Blog of Josh Hall

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.  Those are the 3 Rs that I learned when i was a kid, and I’ve been able to do the first and third pretty easily.  There’s always been a lack of a recycling program everywhere else though.  Since I’ve moved to the city, I’ve lived in 3 places.  Lothrop Hall on Pitt campus, Crawford Square apartments, and now my house.  I actually forget what we did with the garbage in the dorms, I think just throw it in a closet…At Crawford Square, we just had a dumpster and there was no recycling in the city, it was all on the individual to do it.  I was under the impression that had not changed since I bought my house, but I just saw an article about being able to recycle paper now, which lead me to look up the city’s site on recycling, and I learned that it’s unlawful for me not to be recycling. 

So I got all excited to start recycling.  It only picks up every other week, but at first I thought that would be frequent enough.  Then I looked at items I was throwing away, and it’s at least 95% recyclable.  Now that we don’t even have to separate recyclable materials, I could totally just be tossing my normal trash to be recycled.  Which leads to the next problem:  Blue bags are required for recycle items.  Where the crap can i get blue bags?  Walmart bags are white now.  Given my first problem, I actually need large blue bags.  Walmart and Giant Eagle do not carry any, regardless of size.  So I’m kind of stuck to break the law.

That’s a little crappy and useless.  Here I am willing and wanting to recycle and take advantage of my city programs, but it’s poorly executed all around.  It’s not nearly frequent enough, it’s certainly not enforced, and at the point where you can’t find blue bags anywhere, it’d be ridiculous to enforce it.

Am I missing some place to get blue bags?  Normally, I think, people just have blue garbage cans.  at Kallie’s apartment complex, they have a big can that’s blue right next to the huge dumpsters.  1 can for at least 30 apartments.  Either way, cans aren’t acceptable for disposal.  I learned the hardway.  They won’t touch my garbage if it’s on the curb in a can.  Anyway, I can’t find a blue can even to test that theory.

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Tags: At Crawford Square, house, Kallie, Lothrop Hall, people, Pitt campus, pittsburgh