric from people who say you’re just wasting your time, you’re not doing any good, you’re part of a group-think on the environment, etc.  I don’t agree with this, and honestly, if you are lucky enough like so many of us to live in a municipality that supports  this kind of thing, why not take a few minutes out of your day to do something helpful?

I will also say that recycling has given me some serious thought about the point of buying stuff in the first place.  Especially if you have kids and as they get older, you just watch all this “valuable” stuff of one year ago or less just end up in the trash.  So why not skip the middleman and just  try and control your spending on stuff no one really needs anyway?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go harvest my hemp.

Further reading:  Recycling myths.  White People Stuff.

Read about this in the new GIANT ROBOT. Tool cool!