Earth Day Adendum

Sorry, this is a bit late, but I have had other stuff on my mind.

One of the first things I noticed when I moved here was how difficult it is to recycle here. I always thought of California as a green earth utopia (yes, I knew that it was smoggy, but other than cars I thought California had its shit together) I thought that one of the things that would translate when I left Minneapolis, a city that has its green shit together, was the ease of recycling. Yes, there are blue bins for recycling pick up every couple weeks with your garbage, but that is to think that people use all of the recycle-ables at home. What I miss is that if I got a bottled water when I was out and about in Minneapolis, I didn't have to worry, because in most stores, malls, etc, there are recycling bins inside. I chatted with some Minnesota folks a couple weeks ago and we commented on the same thing. They didn't know where to put their cans and bottles and felt bad about just throwing them away, because in Minnesota they make it so damn easy to recycle.

Americans are creatures of convenience, (how many of you hit a fast food joint of your choice today) how many of us do you think are going to carry around our water bottles, soda cans and empty iced coffee containers around in a bag while we are shopping, so we can take them home. I would say just about none. We should have an option to recycle at places of business.

I miss the option of putting my recycle-ables in a proper place. I miss the blue bins with holes that are aluminum can sized, sunday newspaper sized, etc.

I think that the only way all of the cans and bottles do not end up in garbage dumps is because of Los Angeles' 94,000 homeless citizens. Yes, all of those people with garbage bags full of cans and bottles strapped to shopping carts have gotten all of that because other people have thrown it away. And to imagine, there is a 1-800 to call to report them.

I think it should be easier for people to recycle in LA, especially because LA is all about fads and green is the new black, baby.

Song stuck in my head is Rock Lobster by the B-52's- I don't really like that song and I don't know how it got there.