Todd and I recently went to Louisiana for a second surgery on his left ear. As always, I was amazed by the amount of trash along the highways and was determined to keep my trash off the side of the road.

For me, environmental restoration cannot meet its goals if it is not combined with a serious effort to recycle. You can plant willows along a stream to control erosion and enhance habitat for birds and fish, but if the stream is littered with plastic wrap and old beer bottles, it’s not going to be an optimum environment for birds, or fish, or anything else that makes use of it.

So everywhere I go, I look for ways to recycle. On the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, those options are limited. Once again I turned to Keep Mandeville Beautiful, which offers both curbside recycling and a couple of containers where people like me can drop off recyclables. There are two of these green containers in Mandeville, and they are emptied three times a week, so a lot of people must like to recycle without paying for curbside service.

Here is my second load of the week. Not all of these things went into the bin in Mandeville; I brought some of them back to Colorado with me. (Yes, I am that kind of recycler—I’ll actually haul recycling in my luggage.)

If you don’t recycle, I beg you to do so. It is THE way to conserve resources, reduce pollution, and even combat global warming.