I am green. I admit it and I am not ashamed of it. Others in the neighborhood probably think I am crazy. We have big trash containers out in the alley so that people can dispose of their trash. There is one container for about every 6 houses. Every once in a while, I go out to throw away what cannot be recycled. I have a neighbor who is the antithesis of green. He throws away items that he could easily recycle. This is only one of the things I have noticed about him. There are dozens of other things that make him anti-green, but I will not go into them on this post. Instead, let me tell you about his trash throwing habit and what I do to counter it. Then, you can tell me if I am weird, smart, stupid, or whatever word you can come up to describe me.After a few years of living next to Mr. Jones (not his real name) I notice that he throws his trash away on the same mornings that the trash truck comes to empty the containers. He is an early riser so the trash is usually out there by 6 AM. The trash truck comes around 8 AM. I go out around 7 and I pull his trash out of the container and I dump it into my garden utility wheelbarrow. I then find the items that can be recycled and sort them out and throw the non-recyclables back into he container. I put the recyclables into my recyclable containers and go on about my day.
I have never mentioned to my neighbor that I do this and I thought nobody ever saw me do this, but one day my neighbor's wife and I were chatting out on the lawn and she asked me why I go through their trash. I told her the truth. She was immediately relieved. She told me she was worried that I was spying on them or maybe trying to find personal information. I was sort of hurt that she would entertain those thoughts, but after thinking about it, I could understand why they might think those things. It is weird that I do this, but I just feel that I am helping the environment in my own little way by doing this.
Look, I really don't go around preaching to others that they should be green. I don't look down my nose at people who are not green. If I did those things, I would never take those recyclables out of the trash. I would have gone to the neighbors and confronted them. I don't know. Maybe I should have told them that if they sorted the stuff, would take it to the recycling center for them. Maybe I used poor judgement.
What do you think. Have I lost it? Is this a harmless way of helping the environment? Tell me what you think and tell me of some of the weird things you might do in the drive to be more green.
