REPSYCHO?

Several years ago, my daughter visited us, and after looking in our garbage can asked, “Don’t you guys recycle?” The answer at that time was no. This was before Republic Services supplied everyone with those receptacles with baby blue lids. The black lidded ones are for trash.

Never considering myself green, I’d collected aluminum cans many years back strictly for the cash. I wasn’t even doing that at the time Miranda stopped by, not wanting to put up with the sticky soda goo still in them and incessant flies.

“Let somebody else have at it!,” was my exact thoughts.

When we were given those recycling bins things changed. Virtually overnight, I became a recycling freak. My wife claims recycling went to my head in more ways than one. I tried to recycle everything, including empty peanut butter jar. Try washing one of those. Since that time, they all go in the trash.

There’s a label on our Republic Services receptacle that explains what should go inside and what can’t. This is somewhat confusing to me, because that little triangle recycle emblem is on lots more stuff than what’s on their list. I can understand them not wanting Styrofoam packing peanuts, because none of the peanuts ever make it into their truck, let alone back to the recycling facility.

I find these things all the time on trash day in my driveway. Have you ever dropped a few on a garage floor and tried sweeping or picking them up when the door’s open? They’re faster than Jamaican runner, Usain Bolt, especially with a small breeze behind them. The peanuts are also extremely clingy with static electricity and love sticking like glue to clothing.

Joleen thinks I’m crazy by recycling toilet paper and paper towel tubes, but I doubt I’m the only one doing so. Toothpaste and cereal boxes go in that hopper along with baby food jars. Our little Pekingese loves chicken baby food, and after the jars are empty, I wash them out and place the cap back on top.

The aluminum lids are recyclable, but I’m not sure they should be reattached to the glass. It doesn’t tell you what to do on the Republic Services label, so I make this big decision myself.

Newspapers go in that container along with brown packing paper, but not the bubble wrap. I’m not sure why because it’s made of plastic. We have a whole box of the wrap saved for future use, some of it dating back twenty years or more.

There’ve been times when I drove through neighborhoods, spotting garbage hanging out of a recycle container. Some folks evidently don’t read the label—or can’t read. It kind of miffs me because of all the work I go through, along with others, to make sure our recyclables are reusable. Hopefully, when a truck driver rolls by these homes they step on the gas and fly on past.

I keep hearing that recycling might possibly go away, with foreign countries such as China and Taiwan no longer wanting all of our glass and plastic. Should that happen, I may go nuts trying to find something else to occupy my time. Recycling has become somewhat of a hobby. Psycho perhaps? Not quite on that level.

Trying to go back to how things were before Republic Services handed out those bins would be tough. At this point in my life—recycling has become routine, much like tossing everything in the trash was six years ago. For the good of the country, we can only hope that history doesn’t repeat itself!