Story of the Day 3/26/2009

It is important that this story is from Thursday.
Thursday is my recycling day.
Not every Thursday. Usually every third or forth.
It is Thursday, because I can drop my recycling off on my way somewhere without wasting any gasoline.
Okay, I am probably wasting about a ¼ a teaspoon, or maybe a little less. I have to turn into the shopping center, a left, and drive to the area of the parking lot in front of Wal-Mart that has the drop off bins, and then stop my car.
Then I unload, restart my car, and drive back to the traffic light, and go straight to continue on in the direction I was previously headed.

I have special recycling boxes. I can fit 4 of them perfectly into my car and they will not shift and dump any of the recycling.
This is important, because you can’t bag the recycling. The plastic bags will clog the recycling machines. And I rinse my bottles and cans. Rinse, not scrub, so I don’t’ want remnants of Paul Newman’s marinara sauce from last night’s dinner seeping onto my upholstery or onto the carpeting in my trunk.
And these specific boxes are the right size to set on the bin’s ledges and tilt to dump the trash, without going off balance and falling into the bins.
I measured them ,and then I tested them, before removing them from Costco’s lot.

A lot of people don’t’ recycle.
They complain that it is too much work.
I am waiting for Indianapolis to make it mandatory.
I have been waiting for 15 years. Almost 16.
The people here have no idea what a pain recycling can be in a different place.
Like New York.
If the trash folks spot a glass jar in your trash, you can be fined.
Or in Philadelphia, where you have to meticulously remove the paper labels from the jars.
Or in a place that makes you really sort your recycling.

Oh, we sort.
Paper and magazines in one bin. Crushed cardboard in another, and everything else- well, not everything, they are picky about plastics, in the last.
Indy is picky. Only #1 and #2 plastics.
Of course, I get around that.
I have a second place I recycle.
I have to go there for work, twice a week, so I don’t’ have such large containers to use for that.
I have a small plastic jar. I am reusing, not recycling it. I got it when I bought these really yummy pistachio cookies.
The cookies are long gone.
If you don’t‘ count the fact that my pants area little tight.
But the jar lives on, just for this.

At the Art Center, in the break room, they take batteries and all plastic lids.
It doesn’t matter what number.
Of course, I have been trying to get around this- well, that they only take lids.
You see, the cottage cheese container is a 5. So is it’s lid.
They will take the lid, but not the container.
But, what if I cut up the container so it looks like a broken lid or three?
I don’t’ know.
I mean, they accept my toothpaste tube lids, laundry detergent lids, and lids from Pringles cans.
Eventually, though, I may experiment with cutting styles and see if I can get this down to a useful skill.
Eventually.
At the very least, if I carefully severe the bottom of the cottage cheese tub, I think it could pass as a lid. Don’t you?


In Indy, the place that I drop my boxed recycling isn’t picky.
No separating the cans from the plastics, no separating the clear glass from the greens and browns.
The people here have NO idea.

Although, they do require you to separate the paper and the cardboard.
Yes, I know, I said that , already.
Which isn’t really a problem.
We do it for a different reason,.
The school, nearby, does fund raising through recycling the cardboard and paper. So, we drop it there, anyway.

So, every few weeks, I load up my car with Jimmy Dean Sausage.
Well, that is what it says on the sides of my 4 boxes.
And take my recycling off to the bins.

Only, this Thursday, there was a glitch.

I unloaded my first box from the car and carried it over to the large green bin.
And the sign was different.
Different.
In my family, that word is threatening.
Even though, by definition, we are a bit…or a lot…different.
It was different because it said:

“ Plastics #1 & #2,
glass, metal cans, aluminum,
paper and newspapers.”

It is supposed to say:

“ Plastics #1 & #2,
glass, metal cans, aluminum,
“ NO paper or newspapers.”

I set down my Jimmy Dean’s sausage, and peered into the bin.
I am short, so I had to stand on tiptoe- which is how I stand to dump my boxes.
Inside the bin were:
Plastics #1 & #2,
glass, metal cans, aluminum,
paper and newspapers.
I went over to the next sign on the bin.
It said the same thing.
There are 4 signs on that side. I read each of them.
Then I went half way across the parking lot to the other big green bin.
All of the signs on that bin also said:“Plastics #1 & #2,
glass, metal cans, aluminum,
paper and newspapers.”

I wasn’t sure what to do.
It felt…wrong.

After a few minutes of trying to absorb this change, I did , successfully, dump each of my sausages, I mean boxes, into the bin.

And I left.

Now, I am nervous about what the signs will say on my next recycling trip.