Humpday Happenings...
Well, it seems we've got a bit of a reprieve from all the "excitement" that floods my part of town...which means it's probably RAINING.
Nice to see Mother Nature picking up the slack in that regard when it comes to quieting DOWN the ghettohood.
And, it's always a pleasure to be able to watch one COMPLETE hour of television without having to hear the annoying "thumpety-thump" of those overly-testosteroned alpha-male posers driving about in their acoustically-laden ghettosleds.
I'll take that as a victory ANY day.
Gee, must be nice to have all that time to drive around (with gas hovering near $3 a gallon once again) in cars that get sh*t mileage and are painted colors you wouldn't want to see in a pile of vomit, hmm?
Your tax dollars "at work", folks...that's what that is.
It's ALSO Wednesday, which means we put out our trash bins. And since this is a recycling week (every two weeks), we also get to put out the paper, glass and metal cans in our current TWO bin system.
And it's THIS aspect of city living I want to focus on today.
A long time ago, in a neighborhood not too far away, we had a ONE bin recycling program. A nice BLUE bin was provided for every citizen to properly dispose of the refuse that was "eligible" for recycling.
Discarded newspapers, magazine and other paper products, along with bottles and cans and other plastic items were to be deposited in the bin.
Not a problem...seemed simple enough.
But I soon discovered that we were damn near the ONLY people placing the bin out every other week.
I guess the city decided it would EASIER to provide us with TWO bins (brown for paper and cardboard; yellow for glass, metal and plastic).
Again...seemed simple enough for us...color-coded as it was.
And again, we were STILL in a handful of people that actually recycled in our neighborhood.
So now, the city leaders have an even BETTER plan than the one a 2nd grader could have figured out...
ONE, brand new, rolling bin (48 or 96 gallon size - your choice)...TA-DAAAAAA!
(let the pigeons loose, right?)
Here's the official story relating to this:
(( Mayor promotes new carts, wider recycling - Benjamin Lanka / The Journal Gazette
FORT WAYNE – Mayor Tom Henry on Monday encouraged residents to sign up for the city’s new recycling program in an effort to increase participation.
Commemorating America Recycles Day, Henry said the new recycling contract will make it easier for people to recycle and allow them to recycle more of their waste.
"Unfortunately, we currently only have about 34 percent of our residents recycling," Henry said. "We’re hoping to push for maximum participation."
The current recycling program requires residents to separate their glass, plastics and metals from their paper into different bins.
Starting next year, people who sign up for the program will get one large cart to place all materials to recycle.
The cart is nearly identical to the existing garbage carts but has a yellow lid.
Henry was joined by the student council from Whispering Meadows Elementary School, who demonstrated what can be placed in the materials.
Beginning next year, people can recycle plastics numbered 1 through 7.
To participate in the recycling program, residents must register with the city for a new cart. People can request a 96- or 48-gallon cart by calling 311, going to www.recyclefortwayne.org or filling out one of the postcards that will be mailed next week. There is no additional charge to sign up for the program.
Increasing participation will not only help the environment, Henry said, but also assist in keeping garbage rates low. The new recycling contract with National Serv-All gives the city half of all recycling profits, and Henry said increased recycling will reduce the amount the city pays to dump garbage in the landfill.
City residents last year disposed of more than 107,000 tons of garbage and only 9,000 tons were recycled.
Henry said he hoped the new program would double participation, which could save the city more than $400,000 annually. ))
Sounds like a real PLAN, does it not?
And I'm certainly glad to be in that current 34% that DOES recycle.
I have no issues with a new carpet being made from recycled plastic water bottles (as they currently are), do you?
Or how about that new car made from discarded tuna cans, soda bottles and pickle jars?
Works for me, as long as it's keeping costs DOWN.
I don't mind reading the morning news on paper that I probably read LAST year's news on, either.
And I'm about as far from a tree-hugging, dope-smoking,back to the green-earth hippie as you can get.
To ME, it just makes damn good sense to reuse whatever we can, because nothing on this planet is INFINITE in quantity or lifespan...not even the planet itself.
But there is one inherent (and rather large) PROBLEM with all this recycling...
Call it a "flaw", if you will....a fly in the ointment.
And that's the PEOPLE of this fair city.
You'd think that with well over 250,000 bodies, that this 34% of those who are recycling would be a bit..."higher", right?
Got news for you...there's a lot of people too damn LAZY to bother.
As the article above related, only NINE thousand tons of recycling was claimed out of ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN tons of trash/garbage...that's pretty damn pathetic. But, as usual, I get to see this up close and personal.
Those in my ghettohood toss anything and everything into the ONE bin provided by the city. Screw those small bins, and screw recycling.
Now, forget the FACT that these same people can't EVEN figure out WHEN to put these original rolling trash bins out, or WHERE to stow them away AFTER pickups...even though FLYERS were sent out WITH the bins, educating the public on the procedures.

(goes to show how many cannot or won't bother to READ)

The bins are to be placed at the curbside after 12PM on the day PRIOR to pickup (and that info can be found online as well).
The bins are to be REMOVED from the curbside within a day AFTER pickup and placed back alongside the house or garage (we stow ours inside the garage...because we CAN). Basically, the bins are to be "as out of sight" from the street AS IS POSSIBLE.
Like the old routine, sounds simple enough to comply...
But some people around here apparently NEED that 2nd grader I mentioned above, because they cannot (read WILL NOT) comprehend WHAT language the city is speaking, for they will leave the bins AT THE CURB...for WEEKS on end, while piling up trash alongside a fence nearby...
Yeah, that's a "WHISKEY-TANGO-FOXTROT?" moment for me, too.
How much simpler would it be to keep the bin CLOSE to the house to toss trash into it, especially when the weather is inclement?
(apparently not much, given the IQ levels of the morons around here)
Not to mention, if the bin is OVERFILLED (and don't ask me why some people produce trash in greater quantities than others...that's a mystery on a BIBLICAL scale to me), there is a greater chance that one of the "woodland" creatures like raccoons or even crows will come a callin' and get into the trash, spreading it out for everyone to see. And that is about AS GHETTO as you're going to get.
Makes the area an damn eyesore, as if the residents don't do that enough already.
Funny thing is, imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery down here.
All it takes is ONE lazy-ass to leave the bin out all week...
Then you get another...and then another.
And whatever guidelines the city had in place are gone with the wind.
(and the city wonders WHY this part of town has a bad '"rep"...c'mon guys...you're sh*ttin' me, right?)
But now, the city wants to give everyone ANOTHER rolling bin on top of the one we currently have. People can't handle the one they have NOW properly.
Wouldn't that be like DOUBLING the problems we already got?
I believe it will, unless the city decides to educate the ineducable.
And THAT would be something I'd PAY good money to watch!
The numbnuts down here aren't doing what they're SUPPOSED to with the ONE bin...and now you're going to exacerbate the issue by tossing ANOTHER bin at them and "expecting" them to put all the recyclable materials inside THAT bin...BWAHAHAHAHhahahaha.
Yeah, that's a real frigging hoot and a half!
Good freaking luck with THAT one, folks.
I'll believe it...when I SEE it. NOT before.
Now, if you REALLY wanted to "grow" the recycling scenario here (and minimize landfills), why not just PENALIZE those that DON'T and REWARD those that DO?
(whatta concept, Bob...where DID you come up with something SO ground-breaking in nature?)
Well, that's the way this old world USED to work.
We REWARDED the GOOD BEHAVIOR.
And we PUNISHED the BAD BEHAVIOR.
That's how people (and a lot of children) tend to LEARN stuff.
The ONLY "levelling of any playing field" back then was that EVERYONE was given the SAME "opportunity" to do the right thing.
Those that succeeded got rewarded.
Those that did not...DID NOT, but also learned not to make that mistake over again, and were eventually rewarded in kind when they played by the rules.
And you know...that always seemed to work pretty damn well for our society, before we got ourselves hip-deep in all this "feel-good" BS.
Someone once said that "everything old is once new again".
It would appear to me, as if the time is ripe to try all that "old stuff" we used to do....that WORKED.
But to those of us that never FORGOT about it in the first place, it's our time to set the standard.
We will teach BY EXAMPLE.
And we will smile as we do so, because we were right all along.
That never gets old.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.