No More Recycling

I just lost my last recycling place.

Recycling in Mansfield has always been an elite affair anyhow—it's the kind of thing for fancy people who drive Volvos, eat tofu, and say "He and I saw the cow." (Not "Me and him seen the cow.") It's an extra-cost option for people who live in single-family houses. Not available to apartment people.

The Mansfield problem was always money—only one company is really in the scrap business, and they could never figure out a way to make a profit selling scrap plastic and cardboard. It's cheaper just to bury everything.

Because of this, I always used to truck everything to Ashland (with just a twinge of guilt) because they had a public recycling bin. No more. When I arrived with several bags of material today, the whole thing was gone, with signs warning us not to leave material behind.

I suppose recycling is the victim of the global economy. Most of the market for scrap used to be China, but with the economy slowing, there is less market for cheap Chinese junk merchandise and the packaging it used to come in. So I guess I will, with a pang of regret, take my aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and cardboard back to my apartment, put it in the dumpster, and vow to use less stuff in the future.