Thoughts on Trash

When I got to work today I found an article on my desk with a note attached to it saying, “Thinking of you when I read this.” The article was about a man who used to import plastic containers but has switched to producing biodegradable products. (My reputation for being a recycling Nazi stretches far and wide.) According to the article, “Americans discard abut 14.4 million tons of plastic – 8 percent of total waste.” I would venture to guess that Bakersfieldians toss out more than that.

I don’t understand why the city doesn’t just give everybody blue recycle bins. They did it with the green bins and everyone started using them, no problem. That met the state requirement of recycling 50 percent of waste or else face being fined. I’m sure that if we just made it easier more people would be willing to recycle.

A couple of years ago I bought my parents a blue bin for Christmas. After a few months they said they were amazed at how much recycling they had and how little garbage. They told me that they needed the blue bin to be collected every week instead of the brown one. They got so excited about it, they even started composting.

I can’t help but wonder if the litter problem wouldn’t improve if we had an established recycling program. Maybe people would stop looking at it as trash.