Seattle Weekly recently contacted me to write a small bit about what being green means to me. After thinking for a while a great memory came to mind-

It is late in the 1970’s and my dad and I are driving home from soccer practice in Annandale, Virginia. I was just a kid hoping he would take me to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream…but no. We were headed for Deaver’s Appliance.

My dad loved driving behind that place hoping to find treasure. His bounty was a GE dishwasher with a good motor or a timer that still worked. The dishwasher in our kitchen should have been dumped ten years earlier, but he had this desire to keep it going. We had dishes that were half clean and a dishwasher that would quit halfway through its cycle, but dad always stayed optimistic, saying, “We can fix it…we’ll run behind Deaver’s on the way home from soccer Saturday.” My ice cream hopes crushed once again.

When I think about being green, those days with my dad come to mind. At Recycled Cycles we often see people just like him bringing in bikes they love and aren’t ready to part with. It may be a bike they bought with their own money in college or a bike on which they did their first STP. These items are special and most of the time they do not need to go to salvage. With a little TLC and some fresh tape and rubber these bikes can be enjoyed for many more years.

When you consider things from a greener point of view weigh your options for fixing things. We are a disposable society ready to dump our old dishwashers and bicycles at the first sign of trouble. The next time an item is ready to be dumped consider all your options: fix it; replace it with used; or replace it with new. And remember that little red headed kid who wanted ice cream but only got a trip to the back of the appliance store.