Recycle Rub Off

As some of you may know, we have international students who live with us - two of them. They come and go about every six months, and so far, all of them have been from Asia. We learned with our first student that recycling is not even a bleep on their radar when they arrive in our home. Among teaching them English, western manners (and mannerisms), and that our kids aren’t, in fact, our bosses, we teach them the beauty of recycling.


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For the students that have been in our home, they have absolutely no concept of recycling. When they are unpacking their bags, they bring up plastic bags of bottles and paper from their trip, and they ask where they can throw the trash. Our kids love to intercept the recycle-to-the-garbage process and to tell them about recycling. It is so gratifying to see the students putting the trash into the trash and the recycle into the recycle bin all on their own. It’s even more gratifying to see them pull something out of the trash and say, usually in very broken English, “This belongs in the recycle bin!”

We’d like to hear about your recycle rub-offs.