I'm not going to get up with both feet... merely one, but I will get on my soapbox just the same. Picture if you will a Captain Morgan's pose.
Okay, so I get the recycling thing, I think that it is a good thing given that we are a nation of excess... especially with the biggest and most used material of all.
Plastic.
Look around you right now and I bet you either are wearing something plastic or has plastic in it, are sitting on something plastic or has plastic in it, have used something plastic this morning, bought something plastic within the past week. Heck, the computer I'm typing this out on is mostly plastic.
Paper (for the most part) is paper and glass is glass... no real problems recycling those two items... but plastic?!? Ahhh, plastic, the wonder material. We can make it into anything, melt it, mold it, make it into fibers, I mean it IS everywhere. The problem other than the needless and wasteful use of it... think any small electronic device made in China that is hermetically sealed in an all but indestructible package that (almost) requires the use of power tools to get open... is recycling it. There are so many different types that they have to categorize them, and some of them aren't recyclable. Then why make them for consumer end use then????
So the point of this little rant (big rant, small point) is our hose cart/bin. It gave its all, but gave up the ghost after several years of service. Now it is not a wall mount rack, it is a full blown box made to not look like a dispenser and collector of hose... it's more akin to a small cubed under the bar refrigerator. Last week I had one of the boys drag it out to the alley for pick up... me (foolishly) thinking that it's plastic, it's recyclable. Garbage day last comes and goes and wondering why it's still sitting there in the alley. Hmm???
Okay then, I will put it on top of the recycling bins for them to take... I mean it IS plastic and plastic IS recyclable... right? I can hear a truck coming down the alley and as I peer out my kitchen window, I can see that the regular garbage man has come as I see my neighbor's cans upside down. Okay, either it's the tree garbage, or it's recycling. Watching to see what gets collected I see it's recycling. I shuffle my way out to the garage and open the overhead door as he's stopping to get our recycling... and I'd like to say that our house overwhelmingly has the most recycling of any of our neighbors. That's largely in part from Julie.
Anyhow....
So I asked the guy if he'll take it. With no one taking it last week (I didn't realize that it was marked with the "black death' symbol) I wanted it out of here. He tells me it's garbage. I argue that it's plastic... and it is entirely plastic... why isn't it recycling? "we just take the bottles... this is a different thickness and it won't melt at the same rate as the bottles." I said that "The garbage guys didn't take it." He replies, "Did you put it in the can?" Well there's a problem with that question. See, some time ago, the garbage guys (and no offense to the garbage man... without them, we'd all be screwed) decided that there needs to be a limitation placed on what size can we are allowed to use. Said can size wouldn't allow me to place the hose cart/bin in it.
When did the art of waste removal require a thought process more than see garbage, pick up garbage and throw garbage in truck?
I almost got that second foot up there didn't I? I guess I'm more confused than I thought.
Oh... it's still in the alley.
KEIYH
