Recycling to some might not seem like Simple Living. It takes longer to separate your garbage; separate plastic from aluminum, etc. Some cities don't even offer free collection of recycled materials - you have to bring it to a recycling center yourself. That definitely makes it harder, not simpler.

I have recently been more aware of the numerical recycling symbols on consumer good that I have in the past just thrown in the trash. I am starting to teach my kids about how and why we recycle. To me, recycling is a great daily reminder to reduce consumption. I am more aware of the groceries that contain excess packaging and try to avoid buying them - which in turn saves money (more packaging = more expensive groceries).

What are your thoughts on recycling and how it relates to simple living?

My DH takes our trash directly to the dump since we are about 10 minutes from the dump (we live in the sticks). They accept comingled items (glass, plastic, cans), cardboard and magazines, paper. I sort everything as we go and label the outside of the bags for him with a magic marker.

I think recycling is imperative to simple living. Using and reusing! Sometimes I feel guilty for the convenience items I use but I try to purchase things that won't take a million years to biodegrade.

I think recycling corresponds not only to simple living on the individual level, but also on a larger scale (leave it to the biology teacher to comment!). When people recycling, they are contributing less waste to the landfills, etc, which in turn reduces the "clutter" on the Earth! It is funny how even though it takes more of my time to wash out the plastic, glass, etc. containers and to bag up all the paper, I actually feel like I am simplifier my life, and at the same time hopefully teaching my kids that recycling is a natural part of using and consuming.

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Pain is temporary, quitting is forever....

I find it fascinating that simplicity, frugality, and recycling or environmentalism tend to go together.

For me they are tied together with a common cause of improving my own life with the added benefit of helping others. I felt good about reducing the clutter in my own life but I felt even better when I could pass along that 'clutter' to someone else who needed it. I felt good about bringing in less waste and packaging but I felt better about it when I could recycle the waste that did come in.

I wanted to save money so I bought less. When I bought less I became aware that I had less waste. When I had less waste I became more aware of the waste I had and I wanted to do something about it.

When I had less stuff, my life became more simple and I found joy it in all. Joy in simplicity, joy in frugality, joy in finding that I could benefit the lives of others and the planet with the choices I was making at no cost to me. When my life was simplified, I had more time to put towards the causes that were important to me and this cause (along with many others) seemed a natural extension of a simple life.

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