Hypocrisy Pie

Lest anyone get the idea that I am admirable (you see, it's my blog, so it's easy to just write about things that present me in a good light), let me present a wart (I'll limit it to one big fault for this post--but fear not, I have many many more where that comes from).

I am prideful (and self-absorbed, self-righteous, lacking in empathy and tact, and so many other wonderful qualities that come along with pride). We're working on it, slowly but surely. I say we, because there seems to be a higher power out there that every time I start thinking I'm better than someone else, slaps me in the face with my own hypocrisy. Case in point.

Thanks to a decade in Western Washington, I am a recycler. I will not argue the futility of recycling here, suffice it to say that no, I'm not fully convinced recycling is worth my efforts (see remainder of post for evidence), nonetheless I've developed a compulsion to at least decrease the amount of trash I produce and assuage my conscience by trekking to the recycling center whenever I can no longer walk through my back door without tripping over recyclables. Whatever the end result of my attempts are beyond my control.

Nevertheless, every time I go to the Recycling Center, I get a little steamed up. I start huffing and thinking about putting up little signs that say things like "Hey Stupid! CAN'T READ? Only plastics marked 1 & 2 are accepted here--that means don't come dump your kids broken toys, or throw whole plastic bags full of recyclables in here--do you see a number 1 or 2 on your plastic grocery bag? Take those back to the grocery store!" I mean really, who died and made me the recycling police anyway. And honestly, I don't know enough about the process to know whether adding those items makes the whole load non-viable. I just have a fear that it does and hence all my efforts at recycling become futile because somebody tossed in something to destroy the whole load. When in reality, they probably go through and sort it all out, otherwise wouldn't they put out their own version of the "hey stupid" sign? Maybe, maybe not.

So, the other day as I was hauling my recycling in 20 degree weather, I tromped up the platform that accesses both plastics and papers. A woman had just arrived and was unloading little plastic bags of plastics from her car. As I was contemplating whether I, recycling queen, would condescend to say something to her about not putting in those bags, I totally forgot what I was doing and tossed an entire paper bag of paper waste into the PLASTICs bin!! And I'd chucked it so far in that save climbing the rail and getting literally into the dumpster, there was no going back.

Forgive me, I have committed a recycling sin.

So much for my self-righteousness. I slinked down the platform and didn't say a word as she chucked in the full bags. I just hope she was not as self-righteous as I and was not noticing my bag of paper sitting on top. I was also hoping that they really do sort the stuff out, or that the paper would just burn up in the processing and not contaminate the load.

I think I need to start paying someone to pick up my recyclables. The stress is killing me.