Revelation
Who doesn’t love to shop?  Even my husband gleams as he totes some new computer gizmo home in a neat little plastic bag.  It’s amazing how fast one little plastic bag after one little plastic bag can lead to hundreds of these carry-alls crammed under the kitchen sink, stuffed in the pantry or unthinkably thrown out with the trash.  Does this sound familiar?

Eco-aware that we bring loads of plastic shopping bags home, my husband and I have been collecting and carting these over offered, often taken, and underemployed plastic totes to our municipal waste facility for recycling.  We were feeling pretty good about the whole process when an upstanding facility attendant told my husband that the plastic bags collected aren’t recycled;  the station’s “Plastic Bag” recycling bin is purely for the convenience of the public who cart their newspapers, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans via plastic bags to the station.  The bin is strictly for bag disposal, not for bag recycling.  I find it amazing that throw away convenience can triumph over recycling even at a municipal recycling facility!

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