Recycle

 What do you do with articles of clothing that are thread bare and the tennis shoes that have no more miles left to them? Answer:  You put them in the trash! WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!   That, my friends, is what we have been doing for YEARS. It literally is ingrained in our society.  Done with it? Throw it away. We are not the first nor the last society to “throw” things away.  Our monster is that what we throw away does not decompose.  It is with us forever.   

I hear you loud and clear:  “So what am I supposed to do, Miss KNOW IT ALL?!?!!?”  (I deserve the "tude" from that statement, AND I wish you could sit with me now at my window in the office.  There are two lovely blue jays gracing my view!)  Investigative reporter Jones is on the beat.   

My investigation of what to do with items that are no longer wearable came about when my tennis shoes lost their zip.  They were falling apart, there was no longer any support, and they had lost their grip. Yet, as I stood in front of the trash can with the lid open and the tennis shoes looming above, I couldn’t put them in the trash knowing they were going to the land fill.  I just couldn’t do it.  I needed to take some responsibility, so, on-line I went in search of an alternative.

When I typed “recycle clothes Omaha, NE,” I hit the jackpot with The Clothes Bin-Omaha. Here we go! You can keep unwearable clothes, shoes, and textiles out of the local landfills.  The closest green bin   to Holy Cross Lutheran Church is right on 90th street at the Anytime Laundry, 3333 N. 90th Street.  Let me simplify this.  It’s right by the Arby Restaurant. (Food is always an attention getter for me.)     How do you do it?  You place your unusable items in a bag, drive to the green bin, and then deposit your donation.  The Clothes Bin then sorts and redirects the items so they can be transformed and repurposed rather than thrown in the landfill. 

I am proud of the recycling system that is in place at Holy Cross Lutheran Church which keeps  paper, cardboard, glass, and food/yard waste out of the landfill.  We have been given the extraordinarily important task of taking care of each other, our communities, and the earth.  It’s just an idea, but wouldn’t it be nice if we gave the landfill a break?   

Happy Recycling!
Becky Jones she/her
Worship & Music Coordinator