Recycling is not that hard (9/14/2022)

We lived in an apartment complex that had two big bins for the collection of recyclable materials. Now I believe we should keep stuff out of landfills as much as possible and be careful with our precious natural resources. So I made sure our aluminum cans, paper and plastic containers were properly disposed of.

And every time I made a trip to the dumpster I was amazed, and disgusted, to see that many people just didn’t care. Recyclables were carelessly thrown in the dumpster, while the dedicated bins were sitting right next to it.  And at the same time garbage bags wound up in the recycle bins.

And of course there are always some litterers who just throw their beer cans and McDonald’s containers on the ground, but I’ll write about that some other time.
Just before we moved out, the recycle bins were removed, due to the fact that hardly anyone used them.

The same thing happened in the mobile home park were we lived for a few years. Two barrels, one for aluminum cans, the other for clear plastic bottles were clearly marked and positioned right next to dumpsters.

And still most residents couldn’t care less and ignored the request to separate them from the other trash. It surely was no trouble at all, but for some people even that was to much to ask for.

I reminds me of something that I saw at a car show, in the early 1980’s. A man was eating a hot dog and decided he didn’t want the second half of it. And despite the fact that he was less than three away from a big trash can, he just dumped it on the floor and walked away.