It's not easy being green

Back in the day, we saved our cans and newspapers and took them to the official recycling center. That place was never close to home and piles of recyclables would stack up, waiting and dripping and decomposing until there was "enough" to justify the drive. Recycling was a dirty but noble business.

Nowadays the collectors come to your door and take the recyclables away with your trash, but rather than being a community oriented, let's-all-pitch-in-and-do-the-right-thing activity, it has become an obligation filled with pious righteousness. Neighbors look at each other's bins and measure them against their own "yep, we're greener." Judgements are made about whether one reads newspapers or magazines and how much we're drinking and of what quality. Wine labels are quickly scrutinized through the slitted eyes of the dog walkers. Our lives, or at least the things we consume, are quite literally there for the evaluating, the night before trash day.

Being a private person I'm not a huge fan of this, but being a lazy person there is no way I'm going to give up the convenience of curbside pickup. I make this privacy trade off because at the end of the day I'm more lazy than I am caring of my neighbors' opinions. I collect our recyclables every day, sort like items into bins or bags and prepare them for the bi-monthly pickup. Wait a minute, did I say "bags?" Can one use bags for recycling? Why, that would be an ever so convenient solution for the weeks when we have been reading or shopping or drinking more than usual and cannot fit everything into our color-coded bins. It seems obvious to me, paper is recyclable, and putting paper inside of paper can't be a bad thing, can it?

Ha.

Yesterday, our trash/recycling day, I came home to find that while my neighbors recyclables had all been taken away, mine were left to languish, rejected and embarrassed, on the sidewalk. Rejected by the recycling demigods. They left our not properly sorted or stored or something recyclables on the curb as a warning to others: do it right, right being whatever we decide it is, or we won't take it away. (P.s. we won't tell you why.) Which prompted me to write this on my Facebook status: 

Dear Redwood City Recycling Czars: I sorted everything so nicely for you this morning. And yet you left it all sitting on the curb because it wasn't in your precious plastic bins. Here's the thing, when I'm recycling paper bags, I think it's ok to put them in paper bags. Is that so crazy?

Recycling bureaucrats, you are ridiculous. Perhaps you will like it better when you find my recycling in the garbage.

That's right, I picked up everything and put it straight into the garbage bin, seething. Two weeks of sorting for nothing but contempt from the trash police. Here's the thing: I know they sort all of the garbage at the plant. And I know they charge me for that service. So when I sort my garbage to keep the recyclables separate, I'm really just saving them money and time. I think this should be appreciated. Not with a discount, or even a thank you, but with a simple gesture: take it away from my house twice a month. And hold the attitude. 

Way to take the shine off a good deed, kiddies.

Speaking of trash police, did you know that San Francisco is literally creating such a force? I pay attention to this kind of stuff because it's only a matter of time 'till it rolls down the hills of San Francisco and into the suburbs where I live. The SF garbage collectors are  going to be allowed (in 2011) to write tickets to those people who do not separate their food waste into a special composting bin. The idea is to eliminate landfill (a very worthy goal), but there is also a nice, multi-tier revenue opportunity for the city: those who don't compost can be fined (up to $500) for not participating and those who do will have their compost sold to local farmers (up to $500 a truckload).

Have you ever worked at a company that composts? I have, and while it is certainly great for the outside environment, it is hell on the inside environment. Oh the smell. Oh the flies. It will take more than a bin to manage all of that.

Comments

[snoringKatZ]

Here it's the "yard waste" scam where anything you cut, mow or trim will be picked up (for an extra fee if you have more than a small box full - and they won't take the box) and then ground up and sold right back to you if you want compost.But since this is Texas, all recyclables go in the blue bin and all your trash goes in the green bin. No sorting. Apparently we have 'people' to do that.I suspect all my carefully rinsed and sometimes run through the dishwasher cans and jars really just end up in a different landfill that isn't the one here. That makes it ok, it seems.

[Austin1234]

[this is good] Making money from nothing, gettin' my kicks for free!

[lauowolf]

Our problem is the recycling truck doesn't see out stuff.Unless we put it on the far side of the driveway, over on the crazy neighbor's side.But we rarely put ours out anyway, since our neighborhood is constantly patrolled by recycling rustlers.If they'd just be tidy about it, maybe it wouldn't bother me, but they sift through to pick out the higher profit stuff, and leave the rest dumped on the curb.So we drive it over to a recycle center two towns over.

[country_cinderella]

that is kind of odd that you can not put bags in a bag

[Candy Sparks]

when i lived in texas i had put my recycling out that day and then it sprinkled getting the paper products wet... would you believe that they wouldn't pick it up and left everything in the bin i was pissed because i couldn't control they rain and they knew it rained... so they to me had no excuse... blah... trash police do you think it will hit L.A.? damn because then it'll trickle to where i'm located...

candy

[Kapolnek Family]

Wow, the Bay Area still makes you sort?

[Patty]

Here where I live in the Bay area we just sort paper from the rest of it. Plastic, aluminum and glass can all go in the same thing. So far so good.