On a recent weekend, I discovered my local municipality had set up an “Earth Day” recycling program at city hall. You could bring all sorts of stuff to be recycled or junked. This included textiles, electronics, random pieces of metal, and other household items. I learned about this about thirty minutes before the end of the event.
I really wish I had known about this well in advance. I scrambled to find things that I wanted to get rid of. I was able to gather several items of metal that I had been holding onto because I didn’t know what to do with them. One of these items was an old cast iron pan that was just sitting in my kitchen. The outside of the pan was and continued to flake, leaving black bits of cast iron whenever you moved or touched the pan. I also had several metal containers that previously held food, like not cans, but like cookie tins and such.
With minutes to spare, I arrived at the city hall parking lot where the recycling event was being held. I was glad to have these items gone but if I had more time, I would have gathered much more. In particular, I have so many old shoes that have holes in the canvas, leather, or soles. They’re no good for donation. I also have old clothes that are also ripped or contains holes, also not good for donation. I would have definitely sent those off for recycling.
I know I can drive about 40 minutes to offload these textiles on any weekend at a transfer station but my city hall is so much closer. Maybe next year?