Junk Mail

[cjsmith]

Sunnyvale has an "approved method" of recycling junk mail. It is this.

1. Put all the junk mail in a sturdy paper bag such as you might get at a grocery store.
2. Put the bag in your trash container and put the container out at curbside.
3. Their hand-sorters will go through all the trash at the dump and sort out your junk mail for recycling.

Some questions come immediately to mind. Do they WANT the junk mail flying like confetti all over the interior of the garbage truck as soon as the trash container is upended? Just how well-sealed is my kitchen garbage bag? How much do these sorters get paid??

[Poll #481647]

Comments

[drdaly.livejournal.com]

For the past year we've been here in Oregon, we've dutifully separated out our recyclables based on the strange, mystical, and occasionally ambiguous city guidelines. A month or so ago I happened to be around when they came by to pick up, and I watched as they dumped everything together into the back of the truck.

It turns out that a sufficiently high percentage of citizens either don't bother separating, or do it incorrectly, that it's just easier to collect it all and sort it at the plant.

Why they don't tell us this is a good question. Perhaps they think that if people *think* they're making a difference, it's just as good as *actually* making a difference.

I think recycling and trash collection should be privatized anyway, but that's another story...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Same thing happens at my workplace. We have recycling bins and trash bins, and when the cleaning staff shows up they throw everything together.

I believe Sunnyvale's recycling and trash collection is done by a private company, but I now can't find a reference confirming that. Darn this vague aging memory anyway. O'course, the city contracting with one company is not the same as (say) having competition.