Recycle, disposer, garbage..which one?

So Grace is getting a little confused by all this new age crap.  She watches me go through the day throwing various items into the recycle bin, driving electronics to the electronic recycle facility, grind up food in the garbage disposer, toss trash into the garbage and yell at dad Steve because he can't seem to get it right. It's not rocket science!  Oh and old medicines get bagged up and taken the medicine incinerator drop off facility. 

They teach about recycling in school now, although it is rumored that the school does not practice what it teaches and sends everything to the dump.  The older kids can tell you plastics, aluminum, glass and paper go in the recycle but then we change the rules when we have parties and it all goes into the trash.  My rule of thumb is most foods can go into the disposer unless I think it will just gunk up the inside.  The rest is left for the trash.

Today Grace picked a block of cheese out of the fridge and I told it was old and needed to be thrown away. "you mean recycled" she says.  Nope it's food and yucky so we are going to throw it into the garbage.  A bit later she finished her apple and holding the core said "garbage?"  when I told her no she said "but it's food and yucky" so I told her it can go into the sink to be ground up in the disposer.  She gave me such a strange look, shrugged and tossed it into the sink.

I want to add a compost bin to the mix eventually but I can only imagine what might be placed in it by my family members.  I know many cities don't offer a recycling option so I am happy that our family is learning together how make our planet last a while longer even if it does make me look like a crazy woman in my own home.