For Lack of a Bin, Recyclables Dumped

Every Tuesday, under the cover of darkness, I leave my Sherman Oaks apartment building with bundles of recyclable goods. I sneak over to the residential neighbors, the ones with the expensive houses and huge recycling containers, to dump my load. My wealthy neighbors have their containers proudly displayed on the street for the garbage men to collect Wednesday morning. I lift up the lid on the large blue receptacle, the one reserved for recyclables. I look around, like a thief in the night, and quickly dispose my load into a half-empty container.

Tons of recyclable goods are being dumped into landfills because the apartment dwellers are being ignored by L.A.’s recycling program. Every family dwelling in Los Angeles has three bins provided by this program. One is for garbage, one is for yard trimmings and the third is for recyclable goods.

Recyclable goods are clean paper, newspaper, cardboard, magazines, mail, telephone books, aluminum, steel and tin cans, glass bottles and jars and plastic bottles.

Currently, for those who live in apartments, the system has a few recycling centers throughout town, but most people opt to throw their recyclables in the garbage rather than take extra time to visit one of these centers. I propose that apartment buildings be included in this program and be provided with an appropriate bin in which recyclable goods can be placed.

Michael Thal

Sherman Oaks