Back to the Great NorthWest!

When we decided we were returning to the US, we had a decision to make. Where?
We both lived in the SF Bay Area for quite a number of years, me for almost 10 and Jessica for about 8, before we moved to Singapore. That would have been the natural place to return to. However, the SF Bay Area has a very high cost of living. We needed to go to a place where Jessica could start her own pet service business and we didn't really want to be outside of the West Coast. So, the choices narrowed down to SF Bay Area, Portland or Seattle.
We landed up choosing Seattle. We researched, and were also told by friends that Seattle is even more pet friendly than the Bay Area and we still had the metropolitan area we needed to try to successfully launch Jessica's business... and it was less expensive than the Bay Area.

So, here we are, in Seattle... in the Great Pacific NorthWest!!
For me, it's back to the Great NorthWest, having lived in Eugene for 7-8 years.

Yes, it probably rains more here than in SF. But SF doesn't get very much sun either, being foggy most of the time. The rain is... tolerable.

But, the thing that reminds me most that I am back in the Pacific NorthWest is the people and their attitudes. It was in Eugene that I learnt how to recycle... more than 20 years ago. I learnt to separate my trash. Back then, we needed to separate the different kinds of plastics, separate them from paper, separate them from metal, etc, etc, etc. Eugene was very big on that. I had never experienced that prior to arriving in Eugene. Coming from Singapore, everything went into one huge garbage bin. And so my recycling habits began forming. When I moved to the Bay Area, nothing really dropped off. SF Bay Area being relatively earth friendly had also adopted many recycling habits I was already used to. They may have started later, but by the time I moved there, they were... already there.

When we moved to Singapore in 2008, I realized, as far as being earth friendly and "going green" was concerned, we were taking a few steps back. Recycling was preached but, in my opinion, hardly practiced. When I started a recycle bin in our home for plastics and paper, my mother-in-law thought I was crazy. We have a shared recycle bin with our neighbors, all 80 households... and it is NEVER full. But, that's a different story completely.

So, here we are, back in the Great NorthWest, that taught me how to recycle. The first week we after we moved in, these are the 3 bins I saw on the side of our home.

(from left to right, Yard Waste, Recycle and Trash)

The largest bin, the one that says "Yard Waste" also says "food" on the top. The recycle bin is self explanatory... and so is the trash bin. The sizes did puzzle me though. Why was the "Yard Waste" bin the largest? Was there really that much gardening to take care off?
So, I asked around and found out there was a flyer to help with the separation of your trash.

So, this is the NEW recycling. The "yard waste" bin is the largest bin because it is the Food and Compostables bin. That means, everything that is organic, goes in there. Food, bones, paper towels PLUS the yard waste go in there. Many of these items have previously gone into the disposal or into the trash. If we no longer put them in the trash, then, a larger trash bin is not necessary and a larger "yard waste" bin is... ahhhh, it now all starts to make sense. Honestly, we do not have that much "food and compostables"... maybe in the summer and fall when there is more yard waste, but right now, we don't even fill the 60 gallon bin halfway.

Welcome back to the Great Pacific NorthWest, where a new lesson in recycling or "going green" has just been learnt!!