Some Marriages Could Probably Use Recycling

Dear George,

Here is a recent conversation that Katja and I had when we were leaving for Frisch’s for breakfast and I was putting paper and plastic into our recycling bin. 

(D puts pizza box into the regular garbage can instead of the recycling bin)

K:  You should put that in the recycling.

D:  No, it’s got food on it.  It can’t go into the recycling.

K:  It doesn’t matter.

D:  It does matter.  No food in the recycling.  

K:  That’s not true.

D:  It is true.  (Pointing to lid). It says so right here on the recycling container. 

(pause)

D (getting into the car):  One of my pet peeves is people who don’t follow the rules about recycling.  (long pause). I’m just going to go over the rules.  Paper and plastic go into recycling.  But not if there’s food on them.  No food on paper plates or on plastic containers.  And no caps from plastic bottles.  Or from glass bottles.  And no plastic newspaper bags.  Or styrofoam.  Or other stuff that should go in the garbage.  Like broken appliances. 

K: (silent, no response)

D:  Another problem is when you mix together garbage and recycling.  There’s newspapers and banana peels, all mixed together.  Then I have to sort it out.  And newspapers in the trashmasher.  We could recycle about ten times as much if we followed the rules.  

K: (silent, no comment.)

D:  I can tell that you’re listening very carefully and are committed to following the recycling rules.  

K: (laughs.)  

(End of conversation until we arrive at Frisch’s)

As you can see, this was a very productive two-way discussion.  Our recycling ought to go a lot better now.  Whew, I’m glad I brought this matter up!

Love,

Dave