Everybody loves breakfast at a diner, so no one is surprised when Mrs. Claus drops in with a basket of candy canes to give away. It's Christmas Eve morning and the place is packed so my friend Debbie and I gladly share a booth with Mrs. Claus and her friend. She has an appointment to greet the passengers when the train arrives at the Kirkwood Station in an hour.
After eggs sunny-side-up with rye bread toast, we and I head down the block to the recycling center. Debbie does more about recycling than anyone I know. Her back seat was loaded with clean food and beverage cups. All these go into the styrofoam recycling container—the first available in St. Louis County. The next recycling bin accepts strings of Christmas lights.
Kirkwood's recycling center is named after local leader and photographer Francis Scheidegger, an early proponent of lightening the load of trash on the planet. For half a century, Scheidegger's studio was just up the stairs from our breakfast stop.
Other posts about Kirkwood, Missouri:
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| Whooo's Awake? Me Too! |
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| When Animals Attack--Plastic |
oh, that is sweet! what a neat lady!
ReplyDeleteI hope your holidays are sweet too!
ReplyDeleteHey, folks out here in Portland, Oregon are VERY proud of their environmental record--but I don't believe there's a city-sanctioned way to recycle tree lights! Very impressive, Kirkwood--Portland needs to learn a thing or two from you.
ReplyDeleteDear Anne, I wish you a very happy new year and best wishes for you and your family in 2012!!
ReplyDeleteJürgen
Anne -- I missed this post when it was fresh, but I'm super-excited to hear that Kirkwood recycles styrofoam now! I contacted them a few years ago asking about this, and they said there wasn't a market for it. Glad to see that's changed. :-)
ReplyDeleteOkay, I just clicked the link, and it seems that they stopped the styrofoam collection on Dec. 30th. Booooo! There is at least one company in the St. Louis area that accepts styrofoam though... maybe I should contact them and see if they're interested in working with Kirkwood.
Thanks for the post mate you have written it very well.
ReplyDelete