Recycle plastic pots

A local green action organization is having a recycle everything you didn't think could be recycled day, and one of the things that can be recycled are plastic pots. The Phactor knew that if he saved them up long enough, in big stacked sets, they'd be good for something, or someone would get around to recycling them. Apparently plastic pots can be recycled into plastic landscape "timber"among other items. How appropriate. And that's good because you would like to think that gardening is a pretty green industry and there's all those plastic pots. A few plant providers have switched to pots composed of organic materials that just decompose, although some seem to take too long. More alternatives are needed. Now to load up the stacks and destroy the evidence of my plant buying problem. It's sort of like hiding those candy bar wrappers in the garbage. Actually it can be slightly embarrassing when recycling all the wine bottles too. It's not that so much wine is consumed, just that our recycling is done so infrequently.

Refill or recycle?

Those of us of a certain age remember when milk was delivered or purchased and the bottles were returned and refilled. So was beer. Long neck bottles always had two burnished lines around the bottle from repeated trips through the bottling machine. Those of us who have been known to brew a bit now and again now covet such bottles for personal use. But then along came waxed board and plastic containers, each used one and only one time. Now if you would believe this, having kept and cleaned green, standard wine bottles for a period of either six months or six years or so, quite an accumulation of bottles has occurred. Indeed, a couple of hundred or so. One purported purpose is to have a local glass artist use them to construct an object d'art for our garden. But now an enterprising business, unfortunately at an inconvenient distance, will refill wine bottles for about half the price of wine in single use bottles. How civilized! How green! Now if only they would pick up the empties and return them filled! Once again, charging forward into the past.