The Power of One

Originally published Jan 18/17 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

It happened again last week. Someone left a bunch of wood in the Recycling Centre’s dumpsters. The garbage truck will not take it so one of our staff spent over half an hour in the cold removing it.

This is the second time we have had to remove wood from the dumpster and take it to the landfill.

I suspect only one person is responsible for this.

It is the same when we are going through the bags dropped off at the Recycling Centre.  Many have very little or no garbage, but the bag we remember is the one that has diapers, food or as much garbage as  recyclables.

It is easy to be frustrated with the variety of non-recyclable items including building materials, appliances, furniture that we find on the dock.

This is the negative power of the actions of one or a few people.

I remind myself and my staff that the non-recyclable items we have to deal with make up a very small percentage of everything dropped off at the Centre. 

I am reminded of the positive power of one.

There is the power of one person in a home or business who decides to recycle and works to make it happen.

There is the power of one person encouraging their friends or family members to recycle.
There is the power of the individual leaders in the community who decided to make recycling happen in our community many years ago and those who continue to support it.

There is the power of individuals who volunteer their time as Board members. 

All these individual positives add up to a successful recycling program in our community.