• When I was in high school I joined the environmental club. On Tuesdays after school, club members emptied out the recycling bins around the school. We never questioned why the school couldn't pay someone to do it - perhaps it was an agreement to give the cleaning staff a little break.

    Unfortunately our student body was sloppy, and tossed whatever they liked into the bins. It was dirty work.

    There were usually bottles still half-full of liquid, sometimes with curdled milk inside. It stunk terribly, and I remember gagging several times. We would have to empty them out in the drinking fountain.

    There were often oil-stained cardboard food boxes inside the bins, often soggy from all the half-finished gatorade that got tossed in. Sometimes students even tossed half-finished pizzas inside. It boggles the mind why anyone would do that, unless they were being lazy or spiteful.

    Well, we got the job done.

    Flash forward to 2018 and I learn a lot of recyclables get put in the landfill anyways because the city can't sell them. Well, at least it built character.