Recycling.

I am wondering why people still don't recycle. Oh wait, I already know the answer to that. Because it's so inconvenient. In most neighborhoods STILL there are no recycling programs, no truck comes by to pick it up. Well why not I ask you? And who do I need to talk to about this?

At my house we recycle cans, glass, plastic and paper. But we have to do it ourselves. Which means that once every bin is overflowing and we can't park cars in the garage anymore, it's time to take the recycling in. This requires stopping by three different places, in three different parts of town to get everything where it needs to go. This is annoying. But it's well worth the effort in my opinion. And it doesn't actually take that much time, especially if we work it in when we are going by those places anyway.

The interesting thing is that by recycling there is so much less trash, so the number of garbage cans out by our curb is fewer than before. It seems like if everyone recycled, people would be putting out less trash and fewer garbage trucks would need to go around. So the conclusion I come to is that maybe some of those garbage trucks would be able to pick up some recycling every other week. Of course it wouldn't be as easy as that, but come on! It can't be that hard either.

And while I'm at it, why don't fast food restaurants (for a start) recycle either? Wouldn't it just take like three different trash cans? One for paper, one for plastic and one for gross food leftovers? In Taiwan, every business and residence was required to recycle. When we went to McDonalds we separated our trash. It took all of 10 seconds. And our apartment building had one entire room devoted to collecting and separating recycling. Why in Taiwan but not here? In California, some companies get tax incentives for having their employees work from home so they use less gas and so the roads are less congested. Why not in Houston--the traffic is horrific? In England, even the most remote hamlets have recycling trucks come by every other week. Why not in Tomball?

I don't want to sound overly enthusiastic about this, but I do urge each person to live a more responsible life.