Recycling Plastic Containers in Your Own Way

I live in a very small town. There is no recycling in our town. At one point, they had a few dumpsters for paper recycling but they found that the gas they used cost more than they made in recycling income. 

We did have a metal recycling in town for many years until the owner had a stroke. He was such a good man and helped me in so many ways allowing me to collect metals in a dumpster and giving the income to the local drill team which my kids were in at the time. Here is a link about that back then. 

We have never had any recycling of plastics that I know of in our town. Everything ends up in a landfill. So, I started looking for places where I could recycle my plastics. I have a container for batteries to recycle, one for metals to recycle, and a larger bag for plastics that can be used for other things. 

I keep some of the better recycling plastics for the kids when they come home so they can take food home. For example, Princess One and her family were here this week and I made chicken enchiladas for them. I am gluten free and can't eat it, so I had half a casserole pan left over, so I put it in one of those plastic containers and sent it home with them sandwiched between two pounds of very frozen beef so they could take it home to eat it. 

I also have done many funeral meals volunteering at our church building and they are always looking for containers to send food home with the family. There are usually three or four different congregations meeting at each of our church buildings, so the containers go quickly. I save any plastic bottles, yogurt, ice cream, or take out containers that have good fitting lids. 

I have used the plastic containers to send home soups from the church, or gravy from the Christmas meals. This year, I used one of the containers I donated during covid to take home mashed potatoes from our Christmas dinner. I was glad there were still some containers there. We used many of the containers I took during that time and the supply was low. 

Since I live alone and have some fatty liver issues, I don't eat yogurt and my daughters that went through the large containers no longer live with me, my donations have slowed, but I do get some plastic jars in daily living from spaghetti sauces etc sometimes. I used to be able to fill a small garbage sack in a few months, but now I donate a bag a year or so now. 

Another place I have donated is the food bank. Sometimes, they get donations in large containers and can't distribute that larger amount to people, so being able to put it in smaller containers and sticking a label on it can be helpful to distribute the food. 

Another place that may be able to use them is the local seniors center. Our local senior center makes lunches several times a week and can use the containers for left overs. They are also the place that makes meals on wheel, but they have bought containers for that. 

That same senior center and a local youth center are both rented out for weddings, family reunions, and other activities. We have had our last few missionary farewell and homecomings there. It would have been very handy to have extra containers there for family to take home some of the leftovers we had at those events. 

I never throw out any containers as any and all of those places can use them for left overs. Of course, it does take some effort to drop them off every so often, but in the end, I can't tell you how many times I have used them to take food to families in need. When we have lots of left overs it is nice to be able to make sure it gets to those who can use them the most. 

I thought maybe people would think this is a lame post, but I figure if it can keep the plastics out of the earth and help others at the same time, it is worth posting about. 

Have a blessed day!