I ride the train to and from work every day which means I share my ride with hundreds of people. A lot of these people sit next to me. Some of them smell nice. Others, not so much. And a lot of them read the paper. Which smells nice, sometimes.
Trains are equipped with trash cans as one would expect. And every day I see at least a couple of people throw their newspapers in the trash which means, of course, that those papers won’t be recycled in any way, shape, or form. Sure sure, they’ll decompose over time, but I want my newspaper to be made up of old newspapers, darn it! It mostly makes me wonder why people are willing to throw the paper out and consciously choose not to recycle it. In a lot of cases it is a choice.
Now, if it boils down to convenience I can understand some of that. While my work does recycle soda cans, everything else is usually thrown out. A few months ago I started taking any recyclable stuff back home with me to deposit in the recycling bin. Is it as easy as throwing it out? Of course not. But is it a better action? I hope so.
Overall though, I am curious why someone wouldn’t recycle. (For the record, every single Ping is made of recycled material.)
Posted in Everyday Life
Maria September 4, 2008, 6:50 am
Have you seen the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode on recycling? I don’t necessarily agree with it, but they make some interesting points.
COD September 4, 2008, 12:28 pm
I know some conservatives that think recycling is just another liberal plot to control their lives, so they rebel by refusing to recycle.
I’m not kidding.
A few weeks ago we needed a bunch of newspaper to use as padding in shipping something. Since I take my own garbage and recycling to the dump each week, I just grabbed a tied bundle of newspaper from the paper recycling bin. It was mixed with old mail and magazines. If you are going to take the time to bundle up your recycling couldn’t you at least do it correctly?
Ryan September 4, 2008, 3:48 pm
I get really frustrated when I see people’s trash bags on the curb packed with beer bottles, soda cans, and other obviously recyclable things. It’s complete laziness, especially considering we don’t even need to separate our recycables, just throw them all in a bin!
Then again, I’ve seen people put things in recycling that really shouldn’t be. That’s not quite as irritating, because at least they’re trying…
jk September 4, 2008, 8:45 pm
Yes, laziness. Apathy. Boooo to them!
anna January 18, 2010, 11:49 am
OMG DONT YOU JUST LOVE RECYLING!? I DO!! I LOVE THE WORLD, WE SHOULD SAVE IT !! COME ON GUYS LETS SAVE!! SAVE SAVE SAVE 😀 he he he