Going Green-- Saving the Planet One Tree At A Time

This should be amusing for a lot of you, just a heads up.

John (for all of you newcomers, that's my fiance) and his roommate have been saving paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum for a little over a month, just to recycle it.
There is a local recycling company that will pay you for bringing your recycled goods. John was getting super excited, his main purpose for all of this was money.
He asked me, as a journalist, what is it that makes a story.
First, I told him he needs questions that he not only asks himself, but his viewers. His question was "Is recycling worth it?" I informed him that it is a good question but it needs to be more specific because for his viewers, how are they supposed to know what he means? Does he mean is it worth it when it comes to money or is it worth it in the sense that it is beneficial for the environment?

Well, we all have common sense (for the most part). We know that plastic bottles do not decompose so obviously it's helpful to recycle it. Anyways, that's a different story. Back to my point.
We took an adventure out to Try2Recycle today. John took all of his recyclables to his place and on our adventure, we took a video. He called and found out that he had to sort all of it otherwise they wouldn't accept it.
John had over 11 pounds of recycled goods. Because places like this are a HUGE deal in places like California, I was guessing he was going to get a decent amount. I was guessing $5 maybe, he was aiming more towards $10. He walked up to a lady at the front of the company, turned in his weight-in and guess what he got?
An amazing 63 cents.

Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BvbXYa9fh8

For Fun, Try It :)

Ok, being that my fiance, my mom, my roommate, my grandparents, and basically everyone around me can cook, I'm determined to be awesome at it. I've been watching Iron Chef, Bobby Flay, things like that but they go too fast for me. I decided to go my own way. I absolutely LOVE Macaroni and Cheese so playing with that seemed like a good start. After it was done, I got the approval from John (that means it was awesome)
Check it out :)

First, set your stove to 350

Boil your water and cook the noodles, easy right?

(You're basically done with that, just set them aside when they're finished cooking)

Cheese-

Get a pot, put about a spoon full of butter, chopped up garlic and about 3/4 cup of milk (you may add a little more but the point is to have it creamy, not watery)

Wait until the butter is completely melted, then pour the packet of cheese from the mac and cheese box in.

Add salt, pepper, oregano, basil and parsely.

Then add about 1/2 of alfredo sauce

Hashbrowns-

Fry the hash browns in a skillet (this was slightly difficult for me)

Once all three are finished, pour the noodles, then the cheese sauce, then the hashbrowns into a glass baking dish.

Put in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, you'll see the hashbrowns will be super crispy.

Then, take it out of the oven and take about 1/3 of a white sharp cheddar cheese thing and shred it. Dump it over the dish and get a little shredded cheese from a bag and pour some over the top. Stir and add some bread crumbs
DE-LIC-IOUS!