Trash talk

This morning in the shower I started thinking about the fact that our garbage pickup is twice a week but recycling pickup is only once every two weeks. We usually have A LOT more recycling than garbage, which is partly because of the pickup schedules and partly because most things either are recyclable or can go down the disposal. There's really not much that has to be thrown away.

By the time recycling day rolls around a whole corner of our garage is crammed with bins and bags full of papers and plastics and glass and cardboard and magazines and aluminum. (I bring home recyclables from work since Southern Pines doesn't have recycling pickup, so that contributes to the huge pile.)

Pinehurst took a big step toward encouraging people to recycle earlier this year, when it expanded the list of materials it would recycle and dropped its requirement that each type be bundled separately. I wonder whether decreasing garbage pickup to once a week and increasing recycling pickup to once a week would further discourage people from throwing away recyclables.

For now I'm just glad that recycling doesn't stink, even after two weeks. The same definitely cannot be said for garbage.