Recycling Tip: T.P. Rolls are Recyclable!
or: Sometimes it’s good to sweat the small stuff
by VaLerie K
I have noticed a peculiar thing when I’m visiting friends’ houses and I use their bathrooms. I keep seeing the empty toilet paper roll in the trash. And these are environmentally conscious people, who recycle, try to conserve water, seal their windows in the winter… all that good stuff.
I’m guessing it’s a slight case of recycling burn-out, mixed with a subconscious yen for the bathroom to be the last bastion of convenience and comfort. Somehow, when you’re sitting on the can and it’s time to unwrap a new roll and remove the old roll, it just seems like a little bit too much effort to put aside the empty roll to take downstairs to the recycling bin. You recycle everything else, what’s a little squashable roll of thin cardboard matter? I get it. Every now and then, we all get tired of being so diligent. Suddenly, something so easy feels like way too much to bother with.
But think about it. I myself go through almost a roll per week, so let’s round that off to 50 per year. There are about 20 houses on my block, so the whole block probably uses up at least 1,000 rolls a year, probably more because houses with families would use more, and that’s just one block. I don’t know how many households there are in Philadelphia, but you can see where I’m going with this. Try imagining how high the rolls from Pennsylvania alone would go if you placed them end to end – to the moon? to the sun? Ok, ok, I have no idea, but just imagining a pile of 1,000 + rolls at the end of my block is enough of a deterrent for me
So that’s it, that’s my big little tip: put your empty T.P. rolls in the recycling bin, it really does add up.
Or…….
