Spin Cycle

I bought a couple of new printer cartridges the other day. My husband asked me if the office supply store recycles the used ones. "Sure they do," I said. "They take them to the special dumpster out back." Pardon the cynicism. I'm fresh from a recent disappointment involving plastics.

For a short, blissful while, it had seemed that our local grocery store was expanding its already admirable recycling program to include, my husband whispered in awe--every kind of plastic. I tried hard to picture it; plastic wrap, shampoo bottles, plastic clam shells, soft plastic, bendable plastic, the hard plastic husks of the endless yogurts I consume--all, regardless of number and chemical composition, jumbled into one happy mass and trundled off merrily to Oz (or in this case, an uber recycling center, somewhere in Atlanta).

Needless to say, I was skeptical. "Who sorts it out?" I asked, picturing a gang of miminum wage workers in hazmat suits, burrowing through furry mounds of Numbers 1, 3, and 7. But my husband didn't have any details. He was too giddy at the thought of reducing our already minimal waste. "Between this and the composting," he crowed, "we'll be down to two small bags a month!"

He designated a special (plastic) tub for the offerings and, when it was full, we made a ceremonial trip to the grocery store. And indeed, there, just outside the airlock, like a line of small altars before the temple, stood the bins. One for paper, one for clear glass, one for batteries; one for, incredibly, all plastics. Unbelieving, I stuffed a plastic grocery sack full of Saran Wrap, plastic clamshells, frozen food containers, and baggies into its welcoming maw.

Alas, our bliss was short-lived. A few weeks later my husband told me, crestfallen, that the store was ending its plastic recycling program. Turns out that the loaded 18 wheeler wasn't going all the way to the Wizard, but veering left into a landfill near the palace. Just as I'd suspected. Apparently it was a case of mis-communication and not outright fraud. Someone had thought, and someone had claimed, and someone had wanted so badly to believe....I'm glad my own skeptic's-radar is sharp. Still, it's been a disappointment.

I'm off to the office supply store, now, with my used printer cartridges. I choose to believe that the store refills, or reuses, or recycles them. That excessive plastic packaging? I'm on my own.