We Must Make Recycling A Habit
We are at a point where we must make recycling a habit. It isn’t time-consuming, nor difficult. And it doesn’t cost a penny or a cent (something you can’t say about many things these days). Do you know what it can do, though? It can help save the environment and save you a small fortune in compost! Surely that in itself makes recycling worthwhile?
It would be fair to say that we are having a bit of a rubbish crisis on Zakynthos at the moment. It’s not a new thing, it’s been going on for months, but it is now at a point when something has to be done. As there seems to be no solution on the horizon it has now become more important than ever that we make recycling a habit.
This post isn’t about causing an argument or about placing blame. It’s about keeping our rubbish down to a minimum and learning to recycle. You only have to look at the piles of rubbish to see that much of it could have been recycled.
What Items Are Recyclable?
Basically, anything that is:
- Plastic
- Aluminium
- Glass
- Cardboard
- Paper
- Polystyrene
That would mean:
- Plastic bottles
- Aluminium cans
- Boxes
- Egg cartons
- Cardboard boxes
- Drink container
- Cleaning product bottles
Did You Know?
If you build a compost heap or buy a composting tub you can also recycle:
- Peelings
- Fruit and veg that are past eating
- Windfall
- Grass cuttings
- Soft vegetation clippings
- Teabags
- Eggshells
Homemade compost is full of nutrients that will help your plants and trees thrive and it’s essentially free.
A compost heap doesn’t have to be a fancy or technical creation, it just has to be somewhere handy to throw your stuff for composting. You can look on YouTube for ideas on how to build one. If you are worried about it smelling, it doesn’t. If you haven’t much room or wouldn’t know where to start when building a compost heap, there are composting containers you can buy online
How To Recycle On Zakynthos
Most of the recycling bins around the island have been removed, but that is no reason not to recycle. There are other options available to us.
What are the options?…
You can contact the recycling company on the island and request your own recycling bin that will be emptied every week. I can verify this as they have emptied ours, every week, without fail since before Christmas. I am not sure how long it will take to receive a bin now as I can imagine demand being quite high at the moment. Ours took less than a week to arrive, but that was a while back.
Or…
You could also save your recycling into black bags and once you have enough pop it up to the recycling plant, that is located near to the airport, yourself. If you think that sounds like too much hassle, just take a look around you. Not a pretty sight, and don’t forget the island relies on tourism to survive, would you want to holiday in a place, no matter how beautiful, that was littered with so much rubbish? Didn’t think so.
You may also be interested to read how long it takes recyclable products to break down in the environment.
To minimise the space taken up by your recyclable waste:
- Remove the caps of plastic bottles, rinse, crush and pop the lid back on.
- Rinse out aluminium cans and crush. There is something very therapeutic about stepping on cans. Another plus to crushing cans is that animals can’t get the bead stuck in them.
- Break boxes, so they sit flat.
It’s more important than ever that we all make recycling a habit. The powers that be are failing us badly, but together we can make a difference (I’ve always wanted to put that sentence into a post).
Next time you go to throw something in the bin, stop and ask yourself, is it recyclable?
© 2017 – 2020, Debbie. All rights reserved.
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