Rant: How I used to just throw everything in the trash without thinking

I remember 10 years ago, I'd toss a plastic water bottle in the garbage without a second thought. Now I have a whole system with 4 bins in my kitchen for recycling, compost, and trash. It started back in 2017 when my city switched to a single-stream recycling program, and I saw how much stuff actually got sorted. I used to think it didn't matter, but last month I weighed my landfill waste and it was only 3 pounds for the whole week. My neighbor Carol actually called me out for putting a greasy pizza box in the paper bin, and that got me to learn the rules better. Has anyone else had to totally change their habits because of local recycling rules changing? I'm curious if other cities are as strict about what goes where.

3 comments

3 Comments

veram991mo ago

How did you get your neighbor Carol to actually back off instead of just getting annoyed? I've found that old habits die hard with some people, especially when they've been doing it one way for decades. Was there a specific moment where you realized she had a point?

alicesingh1mo ago

Got into it one day when Carol was out watering her petunias and I was trying to figure out why my tomatoes kept dying. She just casually said, "Maybe those cheap pots are poisoning them," and walked off. @veram99 that moment stung because I'd been ignoring her for months, turns out she was right about the drainage holes being too small. Not a huge fight or anything, just her being blunt and me finally listening for once.

lucaslee18d ago

That Carol sounds like a real piece of work (but in a good way, I mean). My neighbor Frank is exactly the same way - he'll literally pull things out of my recycling bin and hold them up like evidence at a crime scene. I had this whole dramatic moment with him over a yogurt container that still had the lid on, and he just shook his head and said "you're better than this, man." It stung so bad because I actually prided myself on being the eco-friendly guy on the block. Now I have a whole cheat sheet taped to my cabinet with pictures of what can and can't go in each bin, and I still mess up sometimes. Honestly, having someone call you out publicly (even if it feels embarrassing) is the only way some of us learn the real rules instead of just guessing.

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