A few years ago, our local waste disposal service passed out nice new ample blue bins in which to put our recyclables. One was clearly labeled “glass, metal and plastic only” and the other was clearly labeled “paper only.” For years, I’ve been dutifully separating out the bottles and cans from the newpapers, and putting each in its assigned bin, and schlepping them down to the curb on Tuesdays.

Silly me.

Today, I happened to be down in the front of the house when the recycling truck came rumbling down the street. I decided to hang around until they picked up ours, so that I could carry the empty bins back up to the house. I watched, with mild interest, as they picked up the ones down the street. Then, I watched, with increasing horror as I realized what I was seeing. When they came to mine, my nightmare was confirmed. There was a single receptacle on the front of the truck, which would periodically empty itself into the main storage in the bed behind the driver. They nonchalantly took first the “glass, metal and plastic bin” and dumped it into that receptacle. Then they repeated the process with the “paper” bin.

Apparently, separating the stuff is as futile as sifting out the peas from the mashed potatoes in each mouthful–they all end up in the same place. If it ever gets usefully separated, it must be after it reaches the dump. Is my face red.

On top of the recent news that recycling doesn’t save any money or resources, I hope that we can simplify all of our trash collection in the near future.