As we approach Earth Day, I have to applaud whatever entity it was that gave a friend of mine a summons
for mixing her recyclables with non-recyclables. Of course she is pissed off, but too bad!! I live in a co-op building in Queens and despite signs in all the compactor rooms explaining our two recycle bins (round blue one for glass and plastic, and rectangular gray one for paper) in color and in several languages, I continuously hear bottles and cans go down the chute (I live right next to the compactor room). And the well-meaning, but either dumb or careless, neighbors who make the effort to separate out the recyclables, but put the glass in the gray receptacle, and paper in the round one– to them I say “so close and yet so far”. I don’t profess to be perfect; I could be a lot better at buying organic foods and/or clothing and other durable goods made out of recycled materials. But garbage is something we come in contact with every day - we don’t have to go far to look for it, or buy it. It’s there whether we like it or not — newspapers we have read, empty containers, and junk mail. Every day, more than half of my mail goes from mailbox to wastepaper basket to gray rectangular bin right outside my door. Sometimes I go to the mailbox and bypass the basket in my apartment and go straight into the compactor room with the unopened envelopes of credit-card offers and donation solicitations. I just don’t get it — how can it be any easier?

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3. why are you here?
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5. Earth Day in New York