Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Move countdown: 6 days until we leave D.C.

I'm an organizer and a list-maker. Sometimes it drives Mr. TPG crazy, but I'd like to think there are benefits to my insanity. I have a three-page moving checklist that I've compiled from my previous moving checklist (San Francisco to D.C.), suggested lists online (I like Martha Stewart's list), and tasks specific to our own move (e.g. a permit for our moving container, required by D.C.).

The list includes "Services to Set Up: (1) power/electricity, (2) gas, (3) water/sewer, (4) cable/internet, (5) garbage/recycling."

I've added contact information to our checklist for each of the companies that handle these utilities for our new Carson City home. Except I came across one problem: there is no recycling pick up in our new neighborhood! As soon as I pulled up the information on the web, I yelled incredulously to Mr. TPG in the next room. No recycling pick up?! How can that be possible?!

There has been recycling pick up in every place I've lived except for Tokyo and Lusaka. And I've been recycling as long as I can remember. Growing up in a smallish liberal city with a hippie bent across the Bay from San Francisco (name that city for a gold star!), the mantra of "reduce, reuse, recycle" was taught to us at a young age. I remember sorting cans from glass from paper for collection. Single-sort recycling, which doesn't require that the recyclable items be separated by type, followed not long after and I can barely remember the last time (not counting my overseas homes) where a bright blue recycling bin didn't join the green or brown trash bin on the curbside.

Just another difference between my previous homes and my (very near) future home, I suppose. Protecting the environment even in simple ways like recycling is so important (soapbox, please). I'm reminded of that every time I am out in our beautiful national parks and protected lands. It has been so easy with curbside recycling, I hope that I can keep it up when I have to sort my recyclables and drive them to a collection site!