Anger: For A Greener Earth
My collection of orange juice boxes is gone. They've gone back into the earth whence they came, via one of my favourite things: recycling.
My workplace does not recycle, in spite of hundreds of blue boxes all over the building. Watching the cleaning staff dump all our recyclables into the garbage along with chicken bones and left-over pasta makes me explode with anger - anger and sadness for our planet, and everyone's wasted efforts.
A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away), I decided to bring home all my recyclables. Each day I drink two boxes of orange juice and stack them neatly behind my phone at my desk. There they sit for weeks and months, until I remember to bring them home.
Annoying fruit flies live, work and play in my juice boxes. Mice try to drink from the straws, but the cockroaches scare them away. It's a unique environment. And I recycle that environment so that I can help save ours.
My co-workers always ask me why I am saving my juice boxes. When I inform them I'm using them to build Voltron, Defender of the Universe, the questions stop.
Back in the 70s and 80s the message was "Please don't litter." Now, the message should be "please don't throw anything away - recycle instead." It makes me angry to see so many people throw things in the garbage, when there's a recycling bin 1 inch away.
Once Voltron is complete, he'll be programmed to violate anyone who doesn't recycle. Better hope he doesn't come for you.
posted by Martini at
11:40 AM
9 Comments:
You got rid of them? If those are gone, then why does your workstation still smell like sour juice?
2:23:00 PM
I sympathize. Worked in an office that didn't recycle (thought shredding WAS a form of recycling), so I brought home bags of paper, bottles and the like daily in an effort to single handedly save the planet. However, I didn't have time to rinse the metal and glass recyclables, and my family was not impressed with the nest of bees that accompanied my saving effort.
As a note - there also cheap and efficient ways to get people and places to compost (with minimal effort). I got Victoria U. at the University of Toronto to start composting. Farmers from rural Ontario would trek in monthly to pick up the waste as fertilizer. It turned out rather well! Unfortunately, this probably does not factor into a corporation's budget (damned CBA!!!).
3:39:00 PM
I saw you peeing all over my workstation. It's on video tape. Don't try to deny it.
3:40:00 PM
Ham, I hear ya. My recycling bins are often overflowing with stinky bottles and cans at the end of the week, while my garbage can contains one tiny bag of refuse. I recycle the hell out of everything.
I feel like a hypocrite when I see what goes on at work.
5:30:00 PM
canada is so much better at recycling than the U.S.!!!
7:05:00 PM
No plastic recycling? Wow. We can recycle nearly any form of plastic including any plastic bags and even styrofoam. But you know - it's entirely pointless when nobody does it. Even my parents still throw paper and cardboard into the garbage.
11:06:00 AM
It's annoying at work.. each kitchen area has 2 cans for garbage and 2 for recycling... fairly well labelled I might add. But do people follow this plan? Doesn't seem like it.. the garbage is just spread amongst the 4 cans. :(
12:43:00 PM
Over-zealous people trying to recycle a half-eaten hamburger or fish carcass???
3:37:00 PM
umm, how do you know canadians are better at recycling than americans? what resource do you have to back that up?
we have recycling for all of it here, and we all must continue to do so.
10:26:00 AM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home