Unrecycling

Today one of the four-year-olds at the Training Station walked in and greeted me with, “Happy Earth Day!”

To use Earth Day as a teaching opportunity, one of the teachers had me and another teacher go out on the playground and throw trash all over the place. Well, “trash” meaning plastics, paper products, and aluminum stuff. Then she was taking her class outside to pick it all up and sort it out into bins. Pretty creative teaching idea.

I felt like such a litterbug. I’m something of a recycling fascist in my home. “Carolyn, what are you doing with that half-used napkin?!? Don’t throw it away–it’s recycling! Don’t you care about the environment? Think about our child’s future!”

So it felt quite unnatural to unrecycle. Especially since a couple parents in the parking lot had to have seen me throwing trash all over the playground. I have to admit, however, that there was something defiantly satisfying about it.