By Suzanne Reisler Litwin
Bins “R” Us! Some are blue. Some are green. Some are bright yellow. Some are brown. Some are gigantic sized too! Bins are everywhere! Most of them are cumbersome and space monsters. Yet they seem to be needed.
In the community where I live, we have 3 main types of bins. The blue bin is for recycling items such as paper and plastics. We have a light brown bin for composting organic materials and we have a brown bin for actual garbage.
My question is…What will be our next community bin?
I asked many people what they thought the next bin might be.
My Master Electrician friend Eric Dolman told me we should have a bin for all electronic materials and batteries. He suggested one bin per house hold as electronics are so readily available and replaceable. Items such as earphones, remote controls, batteries, old cellphones, wiring, and extra cables should go into this bin.
He stated that the electronic materials in this bin could be very useful for someone else. A once a month collection of this bin is suggested. – Thanks Eric!
Charity collection bins are also popping everywhere. You can place second clothing and house hold items into these bins. These bins are huge and industrial size. You wouldn’t want this type of bin at your home. These bins are usually located near a Shopping Centre or store.
Another friend, Cheryl, suggested a bio-hazard bin. Bio-hazard materials such as diapers, baby wipes, feminine personal products, and male personal products, were suggested to go into this bin. These products would be collected and properly destroyed so as not to add toxins into the soil and water supply. I’m not an engineer or science expert so I don’t know how this idea would work out, but it seemed like a useful idea which was the springboard idea for my bin suggestion.
How’s about a bio-hazard friendship bin? This bin would be specifically useful for the toxic people in your life. This would be a great place to put all those toxic people who cause bio-hazard unfriendly waste! By the way, this bin is designed to carry toxic family members too! I suggest a monthly collection for this bin. Perhaps a weekly collection around the holiday season!
Of course this is only an “idea” bin, not an actual physical bin…although…
In life, there is always a “tit” for a “tat” or a good for an evil to make up a balance. The last bin idea I described is definitely a tit. Now, here comes the tat bin. To balance out the Bio-Hazard Friendship bin, I would like to suggest the Spoonful of Sugar bin. This bin is where good ideas and happiness is collected. For example, I just read a wonderful poem the other day which made me happy. It was insightful and relevant. I would like to share this with everyone, especially people who are feeling low or depressed. If there was a Spoonful of Sugar bin, I would place it there and hope it would be shared. Everyone would be encouraged to add some kind of “Goodness” into this bin. It might actually function like a library of happiness.
Anything good should go into this bin. How’s about a thought, books, art, poetry, or collectibles? Anything that brought you happiness which can be shared. How great would it be to just open a bin and find something that might make you really happy? Perhaps this is a form of recycling happiness?
What do you think the next bin will be in your community? What do you think should be collected which is currently useful waste? Hopefully something that will benefit the world, humankind, and the environment.
Something to thank about!
Suzanne Reisler Litwin an instructor at Concordia University in The Centre for Continuing Education. Suzanne is a freelance contributor to The Suburban newspaper. She is the author of the children’s book, The Black Velvet Jacket. She lives in Montreal, Canada with her 3 children, Allyn, Taylor, and Duke and her husband Laurie. Suzanne contributes regularly to West Island Blog under her column “Keeping it Real”. Please visit her website www.suzannereislerlitwin.com
to read more of her published articles, books, and poetry.